When the Sky Falls: Protecting Important Documents

Most people understand the importance of keeping valuable belongings in a safe place in case of an emergency. But what happens if calamity strikes the safe place?

One common place to keep important documents is in a safe-deposit box, which is usually waterproof and fireproof. But if the bank is destroyed by a flood or an explosion, chances are pretty good that you’ll never again see the contents of your safe deposit box.

The time to plan for how to recover from a potential disaster is before it strikes. By taking some simple steps now, you may be able to get your finances — and your life — back on track quickly should catastrophe hit.

Get Ready to Go

Consider preparing a disaster “to-go” package containing essential documents, critical phone numbers, and irreplaceable items, so you can easily grab it if you need to get out in a hurry.

• Essential documents could include originals or copies of birth and marriage certificates, passports, insurance policies, wills, deeds, trusts documents, tax records, vehicle titles, retirement plan records, prescriptions, and bank and brokerage account numbers. You may even want to include photocopies of your driver’s license, Social Security card, passport, and ATM and credit cards (front and back) in case something happens to the originals. It’s also a good idea to keep a key to your safe-deposit box in your disaster to-go package.

• Critical phone numbers could include those of your attorney, physician, creditors, banks, financial advisor, accountant, family members, and insurers.

• Irreplaceable items could include photographs and keepsakes. For space considerations, you could scan photographs or important documents and download them to a CD-ROM, a storage device such as an external hard drive, or a even a digital music player such as an iPod.

Store It 21st Century Style

Because disasters can occur when you are not at home, you may also want to consider storing copies of important documents and photographs online. This can be accomplished by scanning the documents and e-mailing them to a Web-based e-mail account, which can be accessed any where there is Internet access, rather than the e-mail account hosted by your Internet service provider. But be careful what you put online. Identity theft is one of today’s fastest-growing crimes. There is no guarantee that thieves won’t hack into your e-mail account and find sensitive information.

For information that is too sensitive to keep online, store it out of your geographical area. Make an arrangement with friends or family in a different part of the country to hold copies of each other’s documents. If you don’t know anyone who lives far enough away, you may want to rent a safe-deposit box in another city.

When it comes to maintaining financial records in the event of a disaster, redundancy is the key. If losing important information would cause you great difficulty, make extra copies and store them in various places.

Take a Good Look Around

To facilitate any settlements with your insurers, keep an inventory of all your personal property. Photographs or video copies of the contents of each room in your house, your cars and recreational vehicles, and other insured valuables can help substantiate your claim. Make copies of the photos and videos and store them off site.

No one likes to think about the possibility of being hit by catastrophic weather, fire, or other disasters. But taking some time to prepare could mean the difference between the unimaginable and the manageable.

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