Retaining & Storing Important Financial Documents

Retaining & Storing Important Financial Documents

Saving Documents

Follow these recommendations for what to keep and what to shred and you can save yourself time and frustration in the future. And then, commit to storing your financial documents securely but accessibly so you always know how to find what you need.

Don’t Become a Statistic

"Although 89% of Americans said they were extremely to fairly organized when it comes to their financial paperwork, nearly 25% had either lost or forgotten about an important financial document. Worse, 16% had lost money or incurred a charge because of their poor organization of paperwork.” — Consumer Reports Money Advisor

Original & Signed Documents

If you have any of these original and/or signed documents, keep them indefinitely and in an extremely secure place — usually a safe deposit box at your bank or post office:

• Wills
• Deeds
• Trusts
• Titles
• Stock certificates
• Passports
• Power of attorney documents
• Birth certificates
• Marriage licenses and divorce decrees
• Death certificates
• Social Security cards
• Life insurance policies
• Military discharge papers
• Citizenship papers

Personal Financial Information

Keep these personal financial documents at home as long as you need them for reconciling accounts and managing your budget. You can pare down your paper piles by using online banking tools and requesting email receipts from stores.

• Cancelled checks or duplicates
• Sources of deposits
• Receipts and sales slips
• Loan payment records
• Bank and credit card statements
• Warrantees
• Home purchase and improvements

Tax-related Documents

The IRS may want access to supporting receipts and records for up to seven years, however there is no statute of limitation for tax fraud or a failure to file. Keeping copies of your past tax records can help you file future returns, and you may need them for amended or audited returns. For specific details about what to keep and for how long, see IRS Publication 17.

Storing Paper Documents

• Fireproof Safe – Keeping important financial information at home in a lockable, fireproof safe can give you peace of mind that it will survive most exterior threats.
• Safe Deposit Box – If you are nervous about keeping important documents at home, rent a safe deposit box from a bank or post office.
• File Cabinet – Make sure you get one that locks and safely store the keys in different locations.

Storing Electronic Documents

• Online Storage – With appropriate security protocols, you can safely store your electronic financial documents on a platform such as “the cloud.” This gives you convenience of accessing your financial documents from anywhere — anytime you can connect to the Internet.
• Store on a Hard Drive – Saving your financial documents on your hard drive keeps them easily accessible. Store another copy on an external hard drive for backup purposes as well as transportability.

Contact a financial professional or speak with an attorney, accountant or other trusted advisor to answer any questions you may have on retaining and storing financial information.

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