Physical Assets
These are your physical belongings such as houses, cars, jewelry, collections, and artwork, with their associated provenance, as well as supporting documentation such as receipts, restorations and certifications of authenticity. Your physical assets may be in numerous places: homes, storage, in transit, on loan, with one of your children, or in a safe deposit box. By having photos of your items in their proper locations, with documentation, you validate their presence for insurance purposes, and for your trusted advisors, including estate executors.
How It Plays Out
With regard to fraud, the phrase “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know” is both financially and emotionally devastating to all parties involved.
Have you ever gone on a social media site and seen a reminder notification of someone’s special day, only to sadly note they’re no longer around? Many times, family doesn’t know how to close down online accounts. Fraudsters scan obituaries and deceased people’s social media sites, watching for valuable information to help them access bank accounts, personal credit, and open new accounts in the deceased’s name. The more information they find on these sites, the easier it is to commit fraud. This practice is called “ghosting” and frequently happens because it can take up to six months for financial institutions, credit-reporting bureaus, and the Social Security Administration to receive and register death records, allowing fraudsters ample time to rack up significant charges. Your deceased relative no longer worries about the ramifications but, if identity fraud is triggered and you don’t have an inventory, the family and the estate will have to unravel a mess without knowing what they’re looking for. Having an inventory provides a prioritized, up-to-date checklist to quickly close down unnecessary accounts, reduce the risk of fraud and methodically address it as soon as it becomes known.
A client of mine, a well-known family office, created their “life inventory,” including all the inventory items mentioned above. The family office staff faithfully maintained it, regularly updating it. The inventory had additional valuable uses, including estate and insurance planning. When one of the senior members passed away suddenly, the attorneys received the inventory in record time. It contained everything needed to identify the various assets/liabilities so they were able to swiftly deal with them, mitigating the risk of fraud.
While education is important in helping prevent fraud, having an up-to-date, current inventory arms you, your trusted advisors, and your executors with needed information to not only protect you from fraud but quickly respond to it both during your lifetime and after. It’s the best “insurance for your insurance” and gives “peace of mind” heightened meaning.
Published by Carol R. Kaufman
Founder/CEO
Pinventory, LLC, Hawthorne, NJ
Frank Casey, one of the two Madoff whistleblowers, asked me to write an article about how having an inventory of your important items certainly won’t prevent fraud but will, in fact, mitigate the risk and the ultimate effects of such an occurrence.