By: Andrew T. Gardener, CFP®

Your family has no idea – and they should.

It is that time of year when we head into the holiday season. Our thoughts are a blend between closing out the year strong and the time we will spend with loved ones. We often begin to reflect on all we are thankful for, our employees, our customers, and our families. If you knew there was a simple way to prevent your family members from being physically injured this holiday season – would you do it? How about preventing them from needless mental anguish in the event of your sudden departure? On top of grieving your loss, don’t put them in an operational nightmare.

I am not talking about life insurance – most of us have planned accordingly to ensure our loved ones are financially taken care of if something should happen to us.

But how will your employees be paid this Friday? Who knows all the information to ensure the business keeps running for the sake of all your employees? How about the location of the keys, the computer passwords, and the contact information for who they should call first? There are 20 Questions the family of every business owner should know the answer to. The exercise of compiling the answers for the benefit of your family need not take a lot time. What might take you 20 minutes to complete will probably save days of headaches for those you leave behind!