Self Storage- So you just died. Did you send your family to Hxxx?

There was no reason, but the day I hit 30, I realized it was “ME”. Everyone around my family was doing fine, work was great, it was a nice day. Just for some reason, I realized I was the person in charge of my life. Its not like I all of a sudden matured. Paid my way thru college, top of the class, top 1% job, only got drunk twice in my life, etc, etc.

My realization was, I was it. Now I didn’t do anything with that thought. From that point on, until I was 50, I knew literally I could go through Mountains, jump over them, dig under them, go around them and stop Run away trains by hand. There was no obstacle in my life that I could not overcome.

And then it hit me. I ran into an obstacle, that I had no clue how to deal with, it could not exist (in my world), and the experts had no clue (from my point of view). No more Invincibility.

We are all at different points of our lives, perceptions of living into eternity, Invincibility, or just lack of thought on the subject. If your “there” and are aware of your lack of invincibility, please keep reading.

So you just Died. The following are actions not to put your Family through Hxxx. (Also Vendors, Customers, Bankers, employees)

A. “Will” or “Trust”?- Do you want things to go through Probate for several months or seamlessly go through a Trust with no stoppage in operations or control? Without a business, you might not care if your below a certain Dollar level or asset types that don’t deteriorate. Various discussion points- Bucket Trust, rename all of your assets to include the Trust, etc, talk with your attorney.

B. Power of Attorney- you can have this made specific to different aspects of your life. You may have a business partner who you want to be able to make decisions on your behalf for the Storage business, but have no say over your Personal life.

C. Bank Accounts “POD”- Payable on death, So you just died and who is going to pay the bills? This will automatically allow a person to access the funds and support the ongoing business. You probably have you and your spouse on the account already, so put somebody that is likely not traveling or living with you, in case both spouses pass at the same time.

D. Life insurance- not tax deductible, tax free proceeds. This is more about risk, comfort zone, lack of knowledge and stage of investment. With our fast growth we have taken loans out. All of the locations cash flow very well, so there really is no risk from losing a “wage earner”. It is more about taking pressure off the family members who will end up with the property. Also to cover any estate taxes or debt restructuring if they arise.

Where the major danger comes in, is if your in the middle of a development and your the main developer. The other family members only know how to run an existing facility. This is where you can lose a lot of money, if you have to sell the property and not complete the build out.

We identified three areas of risk and they are all on three different time tables. 1. Ongoing debt payments for existing units., 2. One location in Rent Up Phase., 3. One location in development phase and then Rent Up phase.

Per our advisor we took out three separate Term life policies. That way as the risk diminishes you can drop one policy at a time. If you had just one large policy covering all three risks, you would have to cancel a policy and renew. You have gotten older, any new health issues that arise, and the need to go through the review process again, may change your access and cost of an insurance renewal. Don’t get to exact figuring out your coverage needs, it is really cheap, go for the higher number.

E. Living Will; End of Life- This is more for applying medical treatment or not under certain circumstances to continue your life support, while you are incapacitated. Just added this so you have a complete package of estate issues. By this point you should not be in control of any business, unless you were incapacitated due to an accident or sudden medical issue.

F. Medical Power of Attorney- this allows someone to be in charge of your medical treatment if your incapacitated. Not so much a business impact, but wanted to keep the list complete.

G. Facilities Management- worst case, no one knows how to run or has the time to. Develop an “Info List” with all contacts and passwords. Identify ahead of time a Management company or local Realty company who you have vetted to manage the business. Have them identified on the list.

H. What does a storage facility look like 6 months after you have died? You go down to 70% occupancy from 95%. 40% of your customers are behind. Some customers haven’t paid in 6 months. No one can find the contracts. 5 of the units were yours. All of your systems are on paper and no one has kept up. Trash has been thrown over the back fence and the neighbors want it fixed. Weeds are everywhere. I come in and offer to pay 50% of the value. Ended up not buying your property. It takes about 3 to 4 months to get a location like this transitioned over to a management system and cleaned up, through auctions. Your investment value has greatly deteriorated since there was no transition plan.

So are you taking action; or are you sending everyone associated with you under the bus?

“Start small and Make Your Big Mistakes Early”