Identity theft and general info-sec is obviously a concern, but the way I see it, I either trust someone to safeguard these details or I don’t.
I can try and minimise the chances of the document being compromised. I briefly considered some sort of encrypted flash drive business, but I figure a hard-copy subject to physical security measures is probably a lot safer than something that can be drag-and-dropped onto a Windows Vista desktop. I can also minimise the amount of personally-identifying information in the document, so anyone obtaining the document without context wouldn’t know who these various assets and policies applied to.
My plan is to produce two physical documents and give them to two geographically-disparate immediate family members for safekeeping.
Safe deposit boxes also store a number of other documents securely, such as passports, title deeds to property, birth certificates, etc. In addition to any jewelry or whatever with large cash value, if you have any.
But if he has too low a net worth to make a will worthwhile, what are the odds he has anything safety-deposit-box-worthy? Spending fifty bucks a year to hold your passport seems terribly inefficient—it’s not so valuable that an occasional replacement will be worse.
Identity theft and general info-sec is obviously a concern, but the way I see it, I either trust someone to safeguard these details or I don’t.
I can try and minimise the chances of the document being compromised. I briefly considered some sort of encrypted flash drive business, but I figure a hard-copy subject to physical security measures is probably a lot safer than something that can be drag-and-dropped onto a Windows Vista desktop. I can also minimise the amount of personally-identifying information in the document, so anyone obtaining the document without context wouldn’t know who these various assets and policies applied to.
My plan is to produce two physical documents and give them to two geographically-disparate immediate family members for safekeeping.
A safe deposit box is probably worth the cost.
It’s far more expensive than the will that he felt wasn’t worth paying for.
Safe deposit boxes also store a number of other documents securely, such as passports, title deeds to property, birth certificates, etc. In addition to any jewelry or whatever with large cash value, if you have any.
But if he has too low a net worth to make a will worthwhile, what are the odds he has anything safety-deposit-box-worthy? Spending fifty bucks a year to hold your passport seems terribly inefficient—it’s not so valuable that an occasional replacement will be worse.
Nowadays most paper documents are just a convenience (or an inconvenience). What really matters is the proper entry in some database in the cloud.
Replacing a missing passport, title deed, etc. is neither hard nor expensive.