Resources

Description

No one talks about how tough it feels to ask your parents what's really going on with their money. Most families only get the full picture after a diagnosis or a death, hunting for paperwork in the middle of grief. The Parent Money Checklist is built to spare you that, while you still have the advantage of time.

It's a single page covering the four conversations that actually matter:

• Pension: workplace schemes, state pension, private pots, and the old ones no one has touched in years
• The House: whether there's still a mortgage, and whether it's tied up as collateral for anything else
• Protection: life insurance, income protection, critical illness cover, and where the paperwork actually lives
• Wills: whether one exists, who the executor is, whether there's a Lasting Power of Attorney, and what the plan is if not

Each section has tick boxes and a line to note down providers and where documents are kept, so the checklist doubles as a record you can come back to. It's not thrilling dinner conversation, but it beats scrambling to find answers when it's already too late to ask.

Print it, sit down with your parents, and skip the small talk. Go straight for the pension chat instead.