Frequently Asked Questions

Legal documents drawn up by an estate attorney ensure that should you pass away or become incapacitated, your wishes with regards to specific matters (e.g., financial, medical, and guardianship) will be followed. Your Springbook comes alongside that plan, providing a guidebook to your life for the person(s) who will step in to manage all of your affairs. It details, for example, where your assets are located, how you pay your mortgage, what life insurance policies you have, what your children’s medical history may be, how to access your computer and cell phone, all the way down to how often and how much you feed your family pets. Your Springbook collects all of the information, including account numbers and contact information, in one place so that no one will have to spend time searching for it and can instead tend to the matters at hand as efficiently and quickly as possible.

Everyone’s experience will vary based on each person’s unique circumstances, including the number of dependents they have, employment status, medical history, number of financial and online accounts, etc.. How long it takes will also depend on how organized you are currently and how easily you will be able pull together details like account numbers, log in information, beneficiary designations, and the like.

Absolutely! You can never provide too much information and when it comes to your assets redundancy is welcome. You might be surprised that your accounts have changed through time – perhaps your teen has a new SoFi account, your spouse has been dabbling in Crypto, or you are taking advantage of iBonds investing through Treasury Direct this month. Having and keeping a current list of your assets is incredibly important and more often than not, the Schedules attached to estate plans are outdated. In California alone (as of 1/2024) there is more than $13 billion sitting in unclaimed property. Across the country, that number is approximately $70 billion (3/2023). Let’s be sure your assets don’t add to the coffers.

Your Springbook documents can be kept up to date in real time. For example if you open or close banking or brokerage accounts, you should change your Assets + Liabilities document to reflect these additions/deletions. At a minimum, I recommend reviewing and reprinting documents with any changes every six months.

The Springbook Quick Start set was created with you in mind. Whether you buy the Quick Start or the entire Springbook document set, we recommend that you start with the following sections: At-a-Glance, Access, Estate Plan Summary, Assets + Liabilities, and Medical. The most important thing you can do ahead of this, however, is to tell the people you will be entrusting to help you that you are completing a Springbook and where you will be keeping both the digital version and the hard copy version.

Talking about finances seems to be one of the most taboo topics - even within families. And yet, it is such an important conversation. One way to start the conversation is to talk with them about what you are doing to plan your own estate. Let them know that you have discovered Springbook and how good it feels knowing that you are getting prepared, just in case. This will lead to an easier opening to ask them about their plans. If you will have a role, either medical or financial, it shouldn’t be a secret you find out only when crisis comes knocking.

One size may not fit all when considering where to store your Springbook as each person’s situation and comfort levels with storage options will differ. Some of you may have a safe or safe deposit box. Others may not. Some may not feel comfortable storing or backing up sensitive information in Dropbox or Backblaze. However you decide to handle your documents, I recommend that you back up your Springbook in multiple mediums and in multiple locations. For example, you should keep a hard copy of your Springbook and also save it to the thumb drives in the Springbook Kit, keeping one thumb drive with your printed documents and the other in your safe deposit box.