Ditch the Filing Cabinet: How Binders Revolutionize Paper Organization

Our lives can change in the time it takes to answer a phone call: no preparation, no warning. I received that kind of call 13 years ago when my father fell ill.

For nine months, my sister and I functioned as Dad’s health care agents, his attorneys-in-fact, and ultimately his executors. I traveled home often in that period to spend time with my dad and take care of his medical and financial obligations.

It was on my third trip home that I faced the realization that I was now in charge of my father’s affairs. How do you assume responsibility for another person? Where do you start? Nothing prepares you for logging on to your parent’s computer and searching through their personal information. And then there was all the paperwork.