The Secure Aging staff has seen a recent flurry of interest in our paperwork organization services. I thought it might be a good time to talk about what we are seeing with many of our senior clients and provide some tips for managing huge volumes of paper.
The event that has triggered much of this activity has been the loss of a loved one, with examples being children who have recently lost a parent or wife / husband losing their spouse. The grief-stricken individual has difficulty going through all of the paperwork because of the memories that surface. They literally become paralyzed when trying to decide what to keep and what to throw away.
What Secure Aging has been able to do is remove the mountains of paper from the home and do the sorting and organizing for the client so that they do not have to make those challenging decisions. We bring back to the home those files which contain family pictures and things of sentimental value, important tax documents, property deeds, identification cards, etc. We establish an in-home filing system to make it easy for the client to find things when the need arises.
Once the initial organization is complete, the task of maintaining the filing system becomes much easier and actually relieves some of the stress and guilt our clients have been feeling.
What are some tips for tackling this monumental job:
- Set a Time Limit: The mounds of paper did not build overnight, so don’t expect that you can tackle it in a few days and be done with it. Decide how many hours per day or week that you will devote to the task. When time is up, stop and reward yourself by doing something fun and relaxing. I like to work on jig saw puzzles, so when I complete a difficult task, I reward myself with some free time to work on my puzzles.
- Shredding: Use a shredder to destroy paper containing any personal identification information. If there is going to be too much for a small shredder, separate the trash from the shredding. Then use the services of a local shredding company when enough shredding has built up. I use COPS (Confidential Onside Paper Shredding) because they provide me with a large bin which they come and pick up when it is full. Then I get a certification that the documents were properly shredded.
- Four Years: Tax returns can be audited three years from the filing of the tax return. Since returns are filed in the year following year end (for example, 2016 return was filed in 2017), you only need to keep detailed records for four years to safely have any documents needed to support your return. All prior years can be shredded. I have a box of 4 years of tax documents. When I put the new year in, the oldest year comes out and goes into the shredder bin.
Reba Rogers, CPA, is the founder of Secure Aging, a group of care managers who preserve the independence and protect the assets of seniors by helping them with financial management. She is also a member of BNI Cutting Edge Referrals, a referral marketing organization which gives her access to many trusted business professionals in the community.
