Resources

Personal and Key Document Checklist

PERSONAL AND FAMILY

• Birth certificates
• Marriage certificate
• Citizenship papers
• Divorce/separation papers
• Adoption papers
• Social Security numbers/cards
• Passports (numbers, expiration dates)
• Driver's licenses (numbers, expiration dates)
• Military records

MEDICAL

• Health care professionals (names, address/telephone)
  • physicians
  • dentists
  • pharmacists
  • other professionals
• Health care proxies/living wills
• Medications (dosages, purpose, name of prescribing physicians, pharmacy, address/telephone)
• Hospitals of choice (address/telephone)
• Medicare numbers
• Medicaid numbers (caseworker numbers, address/telephone)
• Social worker or caseworker names (address/telephone)

FINANCIAL

• Income sources (retirement and/or disability benefits, Social Security, etc.)
• Financial assets (institution names, account numbers, address/telephone, form of ownership, current value)
  • cash
  • money market funds
  • bank accounts
  • retirement and pension plans
  • stocks
  • IRAs
  • bonds
  • annuities
  • mutual funds
  • life insurance
• Real estate (property address, location of deeds, form of ownership, insurance, current value)
  • primary home
  • investment property
  • vacation home
• Other assets (location of items/titles/documents, form of ownership, insurance, current value)
  • automobiles
  • collectibles
  • boats
  • interests in businesses
  • inheritances
  • hidden valuables/items in storage
  • precious gems, jewelry
  • loans to family members/friends
• Liabilities (creditor institutions, address/telephone, approximate debt)
  • mortgages
  • notes
  • personal loans
  • IOUs
  • credit cards
  • other

INSURANCE (for each policy list company name, policy number, and location)

• Life insurance
• Health
• Medigap-supplemental health
• Long-tem care
• Dental
• Disability
• Homeowners/renters
• Liability
• Automobile

LEGAL

• Wills (dates of documents, executor names, address/telephone)
• Powers of attorney or durable powers of attorney (names, including backup, address/telephone)
• Advance medical directives
  • durable medical powers of attorney
  • health care proxies
  • living wills
• Guardianships/conservatorships (names, address/telephone)
• Trust agreements

OTHER IMPORTANT CONTACTS

• Professional advisors other than health care (names, address/telephone)
  • attorneys
  • insurance agents
  • financial advisors
  • stockbrokers
  • bankers
  • clergy
  • accountants
• Past employers (company names, address/telephone, dates of retirement, contact persons, employee ID numbers)
• Close friends and neighbors (names, address/telephone, indicate those who have keys to house/apartment/condominium)
• Service providers (names, address/telephone)
• Club memberships, volunteer activities, and senior centers (names, address/telephone) Landlord (name, address/telephone)

OTHER INFORMATION

• lnventory of family historical records (documents, photos, keepsakes)
• Burial instructions (funeral home location, name of director, whether funeral has been prepaid, cemetery plot location, organ donor instructions)
• Safe deposit boxes (institution names, address/telephone, location of keys and list of contents, other names on safe deposit boxes)
• Tax records

TIPS
Many people find it useful to collect all personal and financial information in one master binder or file. The binder or file can be divided into the categories suggested in this list, or others if more suitable. It can include copies of important papers that are kept elsewhere, or any other materials that are useful to have at hand. This method is flexible and easy to update, and serves as a convenient summary of your personal, financial, and legal affairs.

Safe deposit storage is for originals of valuable or negotiable documents such as deeds, automobile titles, stock certificates, birth and death certificates, adoption and citizenship papers, contracts, IOUs, etc. You should not use a safe deposit box to store items that must be quickly available. Such as copies of wills, advance medical directives, powers of attorney, etc. These items should be kept with your attorney or in another safe but accessible place.