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| The Basics | Polish up your financial plans
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You may be able to winnow the candidates if your state insurance department offers a premium survey. These surveys can help you identify which insurers might offer good deals for your area.
In addition, you can take one or more of the following approaches:- Online. You can visit insurers' individual Web sites to request quotes or use Web brokers that cull quotes from participating insurers. One place to start: MSN's Auto Insurance, Homeowners Insurance and Life Insurance centers, which include links to sponsoring insurers. Insweb.com, IntelliQuote and Insure.com are other sites that can help you track down quotes.
- By fax. Find an independent agent who represents several insurers and fax her your current policies. You should get a number of quotes in return.
- By phone. Ask for quotes by calling two or three of the big companies and a couple of the insurers who advertise in your area that they'll "save you money" on insurance. (These advertisers are trying to build their business in your area and may indeed offer decent breaks.)
Before you buy, though, check out the insurers. Your state insurance department's Web site probably will show you whether an insurer is allowed to operate in your state, and you'll also want to check the company's financial strength with at least one of the rating agencies like Standard & Poor's, Fitch Ratings or Weiss Ratings.
Refresh your retirement planning
You should check your retirement plan at least annually to make sure you're on track. MSN's retirement calculator is one tool that can help. Then:
Consolidate. The fewer accounts you have to keep track of, the better. Got an old 401(k) account from a former job? See if your current employer will allow you to transfer the money to your new plan; if not, consider rolling the cash into an IRA. (One caveat: if you wind up in bankruptcy, workplace retirement plans like 401(k)s are protected from creditors, but IRAs are protected only to a total of $1 million. So if you've already got a small fortune saved and you're at risk of bankruptcy or of being sued, you might want to leave your 401(k) accounts alone rather than roll them over to an IRA.)
Speaking of IRAs: Those can often be consolidated too, as long as they're the same type of account. Traditional IRAs can be combined with other traditional IRAs, for example, and Roth accounts with other Roths. (You can convert a traditional IRA to a Roth, but you have to have adjusted gross income under $100,000 and enough cash to pay the taxes the conversion will trigger.)
Rebalance. Eight in 10 workers don't bother to regularly rebalance their retirement accounts, according to the Profit Sharing/401k Council of America. That's a mistake.
If you want the best returns without excessive risk, you need to not only figure out the right asset allocation -- how much to put in large-company stocks, small-company stocks, international stocks, bonds and cash -- but then regularly rebalance your account so it doesn't stray too far from your target mix.
Otherwise, your retirement plan can drift right into the rocks. An asset set that does really well, say large-company growth stocks, could grow to dominate your portfolio. When the investing cycle turns against that type of stock -- as investing cycles always do, at least for awhile -- you could suffer outsize losses.
Confused about what to do? It can help to get some guidance. Your 401(k) plan administrator or employer may have information, tools, recommended portfolios or even personalized, one-on-one advice. Or you can check out an online option like FinancialEngines.com, a service that for $39.95 a quarter can recommend specific mutual funds for your 401(k), IRA and other retirement plans, plus give you an action plan for rebalancing.
A few 401(k) plans now offer automatic rebalancing, and a recent survey by Hewitt Associates say one in five employers plans to add this feature in the coming year. If you'd like this kind of cruise control, let your company know.
Simplify. Another option: let professionals do the work. Many retirement plans and mutual-fund companies now offer "target maturity" or "lifestyle" funds that do the asset allocation and rebalancing for you. If you're new to investing or simply tired of messing with your accounts, this could be a solution. Just pick the fund, dump in your money and let the fund company take it from there. (You can read "One fund retirement: Buy and forget" for more details.)
Tidy up your estate plans
Dealing with your mortality is grim. Leaving behind a financial mess for your family is worse. So get to it.
Review your beneficiaries. Check your 401(k), your IRAs, your brokerage and bank accounts and your life insurance policies to see who's scheduled to get the money after you die. If you haven't done this in a while, you may find some surprises: the ex-spouse who's still listed as the beneficiary to your retirement plan, or a friend with whom you're no longer friendly named to receive your life insurance proceeds.
Get your docs in order. You need a will, of course, but you need three other documents as well: a durable power of attorney for health care, a durable power of attorney for finances and a living will. (You can read more about these in "3 legal papers you shouldn't live without.") If you have these but haven't reviewed them, do so now to make sure you're still comfortable with the people you chose to make decisions for you, and the decisions you want made if you're incapacitated and can't make them for yourself. If you don't have any of these documents, spend a couple hundred bucks to get a lawyer to draw them up or use Quicken WillMaker software.
Get help. If you have substantial assets or a special situation, like a handicapped child who may need lifetime help, then get an experienced attorney's help in preparing your estate plan. If you have a plan but it hasn't been updated in a few years, or if you've experienced major life changes -- birth, death, divorce, marriage, remarriage, a move to a new state, etc. -- you also may need a professional review.
Ease the transition. In many families, one person handles most of the financial matters. What happens if that person should suddenly die? Perhaps it's time to create a roadmap so those left behind know where the life insurance policies are kept and when the auto insurance comes due. You can create your own list or use resources like Marty Kuritz's "The Beneficiary Book" or "If Something Happens to Me," a workbook by Joseph R. Hearn and Niel D. Nielsen.
That's a lot to tackle -- but don't you feel better now? Go ahead, rest on your laurels ... at least until next spring.
Liz Pulliam Weston's column appears every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions in the Your Money message board.
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