April 3, 2014. My colleague, Amy Klocke, recently wrote about the app Mint, and the tendency of individuals to rely on such programs to micro-manage financial minutiae –which is good and should be encouraged—but nonetheless fail to face the larger issues that are most likely to hurt them financially. You can read her thoughts on the subject HERE. Since family law and estate planning intersect at a number of points, I thought I would follow her lead and provide a little input on the matter from the estate planning perspective. Like I said, programs like mint are a good thing, they encourage analysis of habits, figuring out where you are bleeding money, and financial management. Nothing to argue with there. However, we are only running at half power when we manage the particular without considering the overall, and programs like mint are only half as effective as they could be for a person when that person is tracking their day-to-day financials without considering their exposure to risks they face in the long-term. A ready example, touched upon by Amy, is a costly divorce. On the estate planning end, there are the common arguments regarding the costs of dying without a Will, or if you have significant assets, the costs of dying with only a Will in place. More tangible even would be the costs faced during the later years of life. Failure to save up and invest for retirement, failure to account for long term care, or even failure to account for disability. The costs may not appear as a bright line item on your phone, but we are pretty good at approximating them and knowing how they can devastate your finances in the future. And at that point, monitoring your daily finances won’t be as pressing when there is no money to watch. In short, if you are following through and watching your finances now, good, but make sure to do the additional planning so that your efforts are not wasted.
For additional information about Mint.com and estate planning, contact the Goosmann Trust Law Counsel at info@goosmannlaw.com or call 712-226-4000.
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