Your Accountant Should Be Involved with Your Hurricane Prep

Hurricane season is upon us, Florida. Whether you’re new to the state or a lifelong resident, taking on-site precautions is naturally top of mind — boarding up windows, checking flashlights for dead batteries, that sort of thing. But preparedness isn’t just for property and people. Your money should be guarded when a storm makes landfall, too.

As with any risk management, some of your best protection is good preparation. Your accountant can help you come up with a plan for your home or business that safeguards your assets in the immediate aftermath of a major storm and through the recovery period.

On a personal level, be sure that you’ve got backups and duplicates of your most important documents, for accessing funds, establishing identity and ownership, and for claiming insurance policies. The more ways you can access information and accounts, the better — think USB drives and printed documents in sealed plastic bags or watertight containers, as well as protecting your online information on a cloud-based server.

Also, your accountant should know which government programs can help in the aftermath and be aware of the potential tax implications of damage to your home or business. Below are some trusted resources to help individuals and companies talk through hurricane season concerns with their financial adviser and accountant, as well as guidelines for accounting professionals who’d like to learn more about how they can help.

• The Red Cross and the American Institute of CPAs have put together a thorough guide called Disasters and Financial Planning to help you organize your finances before, during and after events like a hurricane.

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also offers a number of resources on coping with natural disasters, from preparing your finances to avoiding scams and fraud.

• FEMA’s Emergency Financial First Aid Kit is available in multiple languages, including Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese. For a readymade checklist to help guide your preparations, Ready.gov has you covered (printable version).

• For accounting professionals looking for more specific resources, FICPA has an excellent roundup of links detailing relevant processes and policies for hurricane relief in Florida, including educational content and taxpayer guides from the IRS.