Is your house in order?

Last week, a friend told me that Joe Godfroy had recently passed away. Though I had only met Joe a handful of times, I was shocked and saddened by the news. You see, Joe was one of the most engaging and lively public speakers I have ever had the opportunity to know and an absolute blast to be around. In short, he made an impact on me.

Joe had started out in the business world as a CPA, but his practice eventually evolved into a focus on financial planning. Joe's job became to help people plan for their futures, their retirements, and even their eventual passing - and judging from the multiple awards he received, he was very good at it.

Joe loved to speak to other financial professionals, and his message to us always carried the same theme: "Is your house in order?" Joe believed that if we, as financial advisors, did not have our finances settled and our planning taken care of, there was no way we could effectively take care of our clients. After all, he reasoned, all it took was one client to ask about what we did for ourselves and our credibility was shot. How can we effectively promote a product, a policy, or a plan when we haven't even bothered to do it ourselves?

Today, I'm going to take the question he posed to us so many times and pose it to you: Is your house in order?

• Do you have a will?
• Have you prepared Advanced Directives?
• Do you have enough life insurance to ensure that your family can carry on at your current standard of living without your income?
• If you are a business owner, do you have a succession plan?
• Do you have a plan for your childrens' education?

These can be tough questions to answer, particularly when the economy is struggling as it has been. However, these items are all essential to your financial success no matter what else is going on. As we learned with Joe and countless other examples, we never know when our time here will be up, and "someday" isn't always soon enough to deal with these important issues. In honor of Joe Godfroy.....please take some time this week to get your house in order.

--Dan Musick CPA