Where is the Best Place to Store Your Original Estate Planning Documents?

Estate planning attorneys are often asked where original estate planning documents – wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives – should be stored for safekeeping.  While there is no right or wrong answer to this question, consider the following:

                                                    

·         Should you store your original estate planning documents in your safe deposit box?  Many people may believe that the best place to store their original estate planning documents is in their safe deposit box at the local bank.  This may make sense if you have given your spouse or a trusted child, other family member, or friend access to your box.  However, since a safe deposit box is a rental arrangement (you are leasing the box from the bank), if you are the only one who signed the lease and you become incapacitated or die, no one else will be able to open your box.  Usually the only way for someone else to gain access to your box if you become incapacitated or die is to obtain a court order, which wastes time and money.  If you are not comfortable giving someone else immediate access to your box, many banks will allow you to add your revocable living trust as an additional lessee, which will give your successor trustee access to your box if for any reason you can no longer serve as trustee of your trust.

·         Should you store your original estate planning documents in your home safe?  Home safes are popular these days, but in order for yours to be a good place to store your original estate planning documents, it should be difficult to move (bolted to the floor!), fire-proof, and water-proof.  In addition, make sure someone you trust has the combination to your safe or will easily gain access to the combination if you become incapacitated or die.

·         Should you ask your estate planning attorney to store your original estate planning documents?  Traditionally, many estate planning attorneys offered to hold their clients’ original estate planning documents for safekeeping (usually without charging a fee). Today most don’t want to take on the liability.  In addition, as the years go by, it may become difficult for family members to track down your attorney, who could change firms, become incapacitated, or die. 

·         Should you ask your corporate trustee to store your original estate planning documents?  If you have named a bank or trust company as your executor or successor trustee, this may be the best place to store your original estate planning documents.  This is because banks and trust companies have specific procedures in place to insure that your original estate planning documents are stored in a safe and secure area.  If you choose this option, make sure one or more of your family members know where your original documents are located.

Regardless of where you decide to store your original estate planning documents, make sure your family members, a trusted friend or advisor, or your estate planning attorney know where to find them.  Otherwise, if your original documents can’t be easily located, then it may be legally presumed that you no longer liked what they said and purposefully destroyed them.

To comply with the U.S. Treasury regulations, we must inform you that (i) any U.S. federal tax advice contained in  this newsletter  was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by any person for the purpose of avoiding U.S. federal tax  penalties that may  be imposed on such person and (ii) each taxpayer should seek advice from their tax adviser based on the taxpayer’s  particular circumstances.

Four Steps to Stop Mail Addressed to a Deceased Person

One of the first things you should do as a newly appointed executor of a deceased person’s probate estate or successor trustee of a deceased trustmaker’s trust is ask the post office to forward the deceased person’s mail to your address.  Unfortunately, along with important pieces of mail – statements, bills, and refunds – many not-so-important pieces – catalogs, solicitations, and plain old junk mail – will end up in your mailbox. 

On the other hand, you may have purchased a home from a deceased person’s estate or trust and have received some of their mail at your new address.  

What can you do to stop the post office from delivering mail addressed to a deceased person?  Follow these four steps:

1. If you are the executor of an estate that has been through probate court and the estate is officially closed, hand-deliver or send a copy of the probate order closing the estate and dismissing you as the executor to the deceased person's local post office, and request that all mail service be stopped immediately.  If you don’t take this step and find that some mail continues to trickle through two or more years after the death, this is because the U.S. post office only honors forwarding orders for one year.  The only way to completely stop delivery is to request that all mail service be discontinued.   

2. To stop mail received as the result of commercial marketing lists (in other words, junk mail), log on to the Deceased Do Not Contact Registration page (https://www.ims-dm.com/cgi/ddnc.php) of the DMAchoice.org website and enter the deceased person’s information.  According to the website, “DMAchoice™ is an online tool developed by the Direct Marketing Association to help you manage your mail. This site is part of a larger program designed to respond to consumers' concerns over the amount of mail they receive, and it is the evolution of the DMA's Mail Preference Service created in 1971.”  After registering the deceased person on the website, the organization claims that the amount of mail received as the result of commercial marketing lists should decrease within three months. 

3. For magazines and other subscriptions and mail that is technically not "junk" mail (for example, solicitations from charities to which the deceased person made donations while they were living), contact the organization directly to inform them of the death.  Note that most publishers will issue a refund for any unused subscription.

4. If you shared the mailing address with the deceased person or if you are the new owner of the deceased person’s home, write “Deceased, Return to Sender” on any mail addressed to the deceased person and leave it in your mailbox for pick up. 

Remember it is a federal offense to open and read someone else’s mail, so if you’re not a legal representative of the deceased person, don’t open their mail!

To comply with the U.S. Treasury regulations, we must inform you that (i) any U.S. federal tax advice contained in  this newsletter  was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by any person for the purpose of avoiding U.S. federal tax  penalties that may  be imposed on such person and (ii) each taxpayer should seek advice from their tax adviser based on the taxpayer’s  particular circumstances.