By doing a family record worksheet with my clients, I’ve had a lot of clients and their family members interested in creating their will, trust, and other financial and legal arrangements to make sure everything is in place.

This worksheet is a personal inventory of all my clients’ family members. It contains details regarding health care, lawyers, doctors and specialists. They also fill out information on their insurance, from life insurance to disability to car insurance.

Sources of income

Another area of the worksheet covers current sources of income, their retirement plans, their employer’s name and even the name of their supervisor or personal assistant. That way, if anything happens to them, the family will know who to contact.

What else does this worksheet contain?

• Checking and savings account information
• Additional financial accounts
• All information regarding their home, including home repairs
• Credit card information for each card
• Wills and estate documents
• Advance medical directives
• All passwords for their accounts, cell phones, computers and anything else
• Information on funeral preferences and any existing arrangements

I also created a video about how they could create a time capsule as a family. They could write about what to expect five years from now, including what they’ve learned from this COVID-19 time period. When they open it five years from now, they can see what they thought things would look like and what they were experiencing.

These little things we do let our clients know we want to engage them in more ways.

Venkatesh Kalyanam, BP, CFP, of Singapore, has been an MDRT member since 1995.

This originally appeared in the MDRT Blog.