Smart About Money: Planning for the Inevitable

Someone recently asked me if having credit card minimum monthly payments made automatically from their bank account would be a smart way to avoid penalty interest and fees if they forgot to make a payment or were incapacitated somehow.

It was a good question, and it brings up something important that everyone should think about, specifically: What can you set up in advance to make it easier if something happens and you can’t take care of your own finances temporarily, or at all?

Nick Maffeo

By the way, the “inevitable” isn’t just death, by any means. Unpredictable things happen all the time — accidents, an illness, a family emergency, to name only three. Here are a few ideas to consider:

1. Having payments made automatically is very popular, presuming you also have deposits regularly going in the account the payments will be drawn from. It’s easy to set up, easy to manage … and it’s free.

2. A cancer scare gave a local gentleman the motivation to make a notebook of financial details for his family. The cancer treatment was a success, but sadly he died suddenly three years later of something else. Though the details had not been recently updated, the “road map” still helped his shocked and grieving wife and children navigate after his death.

In an article on triathlon training, a young man remembered how a coach said most athletes tend to overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year. He said that stuck with him because it applied very well to preparing for a triathlon, and to many other things in life.

It certainly applies to making notes to help someone picking up the pieces for you. Your notes don’t have to be completed in one day, and it doesn’t have to be hundreds of pages. It could be something as simple as one piece of paper with five mission-critical items. Or a three-ring notebook with lined paper and alphabetical dividers that you add to once a week, building it up over time.

The information can always be expanded or edited along the way. And most people don’t have thousands of immediately essential items to deal with anyway.

3. These days, most companies legally will not be able to allow your family or a trusted friend to access your accounts or the money in your accounts unless you have made specific arrangements in advance.

There are a lot of ways to do that. Having joint accounts can work with people you have implicit trust in.

A colleague is going through all of her own accounts — retirement accounts, credit cards, health insurance, everything that could be important — and adding her husband as someone the companies can talk to if she’s not available. He’s doing the same things with his accounts.

Many companies have the option to add some kind of alternate contact these days. Obviously, that also has to be someone you trust. But having that credential in place side-steps the company having to talk to you before they can speak to someone else on your behalf. It’s so easy to arrange when you’re there to make the request — and time-consuming or impossible if you’re not.

Your preparation doesn’t need to be “perfect,” or perfectly complete. Because in many of the situations that come up unexpectedly, a little pre-planning can make a huge difference … and anything is usually much better than nothing.

Nick Maffeo is the President & CEO of Canton Co-operative Bank in Canton. Have a question? Email to submissions@thecantoncitizen.com.

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Posted by Nick Maffeo on Apr 17 2026. Filed under Featured Content, Opinion, Smart About Money. Both comments and pings are currently closed.