Many educational institutions benefits departments have created websites for downloading benefit forms and personal information. This saves both time and paperwork for both employees and employers. For the University of California use http://www.ucop.edu, click the services icon and then go to Bencom.

For Stanford use http://hrweb.stanford.edu and

Harvard please use www.hr.harvard.edu/benefits/.

There are a number of websites that provide excellent generic information on a wide range of personal financial topics. Some of the better ones I have examined are from Smart Money Magazine at www.smartmoney.com and the Wall Street Journal at www.wsj.com.

Some financial institutions provide free estate planning guidance online. Deloitte and Touche www.dtonline.com is very helpful in providing an extensive estate-planning guide. Other web-based tools are available at Vanguard's Retirement Resource Center www.vanguard.com.