Making Sure Your Wills And Important Papers Are Kept Safe
Everyone knows that personal information should be kept safe and away from prying eyes. But not everyone realises that keeping wills and important papers safe from harm is just as important in the long run.
Getting Organised
The first step to making sure you have everything covered is to go through all your paperwork and sort everything into piles. If you need to get to anything in a hurry it helps to know where it all is, instead of having to sort through a huge pile of paperwork that has no logic or order to it.
Keep all your banking details in one place, and put any wills and important papers in a separate folder. Folders help to keep everything in its place and easy to access when you need it.
Under Lock And Key
A better security measure is to then lock everything away in a filing cabinet, or perhaps a safe in the case of wills and important papers, which should ideally be kept private. Some people decide to lodge wills and important papers with their bank manager, so that they don't have the worry of keeping them at home.
You should also consider what might happen if you had a fire or flood in your home. Wills and important papers won't last five minutes under those conditions, so even if you are keeping them in a folder make sure it's a waterproof and watertight one.
But it's not just about getting organised and keeping things safe. It's also about making sure you have all the relevant documents you need. No one likes to think about what will happen after they die, but the truth is that if you have a family or any dependents you need to put measures in place to ensure they will be looked after once you are gone.
Getting your wills and important papers sorted out is a big part of doing this. It can take some time to do it properly, but the sooner you make sure your wishes are legally recognised on paper, the better. Even though it is not a nice process, it will give you peace of mind to know that all your papers are in order.
So ask yourself whether you have the right wills and important papers that you need. If you don't, allocate some time to do whatever is needed. If you do and you don't know where they are, now is the right time to find them.
