The Document Your Family Needs Before Something Happens

I want to tell you about a scenario that isn’t dramatic. No line-of-duty shooting. No high-speed pursuit. Just a Tuesday.

An officer on his way home from a night shift gets into a car accident. It’s serious. He’s incapacitated — not dead, but unable to communicate, unable to make decisions, unable to sign anything for weeks. He has a wife and two kids. He has a pension, a deferred comp account, a life insurance policy, and a house with equity.

What his wife discovers in the days that follow is this: she has no legal authority to access his accounts. She doesn’t know the account numbers for half of them. The life insurance policy still lists his mother as beneficiary — a designation he set up before they were married and never updated. The deferred comp account has no beneficiary on file, which means it will pass through probate rather than directly to her. There’s no will. There’s no power of attorney. There’s a folder in a filing cabinet that she thinks has important documents in it, but she’s not sure what any of it means.

None of this happened because he was irresponsible. It happened because he was busy, he was tired, and he was going to deal with it later.

The Minimum Standard

There are two separate problems in that scenario. One requires an attorney. The other requires an afternoon.

The legal layer — a will, a financial power of attorney, and a healthcare power of attorney — covers the structural decisions. Who gets what when you die. Who can make financial decisions if you’re incapacitated. Who can speak for you medically if you can’t. These documents require an estate planning attorney and are not optional for anyone with a family, a pension, or assets of any kind. Find an estate planning attorney, not a general practice lawyer who does this on the side. A basic estate plan for a straightforward family situation shouldn’t take more than two or three appointments. Many FOP lodges and union memberships include legal services benefits that cover basic estate planning — check what you have before paying out of pocket.

The practical layer — this is where most officers don’t start, and it’s where I want to focus today.

The One-Page Document

Your family cannot use a will or a power of attorney if they don’t know what accounts exist, what the policy numbers are, or where the documents are stored. A household information document is a simple, non-legal document that covers all of that. It’s the document your family can find and use without your help.

It should cover:

• Key contacts: attorney, financial advisor, insurance agent, HR, pension administrator
• Bank and credit union accounts with account numbers
• Retirement and investment accounts (pension, 457(b), IRA, brokerage) with account numbers and login locations
• Life insurance policies with company name, policy number, and how to file a claim
• Disability insurance, if you have it
• All outstanding debts — mortgage, car loans, credit cards — with balances and who to contact
• Location of your legal documents (will, POA, etc.)
• Digital access: where your password manager is and how to access it; device PINs
• A note about PSOB — the Public Safety Officers’ Benefit program pays $461,656 (as of 2025, indexed annually) to survivors of officers who die or are permanently disabled in the line of duty. The claim must be filed through your agency within three years. Your spouse needs to know this exists and how to file.

That last one matters. Families have missed that benefit — not because they weren’t eligible, but because no one told them a claim needed to be filed and the window closed.

The Part That Takes Five Minutes

Beneficiary designations override your will entirely. It doesn’t matter what your will says. Whoever is listed as the beneficiary on each account receives that money — period.

Review every account. Your pension survivor benefit. Your 457(b) or deferred comp. Every life insurance policy. Any bank account with a transfer-on-death designation. Do this today, and do it again after any major life change — marriage, divorce, birth of a child, death in the family.

The officer who listed his mom as his life insurance beneficiary at 22 and never updated it isn’t unusual. He’s the norm. Don’t be the norm.

Do This This Week

Not next month. This week.

Write the household information document. Update your beneficiary designations. Tell your spouse where the documents are. If you don’t have a will and powers of attorney, call an estate planning attorney and schedule the appointment.

Every officer I’ve talked with who has this in order says the same thing afterward: relieved. Not morbid. Relieved. The weight of knowing your family is taken care of — legally, financially, practically — is one of the most meaningful things you can do with an afternoon.

You spend your career preparing for things you hope never happen. This is the same discipline, applied to your financial life.

If you want help making sure all of it is accounted for in an actual financial plan — not just the documents, but the investments, the insurance, the beneficiaries, the full picture — reach out at ryan@theshieldfinance.com. That’s what The Shield Finance is built for.

— Ryan