Where is your birth certificate? A surprising number of people couldn’t answer that off the top of their heads. There are few things more frustrating than needing a legal document and not being able to find it. Replacing them can be costly and take weeks or even months. That’s why you should always have certain important papers in a safe, secure place.
Living and Final Wills
This is important for you and your family to have at the ready when you die or if you become disabled. They help avoid your estate and your healthcare decisions getting tied up in legal battles. Everyone should have living and final wills, so if you don’t have one, you should sit down with a legal document preparer and have them drawn up.
Vital Statistics Papers
Birth and death certificates are both equally important for healthcare and insurance purposes and cost $21 per certified copy in the state of California. This isn’t something you can just get replaced on the spot, so avoid that trouble by always having at least one copy of each on hand.
Insurance Policies
Time is important when you need to file a health, home, auto, or life insurance claim. The last thing you need in an already stressful time is the frustration of searching for lost or missing documents. File a copy of each away somewhere you’ll remember. Keep copies of your car insurance policy in your car and in your document files at home.
Titles and Deeds
These are required for insurance purposes, so you should always know where the titles to all of your vehicles and the deeds to all of your properties are.
Documents and paperwork are easily lost while moving and can be destroyed in fires and floods, so consider getting a safety deposit box at your bank to keep important documents safe and secure.