Support Letter Guide

You will need to use your full legal name, as it appears in your estate documents, such as Will & Testament, Living Will, Trust, etc.

In your estate of residence, your heirs may need the legal name of your parents as well to obtain your Certificate of Death.

You will need to provide an active email to receive the output of this Guide.

As the years go by, we accumulate important documents and store them in safe places, but we may no longer remember where everything is. 

 Most people keep track of their estate planning documents and the heirs know where to find them, but many other items and documents that the heirs will need to manage the estate are not known. This Guide is provided to assist you to remember these items so that you can locate them before you complete your Support Letter questionnaire.

 Since every situation and person is different, we help you here with a check list and we will question you about these items in the interactive questioannaire that will generate the Support Letter.   The questionnaire will also provide you with the space to input information that is unique to your situation and that will be very valuable to your heirs.

 Additional checklists will be displayed in later sections, such as location of your bank vault storage and of the combination of your personal safe at home.

This section of the interactive questionnaire for the Support Letter contains specific information that will be needed by your heirs at the time of your death and the personal documents that will be useful at that moment.

Every State has its own legislation concerning end-of-life documents.  These two are generally part of your end-of-life preparation.

You may have already done some planning for your memorial services and burial.  Your heirs need to know if you have done so and where they will find the corresponding documents.

This checklists will help you prepare the information that you want to include in your Support Letter.

It is up to you what family members you want to list for your heirs.  It is important that you include those who are dependent due to age or health condition.  The Support Letter questioannaire will provide space for your recommendations.

You will be able to list your pets, with their names and breed, to make sure that none of them is inadvertently neglected.

This is an item that will require your attention if you have several properties.  Your heirs will need to know where to find all pertinent documents, such as Deeds, rental agreements, maintenance agreements, mortgage loans, etc.  You may want to keep these various documents together.

The Support Letter questionnaire will let you enter each property address, use of the property and documents location, as well as any Home Owners Association (HOA) connected with each property.

You need to indicate in your Support Letter the location of each vehicle and all the documents related to your vehicles, such as pending loans, titles, warranties and service agreements.  The Support Letter questionnaire will ask you about all these items to keep you on track.

You have probably already completed your estate planning and have at hand the information and the documents that your heirs will need.  Please imput all that information in the Support Letter questionnaire.

The following checklist will serve you as a reminder.

Your heirs will need to know whom to contact in your place of work, if you are employed, or in the company that administers your pension plan, if you are retired. The interactive questionnaire will ask you for this information to include it in your Support Letter. 

If you belong to a Labor Union, you may have certain benefits that are administered by the Union.

In most cases, even if you are receiving a private pension you may also be receiving Social Security payments.  You heirs need to notify Social Security of your passing. The last payment received may have to be returned to Social Security for an adjustment.

The questionnaire will ask you if you are receiving Social Security and the Support Letter will include a reminder for your heirs regarding the notification to Social Security.

Prepare the information that you want to communicate to your heirs concerning your military service, if any, when you complete the Support Letter questionnaire. 

If you don't know, you may want to inquire with your superiors about the appropriate procedures to follow at your death.

You may need to indicate whether or not you are receiving disability benefits of any type. Prepare the information your heirs will need at your death.

Depending on your work history, you may be receiving or be entitled to receive pension benefits from one or more sources. Some pensions are structured to pass to the surviving spouse in some measure.

In many cases, your spouse or other heirs will not have enough information about these resources and will need to receive it from you.

Beside a pension or instead of a pension, you may have a retirement investment plan from your employer, a labor union or on your own.

If you are not sure or don't have enough information, you may want to consult with your Human Resources Department at work and/or with your labor union, if you are a member.

You have to ascertain if you have a program like a 401k, a 403b, a Profit Sharing Plan, etc.  These plans have been in existence since the 1980s and if you have contributed steadily for all these years, likelihood is that you have a subtantial amount.  In any case, it is important to review these plans periodically to make sure that they are properly invested to meet your retirement objectives.

Once you know what you have, you can included it in Section 15 of the Support Letter questionnaire and it will be properly documented in the Support Letter when you submit your responses.

