Where do you keep your important documents?

Sea_Shell

Things like your House Deeds (if you hold them)
Passports
Counterpart driving licences
V5s
Wills / POAs
Birth/Marriage Certificates
Insurance policy schedules/certificates

Basically, the things that are replaceable, but which would be a PITA to replace if lost/destroyed.


Do you have folders, in a filing cabinet?   Labelled Car/House/Personal?
Scanned copies saved and backed up?
A fireproof filing tin?
A home safe?
A bank safety deposit box?
Or are they "somewhere safe" in the house, if you can just remember where you put them? 

Should you even keep these all in one place?   Grab and go, if you had to evacuate, for example, but potentially a burglars dream.


We currently do the filing cabinet, plus (some) scanned copies, but should we go further?  It locks, but they are hardly Fort Knox. 




(This is more just general life planning - rather than retirement specific, but I couldn't think which other section was more relevant....families maybe?) 

Barkin

In an old suitcase, under the bed. 

I thought that's what everybody did?

😂

dunstonh

Everything is paperless (scanned and stored locally and cloud based) apart from the things you list which cannot be scanned.    I have a safe for those.

Keep_pedalling

We have a small fire proof safe for vital stuff, original wills are held with solicitors. 

Phossy

A small metallic file box. I've scanned most of them too.

MallyGirl

hanging files. Lots of labelled hanging files with years of history. We keep talking about getting a fireproof safe but it never seems to hit the top of the priority list. I have photos of passports & driving licences.
Must do better.

kuratowski

Solicitor has my will and the lease (equivalent of title deeds, although registered at land registry so the original doc is largely pointless).

Passport, birth certificate, LPAs are stored at home on a shelf in my "office".  I don't have a safe or fireproof box, although I suppose I could use the biscuit tin (it's rubbish at keeping biscuits fresh).  Everything is in folders and labelled.

I have copies of all insurance, banking, pension records etc, scanned and stored online in a cloud folder, which is shared with my OH.

I believe that the counterpart driving licence can be fed to the shredder, it's of no use any more.

westv

Some of ours is in a metallic box, some in drawers and cupboards. I have no idea where my birth certificate is - probably still at my parents old place which is now one my brother's.

twopenny

File for domestic stuff but your question made me realise I should keep the number of the house insurance on my phone.
Will and house deeds with solicitor.

Used to work with probate and finding documents in houses of the deceased. 
The work itself took a lot longer when stuff was all over the place.

I don't know many burglars who want household documents. That's fairly sophisticated.
They want cash, phones etc. They can turn into money.
Online scammers are the ones that deal with details and those too are for sale to others.

german_keeper

We have passports, birth certificates and suchlike in plastic folders, 1 for each of us, although the kids now have their passports where they live. Most of the financial, utilities and stuff like that is online but we do have 1 ring binder with various papers. Also quite a lot of my mum's stuff (POA) in ring binders. All held in a drawer under the bed.

Come to think of it they are probably due a bit of weeding; been too busy doing nothing.

Fermion

kuratowski said:

Solicitor has my will and the lease (equivalent of title deeds, although registered at land registry so the original doc is largely pointless).

Passport, birth certificate, LPAs are stored at home on a shelf in my "office".  I don't have a safe or fireproof box, although I suppose I could use the biscuit tin (it's rubbish at keeping biscuits fresh).  Everything is in folders and labelled.

I have copies of all insurance, banking, pension records etc, scanned and stored online in a cloud folder, which is shared with my OH.

I believe that the counterpart driving licence can be fed to the shredder, it's of no use any more.

I strongly recommend not to store important documents such as Wills and Leases with a Solicitor having now been stung twice when 2 different firms of Solicitors were closed down by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority and all documents removed to their Interventions Archive Repository in Coventry.

Firstly, when they lost the Lease on my late Mothers Apartment I was trying to sell and I had to obtain a certified copy of the Lease from the Freeholder at a cost of £575. (The property was purchase prior to online records)

Secondly, more recently my late Mother in Law's Will was moved by the SRA intervention archives team and we had to wait their standard 14-16 weeks service level lead time to recover the original. We tried to obtain the original before her death but they refused to supply this even though we had a LPoA - only a non certified photocopy was provided which was useless. (SRA policy is that only the Will owner can request the original Will but not much use if they have dementia)

If you insist on keeping you original Will with a Solicitor then it's essential that you get them to provide a number of certified copies.