Not planning on dying anytime soon but am at an age and with a family situation (and an extremely serious health scare during 2025) that I really finally need to get around to preparing for a worst case event and have put this on my to do list for 2026.
I’ve already started creating an overview of all assets (a document which I’ll share with my wife once it’s complete)
bank accounts
key valuables incl. their location and (in some cases) how to access them
valuable collectables and what (not) to do with them
pensions
etc.
Especially pensions has turned out to be quite a lot of work. I’ve lived/work in more than a few countries and have pillar 1, 2 and 3 pension pots in many of them. It’s proving to be painful to get overviews of all of them (also to update address and indicate my civil status) while on the other hand I’ve uncovered some pension pots that I’d completely forgotten about. In fact, even uncovered a sizeable pot which the pension fund had refunded to my prior employer (as you can guess, glad I found that out and am tightening the thumbscrews to reverse that).
It’s quite some effort - in some cases even just getting a response, never mind getting an overview, but all in all worth it. I had low expectations of my built up benefits in various pots (outside of Switzerland) but sofar have been pleasantly surprised at what it’s adding up to. A one time effort and it gives me (and my wife soon as well) peace of mind. Also as some of the pension pots will carry benefits for her in case I pass away as well as (fingers crossed…) to our potential future child(ren).
So, I’d recommend everybody taking the effort to create an overview.
Also have planned during Q1 to finally go to the notary and prepare a proper will to ensure no risks/surprises around how my assets would get split. Moderate effort, provides peace of mind.
Finally, will be putting some thought into the topic of what I want + delegated decision rights if I am not capable (e.g. coma) of making health/life decisions myself anymore and will document those (presumably with with the notary as well).
I’m curious if any of you have tips/tricks around above based on your experience and/or perhaps have other topics that really need to be covered for in case you pass away?
As I said, hopefully this is not relevant until another couple of decades for me but I am at an age now where ‘sudden things’ can happen and due to FIRE efforts there’s a lot at stake.
I had the same problem. I’ve actually lost a pension for one employer I worked 2 years for. They transferred the pension to some some other provider and nobody knows where my money went.
Though the big planning should be for my parents. They are in poor health and only have a few years left at best and have assets scattered and hard to locate. We don’t talk about it due to double taboo subject of death/money.
That sounds very familiar. I really should have kept better track of this much earlier in my life but so be it. I was lucky to still find some old letters (either paper or scanned) without which I’d have never known about certain pension pots.
Getting clarity partially is for my own peace of mind (both about my pension and around ensuring my wife is well set-up in case I pass away) but also for her given that some of these pots of money would generate one-off/recurring $$$ for her and (if/once relevant) children.
It’s not a ‘fun’ topic but I encourage everybody to put some effort in.
The most difficult to deal with sofar is - surprisingly enough - the German government related to my 1st Pillar pension. Not getting any response, can’t log in to their online portal due to some specific characteristics related to my passport, etc.
Pensions is really one of those topics where I wish the EU would facilitate creating a single portal with easy registration/log on.
For several years I keep my DEATH stick updated. It contains just one keepass file with all the information needed (and exact steps what do to right after my death). My wife and my children know how to access it.
I probably will not have a problem with that anymore, but: my wife has absolutely no interest in finance. We both made a will leaving everything to each other. There is no need for a notary, just keep it at a safe place (bank maybe). It has to be completely handwritten. There are tons of samples around.
Then I told her to take our (my) last tax declaration and go to a lawyer with it. As I declare everything that should do the trick.
I think Interactive Brokers keeps half of the money until the tax situation is completely resolved. But then there should be no tax unter 10 million dollars. If I cross that before I die she can afford to pay whatever tax is due…
This is why I suggest using IB only as a “buying” account and to transfer all assets (e.g. every time you hit CHF 300k) to a Swiss broker; the Swiss account is a buy and hold one. For emergency trades with the Swiss broker, the costs are still within the green range.
i have a patientenverfügung, a vorsorgeauftrag and a testament. vorsorgeauftrag to make sure KESB only handles the “daily business”, then there’s one person for care-related stuff and another one who manages the wealth. testament to reduce the administrative burden (financial part, incl. handling of estate tax situation) via professional executor. and the heir knows how to access relevant YTD changes [not yet reported via tax declaration].
But you have to pay the soldier that safeguards your stock certificates. You don’t pay that at IB, over a lifetime that may be way more than the USA takes away. BTW: for U.S. stocks they take it away anyhow, no matter where your stocks are.
Regarding the potential future children, one thing my parents did for us and I think is smart is to also determine what happens in terms of guardianship in case of death of them both and work with the potential future guardians ahead of time to make sure they’re ok with that and know everything that there is to know.
Joint death can occur. For example in a car or plane crash.
Just asked chatgpt (ahum…) and yes it is, but you do also need to get the clauses correct. I may draft it, have a notary review it for correctness, but then maintain it myself. Even more so as I started to read about a notarized will potentially being charged x.x% of your total assets. WTF!
I’ve seen wills where the original statement was just crossed and the new one written besides it and it was legally accepted. Never heard of a notary charging a % of total assets. If you want to completely rewrite the will it is important to cite the old one in the new one and explicitly state you revoke it (if you don’t destroy it) or alternatively you can just destroy the old one.
a mix of online research, templates and a consultation for some questions and a final check of the vorsorgeauftrag (with the firm i’m now using as the will’s executor). vorsorgeauftrag & testament are fully handwritten.
The will is usually not the issue but more selecting the testament executor. My wife is not at ease with managing brokerage accounts. As of now, I have elected my dad to do it. It may change in a couple of years.
I have created a PowerPoint with all the assets listed , what to do with it … I am going through it with my wife every year. I open a nice bottle and share it around an aperitivo at Home.
I have also listed the contact of my best man in it and advise her to call him to get any advise. He did the same thing on his side.
We have the same way of managing our investment so we should not be lost.
what do you do about dividends? and is the assumption here that there is less risk of assets being frozen because of potential US inheritance tax issues?
Dividends: probably routing to IB (or sending money from private account up front and from Swiss broker to private account).
Inheritance tax: yes. My assumption is that Swiss banks/brokers are acting under Swiss jurisdiction. Swiss banks are obliged to inform you about the US taxes etc. but they won‘t/shouldn’t block any US assets.
I’ve been thinking about setting up something similar (also just as a way to diversify brokers) but have always been uncomfortable with the swiss stamp duty. this seems like a good setup.
could you explain how you have things set up / what your flow is? (not to be interpreted as specific advice, but just to understand what others do)
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