You finally completed your estate plan.

The will is signed. The trust is prepared. Your powers of attorney and healthcare directives are finished. You have done the difficult work of making decisions about your future and your family.

Then comes a surprisingly practical question:

Where should you keep the original documents?

No single storage solution is right for every family. The important thing is to balance security with accessibility. Your documents should be protected from damage, but they also need to be found when someone needs them.

A beautifully prepared estate plan does little good if your family cannot locate it.

Is a Safe Deposit Box the Best Choice?

A bank safe deposit box may seem like the obvious answer.

It is secure, protected from many household hazards, and designed for important items. But there is a potential problem: access.

If you are the only person who has legally rented the box, giving someone a key or permission to access it does not necessarily give that person the legal authority to open it after you become incapacitated or die.

Depending on state law and the circumstances, your loved ones may need to obtain a court order before they can access the contents. That can add time, expense, and frustration when they are already dealing with an emergency.

There are ways to address this concern. Some banks may permit a revocable living trust to be added as a lessee, potentially allowing a successor trustee to access the box if you can no longer serve.

We generally do not recommend you use a safe deposit box, but if you do use a safe deposit box, make sure someone you trust knows the bank, the specific branch, and where the key is located.

One more practical consideration is banking hours.

If your family needs a document on a weekend or outside normal banking hours, a safe deposit box may not be immediately accessible.

What About a Home Safe?

A home safe can provide easier access, but not every safe is appropriate for original estate planning documents.

A good home safe should be difficult to remove, ideally secured to the floor, and fireproof and waterproof. Just as importantly, someone you trust should know how to access it if you become incapacitated or die.

There is little benefit to having your documents safely locked away if no one knows where the key or combination is.

This is an important distinction: secure does not have to mean secret.

Should Your Attorney Keep the Originals?

In the past, many estate planning attorneys routinely stored clients' original documents.

That practice has become less common because of liability concerns. Relying on an attorney's office for decades also creates a practical problem.

What happens if the attorney retires? Changes firms? Becomes incapacitated? Dies?

Your family may have difficulty locating the documents years after they were prepared.

That doesn't mean an attorney can't be the appropriate custodian. It simply means you should understand the arrangement and make sure your family knows where the documents are stored.

Could a Corporate Trustee Store Them?

If a bank or trust company is serving as your executor, personal representative, or successor trustee, ask whether it offers document storage.

A corporate trustee may have established procedures for protecting original documents and maintaining secure records. If you choose this option, your loved ones should still know where the documents are located.

The goal is always the same: protect the originals while making sure the right people can find them.

New Jersey families should similarly make sure that trusted family members or advisors know exactly where original documents are stored. If your estate includes New Jersey property or family members who may be handling your estate from another state, accessibility becomes even more important.

The Biggest Mistake Is Not Knowing Where the Documents Are

Imagine your family knows that you created an estate plan. They know you worked with an attorney. They know you wanted your assets handled according to your wishes.

But no one can find the originals.

That can create a serious problem. Depending on state law, if an original document cannot be located, it may potentially be presumed that it was intentionally destroyed. As a result, your property could be distributed under state law rather than according to the plan you carefully created.

The best storage location is therefore not simply the most secure place.

It is a secure place that your trusted people can access when necessary.

Once your estate plan is complete, talk with the people who may need to use it. Tell them where the originals are stored and how to access them. You do not need to hand everyone a copy of your entire estate plan. They simply need enough information to find the documents when the time comes.

Estate planning is about preparation. Document storage is part of that preparation.

Because when your family needs your estate plan, “I know we have one somewhere” is not good enough.

Contact Hartmann Law Today

If you have questions about estate planning, contact our office to speak to an estate planning attorney.

Take steps to start your Life and Legacy planning today!  Take action to ensure your voice is heard when you are unable to speak for yourself.  Make the decision to protect yourself, your loved ones, your business, your property.   

Schedule a call today with Hartmann Law.

Hartmann Law provides Life and Legacy plans ready for today with an eye on the future.

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