Creating a Personal Financial Summit
It’s 2026 now, and the last time my husband paid a bill, he wrote a paper check, recorded the amount in a paper register, sealed it in the envelope with a stamp, and popped it in the mail. It would eventually get to where it was going, and he would only find out if the check was received when it showed up on his bank statement a month later, which he dutifully reconciled. As the saying goes, “we are not in Kansas anymore…” and so I now find myself wanting to share the story of how this couple, married for more than 27 years, came to realize they need to rethink the way they approach their communication around finances.
Creating Our First Annual Financial Summit
When we got married, we decided it made more sense for us to co-mingle funds – meaning we have completely joint accounts across the board – and we fell very easily into a rhythm of divvying up our chores – he took care of the lawn and was Mr. Fix-it – and I did the laundry and paid the bills. Thankfully, in a very non-tragic, life-has-a-way-of-teaching-you-lessons moment, we realized we would be in a very precarious situation if something happened to me – that the details of our finances and all that goes along with it, needs to be documented and perhaps, more importantly, communicated. And why not communicate it somewhere away from home – and our first Annual Financial Summit was born. We were off to Rehoboth Beach!
Rehoboth Beach in the winter is cold – an ideal environment for staying inside on our borrowed couch to dig in. While we did have conversations around budgeting and how our money is spent, the primary goal for the weekend was very simple: share at a high level what our financial “house” looks like. This was less of a “what’s our net worth” conversation and more of a “let’s talk about the keys to the kingdom” conversation: what accounts do we have, how are they accessed, how much life insurance do we have and when does it expire, the name of the bank that holds our mortgage, how do bills get paid, etc.
What We Track in Our Financial Overview
Inspired by what I had learned through the journey of my mother’s care, I created a spreadsheet to record all the important things to know – here’s a blank template as a resource on our website.
The spreadsheet consists of the following tabs and information. See a sample page, with the tabs at the bottom:
| Worksheet | Details to Know |
|---|---|
| Mortgage | Lender name, account number, contact details, website login details, how it gets paid, electronic or paper statements, payment due date. Payment amount, mortgage start and end dates, rate, real estate taxes. |
| HELOC | Lender name, account number, contact details, website login details, how it gets paid, electronic or paper statements, payment due date, credit line, date opened, fees and rate. |
| Investment Accounts | Access details, contact information for investments, 401Ks, IRAs, and 529 Plans. |
| Passports | For each member of our family, name on passport, expiration date, passport number, place of birth. |
| Life Insurance | Insurance company name, account number, contact details, website login details, how and when it gets paid, electronic or paper statements, payment due date, premium, term, expiration date and beneficiaries, amount of insurance. |
| Credit Cards | For each card: lender, account number, contact details, website login details, how it gets paid, electronic or paper statements, payment due date, credit limit. |
| Vehicles | For each vehicle with a car payment: account number, contact details, website login details, how it gets paid, electronic or paper statements, payment due date. For vehicles we own, who is on the title and date paid off. |
| Utilities | Includes gas, electric, water, internet: account number, contact details, website login details, how it gets paid, electronic or paper statements, payment due date, account owner name. |
| Credit Monitoring | For each of us: source of the data breech, name of the monitoring company, account number, date registered, contact details, website login details, term covered, email address used. For the three credit agencies: contact details, website login details, and dates last credit report reviewed. |
| Laptop Access | Login details for everyone’s devices, including laptop and email addresses. |
Ultimately, the spreadsheet, in its not quite complete state, served as a tool for the larger conversation and gave us a starting point for deeper conversations. By the end of our getaway weekend, we agreed we are committed to a few actions items each and decided to add in an extra date night every month – because, let’s be honest, who couldn’t use an extra date night – to make time to complete the details on the spreadsheet and revisit our budget. As Meridian clients, we also make use of Meridian’s client portal to help us organize and store our financial data, specifically our investments, and in the coming year, we’d like to make better use of this tool as an additional resource. Stay tuned for updates as we go on this journey this year.
For years, I laughingly joked with a friend: “if something ever happens to me, you need to show up on my doorstep and help him get the bills paid.” I’m grateful we set about this journey – it’s not pleasant to talk about the “what-ifs” – but what a travesty it would have been for him if, on top of being in a grief situation, he had to also figure all of these things out. Our “divide and conquer” approach was easy, but as with most things in life – being the sole knower of all things can be efficient but is not helpful in the long run – at the end of the day, the lack of knowledge could have made things much harder.