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Britt Erica Tunick is an award winning financial journalist who has spent the past 17 years writing about virtually every aspect of finance. She has mastered the art of boiling down complicated financial topics for readers to understand. |
If you are seeking security in this high tech world, why not consider an old fashioned form of security. It is time to discuss safe deposit boxes. Why You May Want to Consider a Safety Deposit Box By Britt Erica Tunick Odds are when you think about safety deposit boxes it brings to mind the image of incredibly wealthy individuals storing stacks of cash and scads of jewels for safe keeping. But whether or not you need a secure location to store priceless jewelry, renting a safety deposit box is actually something everyone should consider. Even if you ’re not a multi-millionaire, it is more than likely you and your family have sensitive documents that could not be so easily replaced if they were stolen or destroyed in a disaster such as a fire. From wills and insurance documents such as appraisals, to passports, birth certificates, social security cards or even the pink slips for vehicles, everyone has certain documents not so easily replaced. And there is nothing more frustrating than discovering the difficulties of having to replace such documentation at the time of a disaster, which can actually make doing so extremely difficult. Between the rise in identity theft and other types of fraud, as well the increased burden of proof individuals must bear in proving their identities since the passage of the USA Patriot Act, replacing forms of identification has become more difficult than ever. This is particularly true if everything you previously used to establish your identity is lost in a fire or some other disaster. With that in mind, storing all of your most important and sensitive documents in your home, or in one central location, can be a bad move. Safety deposit boxes provide a central storage facility outside your home. This eliminates the possibility of your most sensitive documents being stolen or that they will all be destroyed if disaster strikes your home. Your best bet it to keep original copies of important document such as wills or living wills filed away in your home, but to make copies that can be kept in a safety deposit box as a backup. Additionally, important documents such as social security cards, military discharge papers, marriage certificates and birth certificates should also be stored in a safety deposit box, while more time-sensitive forms of identification such as passports are something most people will want to keep more readily available. This is true because many banks are only open during business hours on weekdays. One other thing to consider storing in a safety deposit box is any documentation or DVD footage of the belongings and furnishings in your home. It ’s needed proof for an insurance claim if anything were to happen to your home. Safety deposit boxes also provide the opportunity to get more than one key, meaning a second copy can be left with a trusted family member or friend, or even an attorney, allowing others access to these documents in the event of an emergency. And if you are storing something like your will in a bank safety deposit box, be sure to inform anyone who will need to access where you are storing everything. You should also check with your attorney if there are steps you need to take to be sure the bank will allow a friend or family member to access that box at the time of your death. Another plus on the safety deposit box front is many banks will provide these at a discounted price, or sometimes even free, to regular customers. Such pricing often depends on the amount of money you have at your bank and the type of accounts you have. The average safety deposit box runs in the range of $30 to $75 per year, again, depending on where you bank and your relationship with that institution. |
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