‘My Financial House’ Makes Keeping Track of Your Finances Easier Than Ever

INSURANCE INFORMATION INSTITUTE
Contact: Press Offices
New York: 212-346-5500; media@iii.org
Washington, D.C.: 202-833-1580


NEW YORK, April 9, 2008 — With Americans assessing their 2007 earnings before the April 15 tax filing deadline, it is a great time to put your finances in order with the Insurance Information Institute’s (I.I.I.) My Financial House – Personal Finance Software.

The secure product can be downloaded free-of-charge at www.MyFinancialHouse.org. It can help you organize and create a picture of your current financial situation; work more effectively with financial advisers; identify gaps or overlaps in their financial circumstances, and guide heirs and beneficiaries when filing a life insurance or other claims.

“My Financial House allows consumers to fully assess their current financial situation,” said Dr. Steven Weisbart, vice president and chief economist at the I.I.I. “Tax season is the one time of year when previous year’s earnings come into sharp focus and everyone can make decisions about individual retirement account (IRA) or college savings plan contributions. Too often, consumers underestimate the money they will need for a comfortable retirement, or to pay their children’s college tuition bills; others don’t purchase sufficient life insurance to cover a family’s day-to-day expenses if the household’s primary wage-earner were to die in the prime of his or her working life.”

People are occasionally unable to reach their financial goals because they do not really understand their financial situation, Dr. Weisbart added, noting that collecting financial data in this software program will enable users to get a picture of their current circumstances, and allow them to clearly set, and attain goals for where they want to be five or 10 years from today. Toward that end, My Financial House provides easy-to-use tools to create a financial inventory and effectively chart long-term financial plans.

Moreover, the software allows users to enter information about the current estimated value of their property, 401(k) and college savings plans, stock portfolio, and other assets such as life insurance policies. Users download the software onto their own computer; the I.I.I. does not store personal information. Instead, users are encouraged to save their data in a secure location and share it only with selected family members and financial advisors. It is advisable to save the information in a secure online storage facility such as Vault 24, or on a CD-ROM or flash drive for storage in a safe deposit box or other safe location.

Since the software was launched by I.I.I. in October 2006, it has been downloaded more than 15,000 times in the past 18-plus months. A number of I.I.I. member companies have also made My Financial House available via their publicly available Web sites.

To view a video about the My Financial House software, go to My Financial House Software. If you are a member of the news media and need a broadcast-quality videotape of this story, plus b-roll footage, please contact Susan Stolov at 301-728-1978 or SusanStolov@WashingtonIndependentProductions.com.

For more information about insurance, visit the I.I.I. Web site.

The I.I.I. is a nonprofit, communications organization supported by the insurance industry.