Even if your estate plan is in order, it won't be of much help to your heirs if they can't locate important documents when you're no longer around. Organizing your financial and estate-planning documents — and letting your family know where you've stored them — will make it easier for your loved ones to care for you if you become incapacitated, and it will smooth the process of settling your estate after you're gone. Plus, while you're still alive, you'll be able to quickly track down paperwork when you need it.
Sandra Batra, 56, created a binder to organize all of her father's documents after he was stricken with cancer in 2011. Batra says the project helped her and her mother easily locate her father's important documents while he was in the hospital.
