Disaster-proof your important papers

 Disaster-proof your important papers

By Bankrate.com

  
What would you do if you had five minutes to clear out of your house?

Five minutes to grab every crucial financial document before the house
crumbles -- property titles, wills, insurance records, Social Security
cards -- and you need to do it, even with all the chaos surrounding you.

Could you do it? Think fast! Would you even know what to grab?

Fortunately, with a bit of planning you can track your most important
financial records and keep them out of the clutches of flames, floods,
hurricanes or any disaster -- natural or manmade.

By spending a little time now preparing for the worst, you'll be more
likely to remain calm in the eye of a storm -- confident in the safety of
your financial documents. That will allow you to spend the crucial moments
in a disaster thinking about more important things.

Like getting your loved ones out of the house safely.

Searching for the key
Just because you're a good record-keeper doesn't mean you're a good
safekeeper of records.

Don't know where to start? Organizational expert Barbara Hemphill,
president of Hemphill & Associates in Raleigh, N.C., offers these
suggestions:

Collect important personal papers and information related to financial
transactions.
Identify a single location to file all crucial papers -- a fireproof box or
safe deposit box.
Create copies now (certified, in cases of birth certificates and other
crucial documents) in case you need them to provide to government agencies.
Put important original documents in plastic covers to protect them and to
prevent you from accidentally giving away the original.
Notify the appropriate people where important information will be located,
in case you're not available when it is needed.
As you go through your day, be aware of the kinds of information that you
should add to your filing system. Identify a method, such as an index card
in your pocket or mini tape recorder in your car, to make notes of new
items as they pop into your mind.
Identify the records that you or your financial institutions keep only on
computer. Because they may not be available if electrical power fails, make
printouts.
When it comes down to organizing and storing the information: "Marriage
records, divorce decrees and birth certificates -- keep in a safe deposit
box. And don't carry the key with you -- keep one key in the house and one
with another person," advises Catherine Williams, president of Consumer
Credit Counseling Service of Greater Chicago. The other person having a key
could be a relative or lawyer.

Using a PC
Computer software can help you get organized. "PCs offer all sorts of great
tools and software that are relatively inexpensive," says Williams.

Consider Hemphill's program, Taming the Paper Tiger, from Kiplinger. The
software guarantees you can find anything in your file in five seconds or
fewer. The organization is entirely computer-based; the actual filing of
documents is both computer-based and paper-based.

The multimedia CD-ROM version also offers video and sound, in which
Hemphill provides moral support. It's impressive -- and pricey, at $149.95.

A notch below that price are the big-name financial software programs,
including Intuit's Quicken and Microsoft Money. Tracking programs for
personal inventory financial documents are a small part of their much
larger money management programs.

At the basic end is LifeMate Systems, which for $10 offers a spiral-bound
book that allows you to keep track of home and office inventory. You
itemize objects room by room, filling in serial numbers, purchase dates and
estimated values. It's great for insurance purposes.

"People don't have to change their habits," touts Victor Taylor, president
of LifeMate Systems Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz. "The guide we provide is pre-
formatted so it helps you to organize ... the most important documents."

Be sure you have backups
Software won't do you much good if it's in a computer that a flood has
carried away. So no matter which software program you use, make a backup
and store it away from your home. "Update your floppy disk about every 90
days and add it to the safe deposit box," Williams says.
So no matter how you organize your records or where you store them, the
bottom line is to take action today. Be sure to involve your family,
friends and financial professionals whenever possible in decision making
and planning. Do it now, before the unexpected becomes a harsh reality.

What to collect  
Bank account records
Marriage certificates or divorce decrees
Identification records (driver license, green card, passport, etc.)
Titles, deeds, registrations for property and vehicles owned
Mortgage and other loan information
Insurance policies
Investment records
Credit-card statements
Employer benefit statements
Income tax information (copies of past returns, proof of estimated tax
payments)
Report of earnings from Social Security
Social Security card
Trusts
Wills
Birth certificates  
Write down contact information for:

Banks and other financial institutions
Employer
Insurance agents
Power, light, gas or other utility companies
 

-- Updated: Aug. 15, 2003

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mtg/20000518g.asp

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