Diplomas, educational transcripts, military records, and other professional credentials.Birth, marriage, divorce, and citizenship documents.Store the following in sealed containers in your safety deposit box, with photocopies held in a separate, secure location: If you don’t have a safety deposit box, store this information at work, with a trusted relative or friend, or in a digital vault.If your home’s damaged or destroyed, you’ll need this information to make an insurance claim, and to claim a casualty loss on your income tax return.if your property remains unclaimed for a state-specified time period, typically 2-5 years.Ī good rule of thumb about what to store in a safety deposit box is any item that’s difficult, expensive, or impossible to replace.Your homeowner’s insurance may cover contents up to a certain limit, or you can purchase a policy rider.Ī bank can access your safety deposit box without your permission: It’s important to know that the contents of your safety deposit box are typically not insured by the bank or the FDIC against loss or damage. Nonetheless, you should protect safety deposit box contents (especially documents) from possible water damage by storing them in watertight containers. Safety deposit boxes are also safer because the bank vault can better withstand severe conditions like tornadoes or fires. You must even nominate your spouse if they need access, as this isn’t an automatic right. Access is only granted during normal banking hours, and only to the owner or nominated individuals. Plan ahead when it comes to a safety deposit box. You need both keys, plus a way to verify your identity, in order to gain access. Safety deposit boxes are more secure than home safes because they’re harder to access – even if you’re the owner of the contents! Safety deposit boxes involve dual control: you have one key, and bank personnel have the other. What To Know About Safety Deposit BoxesĪ safety deposit box is a metal box housed in the vault of your bank that you lease on an annual basis. SageVest Wealth Management offers an overview of the two options, and guidance on what to keep in a safety deposit box versus a safe. When it comes to storing financial paperwork, estate documents, and other valuables, you might consider a safe or a safety deposit box. Safe deposit boxes work well when you want to store valuable personal property (jewelry, coins, etc.), but it might be better to store your will-and any other items or documents that require immediate access upon your death–in a safe in your home.Sound wealth management includes keeping your financial information organized and secure, so that it’s easily accessible, but only to you and the people you nominate. In the meantime, our client’s father owned a rental property in Washington state that he fears has been taken over by squatters and he’s powerless to act on behalf of the estate until we can open the probate. Our client has taken the copy of the will to the bank, showing that he is the Personal Representative appointed in the will, but the bank is requiring our client to wait more than 30 days to access the safe deposit box. Because the statute uses the word “may” rather than “shall”, the final decision of whether to allow access to the safe deposit box is up to the bank and, unfortunately, some banks have a policy that is not in line with the statute.Ī client we are assisting with a probate has a copy of his father’s will and his father told him before his recent death that the original is in his safe deposit box. The employees may remove any testamentary documents and give them to any person named in the documents as executor. That may be changing.Īrizona statute states that once a safe deposit box lessee dies, the box “ may be opened by two employees of the lessor in the presence of any person claiming to be interested in the contents”. Safe deposit boxes have always been one of the best document storage solutions: the documents are kept safe from theft or fire and when the lessee of the box is deceased, the proper parties have ease of access to the decedent’s will. Written by Stephanie Watkins, Estate Planning Paralegalįor years legal professionals have advised their clients to store their estate planning documents in a safe deposit box.
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