Whether you use Get It Together or handle the job on your own, there are a few basic steps to completing and maintaining your personal planner.



1. Get started! Set aside one- to two-hour windows—sufficient to be productive, but not overwhelming. If using…

First, let’s consider the process—preparing important documents, collecting related records, storing them securely, talking with loved ones and maintaining your personal “planner” (the name I’ll use for your compiled records). You can prepare your planner yourself, relying simply on the tips in this column. Or you can turn to Get It Together (…

Welcome to Get It Together Now, a new column about organizing your important records—for yourself and, eventually, for your loved ones.



If you’ve ever pitched in for someone who has become incapacitated, or if you’ve helped to wrap up an estate following a death, you know how hard it is. It’s hard emotionally to step in to the void left by that person, however temporarily. It can be hard spiritually to lose the companionship of one you love and the partnership of one you rely on.…