Even if your estate plan is in order, it won’t be of much help to your heirs if they can’t locate important documents when you’re no longer around. Organizing your financial and estate-planning documents — and letting your family know where you’ve stored them — will make it easier for your loved ones to care for you if you become incapacitated, and it will smooth the process of settling your estate after you’re gone. Plus, while you’re still alive, you’ll be able to quickly track down paperwork when you need it.
Sandra Batra, 56, created a binder to organize all of her father’s documents after he was stricken with cancer in 2011. Batra says the project helped her and her mother easily locate her father’s important documents while he was in the hospital.
After her father’s death in 2012, Batra decided to turn her idea into a business, LifeLink Consulting, which helps clients organize estate-planning documents into a binder or flash drive. Batra also gives clients blank worksheets they can use to provide other details, such as who they want to care for them and their end-of-life wishes. Her online course costs $99.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
To organize your own records, you can use an accordion file or binder and divide the documents into different categories, such as estate planning, life insurance policies, property titles and investment statements. You should also include categories for health insurance, long-term-care insurance, and bank account and credit card information. That way, your family will have the details they need to pay medical bills if you’re hospitalized for a long period.
Use Microsoft Word or Google Docs to write down additional details, such as who you want to take care of your pets, a list of subscriptions and memberships, and passcodes to any home security systems or online accounts. Once you draw up the documents, print them and place them in your binder (you can also store them digitally — more on that below).
Where to keep your documents
Store your documents in a secure area, such as a locked filing cabinet or fireproof safe in your home. Make sure your loved ones know the location of your cabinet or safe, and give them any keys, combinations or codes required to access it.
If you don’t want to keep the documents in your home, you can entrust them with your estate lawyer, says George Taylor, estate attorney with Brinkley Morgan.
“Your estate attorney can store original documents, like your will and titles to your house and car. Then you and the executor of your will can have copies,” he says.
You can put copies of your will and other important documents in a safe-deposit box, but it’s usually not a good idea to keep originals there if you’re the sole owner. After your death, the bank will seal the safe-deposit box until an executor can prove he or she has the legal right to access it. That could lead to long and potentially costly delays before your will is executed.
Digital options for financial paperwork
You should keep original, paper versions of your will, power of attorney and other key estate-planning documents. But if you’d like to create a backup of your paper documents, consider using a flash drive, which you can plug into your computer’s USB port, to collect them all in one place.
Alternatively, you can use a cloud storage system, such as Microsoft’s OneDrive or Apple’s iCloud. OneDrive’s free version gives you 5 gigabytes of cloud storage. Its family version, which allows up to six individuals to share and access documents, costs $129.99 a year.
Apple’s iCloud Drive provides 5GB of free storage. For 99 cents a month, you can upgrade to iCloud+, which provides 50GB of storage, and you can share it with up to five family members.
Another option to consider is Quicken's LifeHub. It's an online document storage solution that helps you gain easy access to copies of important financial documents whenever you need them. It's also ideal to protect files from wildfires, floods and any other threats that could damage your home.
Your heirs will need passwords to log in to your online accounts, so make sure they have easy access to them. You can write them down in a document to store in your binder or use a secure password-management tool.
A family membership to 1Password ($4.99 a month after a two-week free trial) offers shared account access for up to five family members.
With Bitwarden, you can share your account with one other person free. Or sign up for a family membership ($40 a year), which allows access for up to six people.
How to make updates in paperwork
Batra recommends updating your documents each time you have a life change. For example, you may need to alter the beneficiaries in your will or life insurance policies if you get divorced or have grandchildren, and living trusts should be updated to reflect the purchase or sale of property included in the trust. Even if you haven’t undergone any big changes, check your documents at least once a year to make sure the information is current.
If you entrusted your estate attorney with your documents, he or she can also help you keep them up to date, Taylor says. Ask your estate attorney to send you an annual e-mail or letter reminding you to update your information and make sure the right person is still in charge of your affairs, he says.
Key documents to share with your family
Make sure to include the following information in a binder or digital file:
- Will or trust
- Powers of attorney for finances and health care
- Organ donation form
- Living will
- Letter of instruction for your heirs
- Beneficiary designations
- HIPAA release (allows health care providers to share information about you with authorized individuals)
- Bank and financial statements
- Real estate deeds and titles
- Retirement-account documents
- Life insurance policies
- List of important personal property, such as jewelry and artwork, and estimated values
- Funeral instruction
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.
Related content
-
Original Medicare vs Medicare Advantage Quiz: Which is Right for You?Quiz Take this quick quiz to discover your "Medicare Personality Type" and learn whether you are a Traditionalist, or a Bundler.
-
Ask the Editor: Capital Gains and Tax PlanningAsk the Editor In this week's Ask the Editor Q&A, Joy Taylor answers questions on capital gains tax rates and end-of-year tax planning
-
Time Is Running Out to Make the Best Tax Moves for 2025Don't wait until January — investors, including those with a high net worth, can snag big tax savings for 2025 (and 2026) with these strategies.
-
Original Medicare vs Medicare Advantage Quiz: Which is Right for You?
Quiz Take this quick quiz to discover your "Medicare Personality Type" and learn whether you are a Traditionalist, or a Bundler.
-
Time Is Running Out to Make the Best Moves to Save on Your 2025 Taxes
Don't wait until January — investors, including those with a high net worth, can snag big tax savings for 2025 (and 2026) with these strategies.
-
4 Smart Ways Retirees Can Give More to Charity, From a Financial AdviserFor retirees, tax efficiency and charitable giving should go hand in hand. After all, why not maximize your gifts and minimize the amount that goes to the IRS?
-
My Adult Child Was Laid Off. Can We Discuss It Without Ruining the Holidays?We asked mental health and financial experts for advice.
-
3 Year-End Tax Strategies for Retirees With $2 Million to $10 MillionTo avoid the OBBB messing up your whole tax strategy, get your Roth conversions and charitable bunching done by year's end.
-
'Politics' Is a Dirty Word for Some Financial Advisers: 3 Reasons This Financial Planner Vehemently DisagreesYour financial plan should be aligned with your values and your politics. If your adviser refuses to talk about them, it's time to go elsewhere.
-
For a Move Abroad, Choosing a Fiduciary Financial Planner Who Sees Both Sides of the Border Is CriticalWorking with a cross-border financial planner is essential to integrate tax, estate and visa considerations and avoid costly, unexpected liabilities.
-
15 Costly Drugs Will Get Medicare Price Cuts in 2027: Will You Save?The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services extended a safety net to older Americans by announcing significant price reductions on 15 high-cost prescription drugs, effective in 2027.
