The Mysterious Annuity

Let me tell you about the mysterious annuity.

Mom had mentioned an annuity several times over the years. “Oh, I have that annuity that will help with expenses,” she’d say. But when she died? We couldn’t find any paperwork for it anywhere. To be honest, I didn’t even know what an annuity was.

Mom had never given us details about the annuity, but it was clearly important to her. I had the sense that it was something my father had set up for them; he had died in 2006. Was she getting payments from it?

We scoured her bank statements looking for a monthly, quarterly, or annual payment from anything that sounded official. From a file folder with an insurance company’s name on it, my sister eventually unravelled a series of corporate mergers that revealed the source of the annuity. Which was still being paid and the company needed to be notified of Mom’s death.

Now imagine you’re living in Japan, and your family back home has to figure out not just what accounts you have, but which ones are in yen, which ones are in dollars, which Japanese bank requires a hanko, and which American investment firm needs a medallion signature guarantee that doesn’t exist in Japan.

I’m not trying to be dramatic here. I’m just saying that a little organization now saves everyone a lot of headaches later. Including you, while you’re still around to benefit from being organized.

Your future self will thank you. And so will your family.