- Your driver's license
- Your social security card
- Your military ID
- Your concealed carry license
- Your birth certificate
- Your marriage certificate(s)
- Your divorce decree(s)
- Your children's birth certificates
- Your spouse's birth certificate
- Your passport
- Your DD214 (for military members)
- Other military records (VA disability award letter, etc)
- Your Will, Living Will, and Power of Attorney
- Your spouse's Will, Living Will, and Power of Attorney
- Death certificates (for any spouses and children)
- Past seven year's tax returns
- Investment records (stock certificates, bonds, etc)
- Adoption records (yours, your spouse's, your children's if applicable)
- Your green card (if applicable)
- Baptism records (if applicable)
- Insurance policies (home, life, health, auto)
- Copyright and patent records
- Updated immunization records (for you, your spouse, and your minor children)
- Deeds and titles (for real estate, vehicles, burial plots, etc)
- An annually updated household inventory
- List of your debts and credit cards (with account numbers)
- List of banks and investment firms (with account numbers)
- Documentation of debts owed to you
- Citizenship and naturalization documents (if applicable)
- Education records (high school diploma, college diplomas)
- Professional licenses (state medical license, cosmetology license, license to practice law, etc)
- Employment records
- Medical history (for each family member)
- Updated list of prescription and non prescription meds for each family member (if applicable)
- Record of funeral plans
- An "if I die" letter (include people to call, location of keys/safe codes, location of important records, etc)
- Pet records (license, vaccination card, etc)
- Warranties and receipts (for appliances, cars, etc)
- Updated list of monthly bills (include everything from mortgage to electricity and cable with account numbers)
- Retirement records (pensions, annuities, IRAs, etc with account numbers)
- Other medical forms (DNR form, organ donor card, etc)
- Legal settlement/judgement records (bankruptcy, insurance claims, etc)
- Child custody records (records should be legal documents that include a parenting plan, custody award, child support order, etc)
- Real estate records (mortgage, tax assessments, easements, etc)
- Updates vehicle records for cars, boats, motorcycle, etc (insurance card, registration)
- A file for tax records (W2 forms, charity and other deductible expenses, etc)
- A "kidnapping" file, for lack of a better term, for each family member (include recent photo, physical description, photo of tattoos and scars, even a DNA sample)
- Copies of criminal records (date, charge, disposition, etc)
- Updated net worth statement
- A list of user names and passwords for all of your online accounts
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
50 Important Documents to Keep on Hand
I finally got my new Nevada driver's license. What with traveling and moving and shuffling stuff in and out of storage, it was a bit of a challenge to get all of the documents together to actually go and apply for the license and although I have copies of all of my important documents on a secure thumb drive, only original documents would do. So with a bit of effort, all of my documents are now safely residing in a hidden safe in our home. Here are the documents you should always have on hand:
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This is actually a really useful list of important documents. It would also be practical to have photocopies of some, if not all, of the documents on this list. Employing an off-site storage for either the originals or the copies might also be a good step. Should something unfortunate happen to the on-site storage (knock on wood), there would at least be the off-site versions.
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