The Indian American

riage certificates, company benefit booklets, car titles, powers of attor- ney, brokerage and retirement accounts. Create a "financial support team." • The group could include an accountant, a lawyer, a financial planner, and a trusted friend or family member who has good finan- cial skills. While you should postpone big • financial decisions, assess your cash flow. Make a list of your income sources • such as - Social Security, pension payments, dividends, interest, job earnings, IRA distributions etc. Make a list of your fixed expenses • such as - groceries, mortgage pay- ments, recurring payments, utili- ties, gifts, travel, insurance etc. You should build a reserve for at • least one to two years of expenses in a liquid account, such as a bank or money-market account. Collect life insurance benefits. If • you can't find the life insurance pol- icy and you don't have an agent, go through checkbook registers and canceled checks to see if there were any checks written to an insurance company. You may find this infor- mation for a fee from many locator service companies. For example, access www.policylocator.com . Precautions When you file a claim, you may have choices regarding how you want to receive the money. Read the fine print carefully. In some cases, an insurance company will place your funds into its own money-market funds and send you a checkbook. Turn down this option, and then place the money in a federally insured bank account or a money-mar- ket fund. If you're instead considering guaranteed monthly payments for life, seek the advice of your lawyer or finan- cial adviser. Disclaimer: This document will provide an overall view to follow in such grief moments. All this information may not be relevant to you or you may not have answers for all of the questions in the above document. It is advisable to con- tact concerned authorities to get appro- priate information depending on your circumstances. For more information, please visit www.prasadthotakura.com 15 THE INDIAN AMERICAN OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2018