Safeguarding Estate Planning Documents

In cases of severe weather such as hurricane and tornadoes, people can focus just on the moment. When evacuations are issued, people often leave their homes with a handful of possessions and the clothes on their backs. They may not think to grab their physical estate planning documents. All drama aside, it may be a good idea to back up the paper originals with electronically stored copies in a secure cloud.

However, if you can produce a signed copy of the will, there is usually statutory authority providing a means to prove a copy of a lost or destroyed will.

See Carol Warnick, Safeguarding Estate Planning Documents, Fiduciary Law Blog, September 9, 2019.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.