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We travel some, so.....adult children & 20 year old grandchild who was raised in our home (thus will likely share in the left-overs) have been shown "the filing cabinet" (fireproof) & what to look for in it. Anything "left" to them will be there: i.e. insurance policies, annuities, deeds, titles. AND policies for cremation. I cannot put any rhyme or reason to the pictures. Good luck to whoever tackles THAT pile. I do need to make a better effort to better "protect" them, though. Right now, they are in assorted albums, plastic bins & photo boxes. Would be wiped out in event of a flood or fire. And of course.....there is a will.
We bought a used safe at a garage sale, huge thing about 3 feet tall. It weighs well over 200 pounds, so no worries about theft, and it's kept in a big storage closet that we have. The combo is kept elsewhere in the house. I guess I should give the combo to a next of kin or something, since they won't know where to look for the combo and the passwords.
Also, make sure to tell your heirs what is NOT pertinent information. My mother bought a chest of drawers at a garage sale that I later inherited. Inside one of the drawers was a combination to a safe. Obviously it wasn't my mother's safe. I made sure to show both kids the combo and let them know it didn't have anything to do with us, to keep them from going on a wild goose chase.
I keep originals like passports, deeds, titles etc in a free bank safe deposit box. My sister has a key and my other sister knows she has the key and where it is.
I also have copies of these things and lists of other pertinent info and passwords/accounts in a fire safe box my sister and our oldest child know the location of.
Everything else financial is kept in one place and they both know where its kept.
Our lawyer as well as my sister have a copy of the wills.
We also have a "to go" copy of everything in case of hurricane, flood evacuation, etc.
I also have all this same kind of stuff of my sister's and my other sister knows where its located in my house.
As we get older, we may have to relay it to more kids, but for now I think we are as covered as we can be.
I forgot, we also have instructions re the tax consequences of the stuff our heirs are inheriting especially IRA accounts and things where the basis changes upon inheritance.
Another example, would be savings bonds I bought years ago. I was going to cash these in to simplify, but who knew they were paying 4.5% interest lol. So, that info is included for heirs.......that they may want to let them mature rather than cash them in.
We also simplified, by closing accounts. We've both moved multiple times individually and together and we had accounts all up and down the east coast. They served their purpose as the combo of direct deposit and out of sight out of mind allowed a lot of savings to build up, but upon retirement all these accounts were just a hassle. So we consolidated. But, we also added instructions in the papers our heirs would receive on how to check unclaimed funds in all the places we've lived just in case.
Important papers like passports, marriage certificate, birth certificates, SS card, etc. are kept in a fireproof lockbox in a certain place where someone could find it but it's not visibly obvious (I hope) to someone who broke in. I can also grab that box in case of fire or emergency evacuation.
The rest is in a file cabinet drawer. Items that are to be handed down have stickers in them or on them and the sticker tells who the heirloom originally belonged to. I don't have much that the younger people want but there's a handmade cedar chest, a special teapot, a few keepsakes that I know people said they wanted.
We have a file for important papers, but if you mean where do we hide valuables, we have 3 places.
A regular shoebox which we put in the attic.
A hollow pedestal on the kitchen table, where no one would ever think to look.
A set of drawers in the ktchen, which I didnt know were there until I'd lived here for 4 years.
Our Wills and important papers are in a safe in the house, with the children aware of how to access. In addition every few months I update an Emergency Information sheet, which I give to our daughter, who lives nearby. This contains account info, phone numbers, insurance info, bill pay, credit cards, etc. I also carry with us a copy of our Medical Summary, which contains medications and procedures, along with doctors and phone numbers. As OP stated I also have letters to our children individually which have been updated annually.
We learned the importance of having Emergency Information available to them when we were in an accident out of state.
One of the most important things you should do is indicate on your cell phone who should be contacted in case of an emergency. Usually the cell phone has a Field that indicates ICE. If not, use the initials next to the names. When we were taken into the Emergency Room our phones were the first thing they took and were able to contact our family.
1. Fill the safe with sex toys, odd trinkets, blow up doll etc.
2. Put all the bills in one draw, label it important documents
3. Scatter post it notes around my desk, kitchen area with comments like : 12/1- million dollar CD needs to be re-invested.
Jan 1- sell the 3000 gold coins. Don't forget to pay the premium on the 5 million dollar life insurance policy
4. Buy some old Ferrari keys/key chains off ebay and keep them in the desk drawer...... Label it 1971 Ferrari Daytona, label it with a master lock key and put "Ferrari Storage" on it.
5. Fake receipt from an out of business jeweler showing large purchases. His/Her Rolex Submariners with diamond bezels.
6. Buy an owners manual from a 100 ft motor yacht- mark it "Capt Mark bringing yacht to Virgin Islands for season"
Then a note in a sealed envelope saying "hope you had fun dreaming", here is $100 take yourself out to dinner!
Now that is seriously funny! I've always enjoyed messing with people but I never thought about doing it from the grave.
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