Dear Liz: I’d like to add to the conversation about where to store estate documents. Having lost my home, studio, office, and all the contents in the Eaton fire of January 2025, I can tell you that the temperature of our urban fire was high enough to incinerate the contents of many “fireproof” home safes in Altadena. I would no longer keep an only copy there.
In my family, we had arrangements made for me to handle my parents’ trust, and I can share that my parents’ financial planner has both hard and electronic copies of the trust. This might be another way families could access the trust, at least in a copy.
Answer: Thanks for bringing up such an essential point, which is that “fireproof” is a misnomer. Safes can be fire-resistant, but prolonged intense heat can turn paperwork to ash.
Previous columns mentioned the importance of keeping estate documents updated, which could make it more likely that an attorney would have a copy if the originals are lost.
Another increasingly popular option is to use online vaults such as Everplans. These secure online services allow people to store digital copies of important documents and deputize trusted people to access them either immediately or after the account owner’s death.
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