In addition to the retirement investments sponsored by your employer or your labor union, you may have other investments in securities targeted to serve your needs in retirement or for your children's college or for other unexpected expenses.

Only you know what these investments are.  Your heirs will need adequate information to manage these resources after your passing. Listing them in your Will or in your Trust is not enough.  The interactive questionnaire will ask you specific questions that will then be included in the Support Letter.  The most important aspect is to know where to find the documents that established these investments and the periodic reports that you receive on paper or online.

Since most reports are now issued on line (bank statements, brokerage accounts, etc) you need to provide your heirs with adequate information to retrieve these documents.

Valuable documents, such as car titles, property deeds, birth certificates, etc., are often kept where they cannot be stolen, lost or destroyed.  Most people use a safe at home or a safety deposit box in their bank vault.

Your heirs need to have access to this secure storage.  The interactive questionnaire will remind you of it and will provide space to input the information about your bank accounts, bank safety deposit box and personal safe.

For security purposes it is recommended not to input password or safe combinations in the Support Letter, but rather the location where your heir can find the information they need.  In any case, you should keep your Support Letter in a safe place as well.

The interactive questionnaire will provide you with the fields to input information about your insurance policies, that may include Full or Term Life, Auto Insurance, Homewoner's Insurance, additional Liability Insurance, Mortgage Insurance, Health Insurance, etc.

Keep in mind that policy renewal documents are often provided by the insurance companies electronically, while Life Insurance policies normally include a paper document that needs to be surrendered when the insurance is claimed.  Auto Insurance normally includes an insurance card that you must print and keep in your car.

The Support Letter is not intended to provide the vast amount of information that a business enterprise would often require at the time of death of an owner, but it includes a section to identify the person or persons that the heirs must contact to initiate the transfer of a business interest. 

You may have relatives, friends or other people to whom you have lent some money or for whom you may have done some work for which you have not been paid yet.

The interactive questionnaire will prompt you to enter information about the debts that your heirs will have to collect.  The important issue is for them to be able to locate the documents that establish the debt and to identify the debtors.

You may have a long list of bills to pay, such as utilities, credit cards, loans, rent or leases, memberships, etc.  You may receive many of these bills electronically, probably the majority. 

The interactive questionnaire will prompt you to create a complete list of these obligations and the way to locate the necessary information.  The banking section (Sec 17) and the insurance section (Sec 18) should have provided the information about the sources of funds to pay these bills timely.

Keep in mind that your surviving spouse or other heirs will be in mourning and will have limited energy to cope with debts.  Your solicitude in advance will be of great value to them.  That is why we call the output from our services "Support Letter".

Your heirs will need to know how you prepare your tax returns.  Do you use a tax accountant or a tax attorney?  Do you prefer to file using a tax software on your own?

Knowing how to locate your recent filing will be very helpful to them.  They will have to file any pending tax returns, pay any balance due and file your final tax return.

The interactive questionnaire will ask if you use a tax accountant or a tax service.  If you use a tax software answer affirmatively and indicate the software you use.

The interactive questionnaire offers you a default instruction for your heirs concerning your post office mail.  You may replace that instruction with something more appropriate for your situation.

If you are registered to vote, indicate the juristiction where you are registered.  Normally, it would be your county of residence.  Your registration should be removed from the active record.

For the security of your estate, the three credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, should be notified of your death.  The Support Letter will automatically include the three agencies with the instruction for your heirs to notify them of your death. 

You may have some medical prescriptions with automatic refills.  Your heirs must notify the pharmacy of your passing to stop the refills.  Some of these prescriptions may be filled by remote pharmacies.  The questionnaire will ask you to provide the necessary information.

The sitution of every person and family is unique.  You may have to provide some additional instructions that will be very important in the handling of your estate.

The questionnaire will prompt you to do so and will provide the fields to input the information.

When you click on the "Submit" button here below, the system will generate a pdf document that will be automatically mailed to the email address you provided above.

When have gathered the necessary information as recommended on this Guide, you may return to our webside and access the interactive questionnaire.

https://mylegacyreports.com/services/

Select the "Support Letter" blue button.