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“Get your affairs in order.”

What reaction comes up in you when you hear that phrase?  “I’ll think about that someday–in the distant future.” “I’m too young to bother with that stuff.”  “That’s for people with problems I don’t have yet—thank God.” “I wouldn’t know where to begin.”  “I don’t have any affairs to get in order!”

Do you have children under your care?  Are you responsible for an aging relative, in whole or in part? Is there someone with disabilities in your life? Do you feel uneasy when you hear of a catastrophic event happening to someone younger than you? Do you treasure your independence? Do you own a home and/or things that are special to you?  Do you do everything legally within your power to minimize your annual income taxes?

If you answered “yes” to even one of these questions, then starting now to get your affairs in order might make sense for you.

We usually associate getting our affairs in order with legal documents and professional experts such as wills, powers of attorney and advance directives, lawyers, accountants and financial planners.  While these documents and experts certainly play important roles in your well-ordered affairs, just making a few basic lists yourself can be a useful start:

1. A list of all your bank and investment accounts, with their user IDs and passwords, account numbers, current balances, and phone numbers for the institutions themselves.
2. A list of all your insurance policies, their policy numbers, what they cover, claims contact numbers, and where the full policy is filed.
3. A medical list of all your diagnoses, prescriptions you take and their doses, and all your doctors with their specialties and contact numbers.  This list could also be for a child, a senior, or a person with disabilities under your care.
4. A two-column list of the special people in your life and the special things you own, with individual lines connecting the people to the things.
5. A list of the things you’ve hidden for safe keeping and where they are, for example, love letters from your spouse/partner; historic family photos; stock certificates; your mother’s wedding ring; the gold coins you bought as an investment.

Still feeling daunted? You might consider enlisting the help of a professional organizer to get your affairs in order.  Professional organizers are experts at helping people sort through quantities of papers and objects, separate the important from the inessential, and arrange useful objects and information in systems that are easily accessed and used.  Getting your affairs in order is just a process for capturing the essential information about you as a person and what you own, in a form that can be used readily by others if you become unable to communicate, along with legal documents that clearly express how you want yourself and your possessions to be handled.  You can do this, and an organizer just might provide you the support you need to get started!

For most of us, tax season is over, and we can now breathe a sigh of relief for another year. If you plan to shred or recycle large quantities of paper, now is the perfect time to do so.

With a little bit of planning, you can get your paperwork in order without too much angst.

Here are 4 tips to help you:

1.  Make room for new materials by going through your filing cabinets (or wherever you keep your files).  Shred taxes and the back-up documentation older than 7 years, old bills, old insurance policies, old bank statements, or anything old that has personal identifiable information on it.  Recycle old newspaper and magazine articles, defunct travel brochures, etc.

2.  Review your filing system to determine if the way you have your files set up works well for you.  If not, for example, change the names of the files, or change the placement of the files.

3.  Set up new files for the New Year if you have not done so yet, labeling them with meaningful names, so they are easily retrievable.

4.  Check to see if your township is holding a free shred event.  Many towns do so right after tax season to help their residents dispose of their paperwork that has personal identifiable information on it.

Since organizing is an ongoing process, files will have to be tweaked and paperwork will have to be shredded or recycled periodically.  Remember, you can also get a lot of information on-line.  However, if you follow these few steps, your system will be in order for the rest of 2013, and paperwork that has to be filed will have a home.

 Now is the time to Go from Bedlam to Brilliance!

As an organizer of medical and financial records for seniors and others affected by age, illness and disability, I get this question a lot.  A person with multiple medical conditions can quickly acquire cartons of paperwork from Medicare, doctors’ offices, and health insurance companies.

It’s helpful to start with what medical EOBs prove:

• The services the doctor, hospital, or other healthcare entity has provided.
• The amount the doctor, hospital, or other healthcare provider has billed for those services.
• The amount the medical insurance company and/or Medicare have paid.
• The amount for which you, the patient or insurance subscriber, are responsible.

So, medical EOBs can be useful for:

• Creating (or re-creating) a health history for yourself or someone under your care.
• Documenting billing errors – or even fraud.
• Ensuring that you are receiving the full insurance benefits to which you are entitled.
• Proving that you’ve met your annual deductible, if your health insurance policy has one.
• Demonstrating what you have paid if you take the medical expense deduction on your annual IRS 1040 Schedule A.

Obviously, keeping medical EOBs is worthwhile for some period of time.  What to do with it all and how long to keep these records will vary with your personal situation.  Here are two sets of guidelines for medical EOB retention periods and good practices – one for people in normal health and one for people with chronic, debilitating or terminal health conditions:

Normal Health

1.  Keep medical EOBs in a file for one year.  As the bills and EOBs for a medical service come in, match related items together, and address any discrepancies you detect.  Examples might include double billing or your health insurance company overlooking the fact that you have met your deductible.

2.  If, at the end of the year, you find you have paid enough in medical bills to qualify for the medical tax deduction, file the medical EOBs with your tax documentation, and keep for seven years.

3.  If you do not qualify for the medical tax deduction, and the medical bills have been paid in full by you and all providers, and you are no longer doctoring for the condition, you can safely shred last year’s crop of medical EOBs while you’re wrapping up your taxes.

4.  If some bills are still outstanding or the patient is still receiving treatment, keep the related EOBs for another year, and repeat the process.

Serious Health Condition

1.  Keep a current file close at hand for this year’s medical EOBs.  As the bills and EOBs for a medical service come in, match related items together, and address any discrepancies you detect.

2.  At the end of the year, store all of these records in date order, keeping items you’ve matched up together, in a less prominent place.  You could use a file cabinet in another room or a cardboard file box in a dry, mildew-free storage area.  If you claimed the medical tax deduction, put a note in your tax records cross-referencing these health files.

3.  Keep these medical records according to this timeline:

a.  For five years after the serious health condition has cleared up.

b.  For seven years if you’ve claimed the medical deduction.

c.  Indefinitely, if the patient is chronically ill.

d.  Until the executor informs you that the estate is completely wrapped up, if the patient has passed away.

In both of the above situations, you can keep the medical records on paper or scanned onto a computer based on your preference.  If you keep paper files, keep them out of areas where they can get wet, e.g., a basement floor.   If you go the electronic route, be sure to back up your data reliably.

One final note:  Don’t panic if you need one or more medical EOBs or haven’t kept them according to the above guidelines.  All health insurers, including Medicare, can replace an EOB, because they store them electronically.