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Brian Fricke
Copyright (c) 2010 Brian Fricke Years ago, I got a phone call from a gentleman, and the moment he called, I knew without a doubt something was wrong. How? Because this man had never taken an interest in his and his wife’s finances – he had delegated the job to her, and he never dealt with it. She and I would meet every two or three years. She never could quite bring herself to hire us to handle things for her; she preferred to run things on her own and was comfortable pulling the trigger on the investment decisions. And I have to admit, she did a pretty good job. So, as you can imagine, when her husband called I knew there was a problem. And sure enough, her health had taken a turn for the worse. She was literally on her death bed in the hospital when she told him that he didn’t have to worry. Just come and see me, I would take care of him. Of course I had some idea on the surface of what was going on but certainly had no idea of the financial details. But I found out. The husband came in with — I think it was 37 — different envelopes, empty envelopes – with the return address of 37 different brokerage firms, mutual fund and insurance companies. His opening comment was, “I have no idea what I have, or how much I have. My wife said you would take care of me. I think I have money with these companies. What do we do next?” And that’s where we started. To this day, we really don’t know if we found everything. Somebody from the office went to his home and spent a day and a half just going through files and records. We think we found pretty much everything but we never really will truly know. And neither will he. It’s very common with couples that one person will take the lead or the responsibility for handling the money and finances. While the other spouse, will take a back seat. We’re probably all guilty of this to one degree or another. I even do it in my own family. But we all need to ask ourselves, “What’s going to happen to me or my spouse – if they are not involved or informed of the day to day money situation or the investment decision making process? What’s going to happen to them if they’re the one that outlives their mate?” We see this all the time. Like with this gentleman. He’s now being forced to make financial decisions that he’s not used to making and doesn’t really want to make. And the person that he would lean on the most for support and confirmation that he’s making good choices, has just passed away. So think about that in your own situation. Even if you’re doing a wonderful, admirable job (I assume, since you’re reading this, you’re the one involved in finances), what happens to your partner if he/she is not involved in the money or finances? If they haven’t been involved in any meetings with your financial advisor, will he/she have the trust and confidence necessary to follow thier guidance, to follow thier direction? It’s definitely something to think about and talk about with your spouse now. Before it’s too late.
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