Most wills and trusts are the kind of arrangements may be readily amendable. Other documents, for example, contracts and divorce agreements, may be difficult or impossible to change. In many cases the documents can be changed if you are willing to pay some kind of penalty or fee, such as variable annuities, or mortgages that can be refinanced.

Any legal arrangements that you have can affect your present and future financial situation in a couple ways. Some of such arrangements have their initial influence on your current cash flow situation. If a current legal obligation requires to be paid out (for example, an agreement to pay alimony), you will have to keep doing it until it is satisfied. Therefore, you will have less money available for other purposes. Other kinds of arrangements may have an influence on how you will dispose of your wealth at death. Will and trust are good examples of such documents.

Your primary task will be to find and assemble any documents and other evidence of your legal obligations and relationships. After having done this, you'll need to make certain that these arrangements are important to your life, wealth-building and wealth-distributing (after your death) planning.

Tip

When assembling important papers it's recommended to make copies for your working file and keep the originals in some safe place.

Here is a list of the most important documents:

• Divorce agreements: Property settlements, alimony, marriage contracts and child-support agreements belong to this category. If you receive these payments, or are supposed to make them, they will have to be included into financial and estate plans.

• Business organization documents and materials: If you are self-employed, how you have arranged your business from a legal point of view (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation or limited company) will influence on your legal liability exposure, how you pay taxes, and several aspects related to developing a financial and estate plan.

• Business transfer/continuation agreements and plans: Any papers concerning your plans and agreements intended at continuing or disposing of your business (including insurance) should be found. Unless you have made soundly detailed plans to carry on your business at your disability or death, and also have a practical plan to fund them -- whether by insurance or an accumulated side fund - as a realistic matter it is very unlikely that your business will go on as a living concern.

• Contracts: Contracts (including those that may require your long-lasting monetary expenditures and those that can bring you some) can be expected to influence on your current cash-flow situation. If your contracts are large, and lasting a long time, they may also have to be included into your plans for passing on your wealth to your chosen legatees.

• Wills and trusts: It will be necessary to have these papers available when you begin to work on putting together a plan to dispose of your wealth to chosen legatees at your death.

• Joint ownership property: Property that is mutually owned can be as a joint tenancy or as a tenancy in common. It is extremely important to know which of these forms ia applied to each item of your property.

• History of making large gifts: The information about all the gifts of money or property, or charitable contributions you made worth more than $11,000 should be recorded (including any federal gift tax returns you filed). This collection will help you (or your advisors) in creating your estate plan.