Use of a bank safe deposit box can be a helpful tool in securing important personal documents, collectibles and family heirlooms. I have outlined six important factors to consider before deciding if a safe deposit box should be used as a part of your family legacy drawer.
1. How does a safe deposit box work?
A safe deposit box is a long, narrow box held in a secured area of a bank. Customers sign a lease to rent the box for typically a year at a time. There are usually two keyholes: one for the customer key and one for a guard key. You can only gain access during bank business hours and your identity will be verified by bank personnel. It is a good place to story anything valuable that you wouldn’t need access to regularly or wouldn’t need in an emergency.
2. Items to put in a safe deposit box
Property Deeds
Stock and Bond Certificates
Car Titles
Originals of birth certificates, marriage certificates
Jewelry (not worn regularly)
Family Heirlooms
3. Items NOT to put in a safe deposit box
Your Will and Trust
Financial or Medical Power of Attorney
Passports
Life Insurance Policies
Cash
A good rule of thumb is, if you might need to access the item outside of the bank’s operating hours, it should probably stay in your home. If you alone rent the safe deposit box, the box will be sealed at your death. Typically the executor or trustee will not be able to gain access to the box until they have a certified copy of the death certificate. For this very reason, it is important not to store any documents or assets that your family will need for the first 3 or 4 weeks after your death.
4. Content Inventory
Make a list of everything you have placed in the safe deposit box. Be sure to include that list in your family legacy drawer. Revise the list each time you put something in or take something out.
5. Insurance
A safe deposit box normally lives within the vault of a federally insured bank or credit union. However, the items you put inside that box are not insured by the bank or the government. If you want insurance on the items, you will need to purchase it yourself. Your insurance agent may be able to write a rider on your home policy to cover specific valuables. Also, there are companies that specialize in policies for safe-deposit box contents. Just as you have insurance on your home for thefts, fires, floods and other disasters, you may also want that protection for your valuables in the safe deposit box.
6. Notification
Please, please, please document the location (address) of the bank where your box is located. Also the box number and the location where you keep the key. Often family members are unaware that a safe deposit box even exists. Consider the story below:
An organized and thoughtful woman worked diligently pulling together information that her loved ones would need when she died. She diligently wrote out her wishes, gathered her will and trust documents, and stored all of the papers in a bank safe deposit box. She taped her spare safe deposit box key to an index card, and carefully wrote the number of the safe deposit box on the card. She showed the key and box number to her grown children and stored the index card conveniently in the top drawer of her desk. When she died, her children met at her home. They retrieved the index card from her desk. Only then did they realize that she had neglected to tell them one small detail: The location of her safe deposit box. She had moved several times, and they didn’t know where to start – which bank at which branch or address, or even in which town. And even if they had known where to look for the box, they would have been in for a shock. The papers that would have authorized them to look inside were locked in the box itself!
Planning ahead and knowing these six strategies can really make all the difference to your family!
