Documents You Need Before You Die

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        This is a very useful graphic that showsthe documents you should have collected in one place or immediate access to ifyou want to insure your family does not struggle looking for information whenyou die.     In a recent estate we handled it took morethan four months and numerous hours by staff to identify all of the informationrequired to process the estate through probate. Five separate investment accounts, original stock certificates, passbooksavings accounts, four checking accounts, several savings accounts withdifferent people named as owners of the accounts, original deeds and the listgoes on.  The delay and the expense allcould have been avoided if the parties involved had collected and organizedthis information for the inevitable.       The financial consequences of not havingthis information organized could be very costly.  According to the National Association ofUnclaimed Property Administrators, state treasurers currently hold $32.9billion in unclaimed bank accounts and other assets.  Here in New York you can search for unclaimedfunds at Office of the New York State Comptroller’s Unclaimed Funds website.     Some of these documents such as your “originalwill” should never be left at home or in a safety deposit box.  When youare preparing your will, speak with your attorney about where to keep thesedocuments.  Your attorney can provide you with copies of the importantdocuments to keep in your file at home while safely storing originals.        Here at Ciminelli and Ciminelli we candigitally store all of these documents and give you direct access to thedigital file if you need to recover any of the information.  Additionally,we will store your original will in our fireproof safe to insure the originalis available to the Surrogate Court for probate proceedings.