Safe Deposit Box: What to keep & What not to keep!

Safe deposit boxes can be handy tools, providing a safe place away from your home or office to store valuables. When renting a safe deposit box, there are many things to consider:

• Make sure you choose the right size. Many people start by renting a small box, only to discover that it quickly becomes filled.
• You also need to determine who is allowed to access the box.
• Your bank will provide a key (or keys) that must be kept in a safe place, but also a place you will remember. If you lose or misplace your key, you may have to pay a fee for changing the lock on your box.
• The contents of a safe deposit box are not insured by the FDIC.
• Use your safe deposit box regularly and keep a list at home or in your office of what it contains.

What to Keep in Your Safe Deposit Box

Safe deposit boxes can be the best places to keep items that are valuable. This includes jewelry, stamp and coin collections, and negotiable instruments like stock certificates and bonds. They are also good places to keep items that are not replaceable or that have sentimental value. A household inventory (digital or written), appraisals, listings of insurance policies and credit card numbers may also be kept in a safe deposit box.

Examples of items that are not easily replaced

• Birth certificates and adoption papers
• Citizenship papers
• Military documents
• Divorce papers
• Photos and videos (make a digital copy for safekeeping)
• Family heirlooms or historical records

Examples of items that should be kept safe

• Important contracts and business agreements
• Real estate deeds and mortgages
• Vital backup data files from your PC
• Passports, if they are seldom used
• Confidential records
• Copies of important financial records that you keep at home
• Copies of wills, living trust documents, powers of attorney

What Not to Keep in Your Safe Deposit Box

It is important to remember that only the person or persons listed on the bank’s signature card can open your safe deposit box without a court order. Items that others may need to obtain if you are not present should not be kept in your box. Original wills, powers of attorney, living trust documents and other trust documents should not be kept in your safe deposit box because other people may need to access them if anything happens to you. For the same reason, original insurance policies should usually not be kept in the box. By: Nevada State Bank