Keeping Things Safe

Note:

If your home suffered a fire, one ofyour jobs in the aftermath might be toreplace important documents, such asbirth certificates, passports, propertydeeds, and a copy of your will. One solutionis to put important documents in ahome safe that is Underwriters' Laboratories(UL)-rated to withstand high heatlevels for at least an hour, which is longenough to survive all but a massivefire. A UL-rated bank safe deposit boxshould be reserved for things you wouldneed if your house were completelydestroyed, like an inventory of yourhome's contents and a list of bank andbrokerage accounts. Using a safedeposit box for the original copy ofyour will creates a Catch-22 situation.Your executor won't be able toopen the safe deposit box without yourwill, which is in the safe deposit box.