@doschicos — Documents. SS cards, title to cars & house, passports (I don’t bother, but probably should). Also some jewelry that isn’t being worn. Nothing near crown jewels.
@mikemac’s post about not being able to access the safe deposit box is disconcerting.
I guess I won’t always have an office but I leave valuable stuff in the office. Not passports, because I need them all of the time. But documents are in the office.
All I could think is naturalization papers (not green cards or kiddos’ certificates of citizenship that can be replaced) - these cannot be replaced. Period. Car titles and house deeds are recorded with the state… meh. I can expedite a car title for $80. Or wait 2 weeks to get a replacement for $30 or so, or if I trade it in, the dealership will gladly expedite it for me. Passports can be replaced (been there). Ditto SS cards.
We keep HDs with our digital collection of documents and photos at the free bank safe deposit box. There is no way I would trust those to a cloud.
As I mentioned earlier, for a minimal nominal fee, our county allows to store original wills in a safe deposit place at a county courthouse. This is what we plan on doing.
Naturalization papers can be replaced. You’ll have to jump through bureaucratic hoops and pay fees but they are replaceable.
OMG safe deposit boxes and naturalization papers! When my dad died we had to take my mom downtown to the safe deposit box. It was arduous for her. The boxes were very poorly organized and we could not find one for the longest time! (One had been my grandparents.) it was awful (I am talking about you, USBank in St. Paul!) My mom was exhausted and upset . Finally found the box. There was lots of important stuff in there including deeds for homes and naturalization papers.
My brother and I thought the naturalization papers were quaint (they were from the 1950s.) Turns out, we needed my mom’s for getting social security!! I can’t remember the details but to get the better spousal benefit, she needed the proof. I could not believe it. She had had a US passport for 50+ years but they needed the original naturalization certificate because her citizenship was not in their system somehow.
My brother moved the safe deposit box to a local bank branch and he and I have authority to access.
My daughter and I recently replaced her lost certificate of citizenship. It took almost a year.
And if you’ve squirreled anything valuable away in a secret spot–tell somebody where to find it.
Every time we travel, stash cash & jewelry in assorted odd spot, then What’s App photos to 1-2 DDs, just in case.
Skimming through all 9 pages, I see why I’ve procrastinated on this stuff for so long. But I’m inching toward 60, and I am single with one D, who will likely be my sole beneficiary. I had a will done when she was small.
She is the beneficiary on my retirement accounts and likely the remaining 529 money. So the consensus is I should get a living trust for the house, car and my savings account? Or is it that probate with just a will may not be so bad? She’s jointly on the safe deposit box, which I thought was a good thing, but now it sounds like she’d have a hard time accessing it initially if I die.
The only solution I see here is immortality.
@Barbalot I’m not sure there is a one size fits all answer to your question(s). So much of this kind of stuff is state dependent. Are you and D in the same state? And all of your assets as well? Probate costs are searchable by state, and that information might help with figuring out a good path forward for you. Immortality works as well, if you can arrange it! 
@Barbalot At least in Minnesota, there is a way to title the house so it passes on to an heir upon the owner’s death.
It may be true that as long as you have beneficiaries on everything of considerable value, there is no need for probate even if there is no will.
Probate costs also include the attorney fees which will vary by how much he or she bills and how much work there is to do.
I think if your daughter can access the box now she will be able to always.
Can you tell me more about What’s App?
It’s best to check with an estate lawyer; the fee for a 1 hour consultation regarding the laws in your state may be money well spent.
The house, probably a good idea to set up the trust. The savings account (and any other bank accounts or non-retirement brokerage accounts) can be set up as transfer-on-death. Depending on where you live, an estate below a certain value may pass w/o probate or with low-cost probate. The car may then pass thru this.
You may also wish to consider contingent beneficiaries if for some reason circumstances work out that way.
If you plan on remaining single and you trust your D, you may consider just making her a joint owner of the house, car and savings account. Couldn’t get more simple than that.
@gouf78 What’s app is an instant message app that, supposedly, has secure messaging, so, theoretically cannot be hacked, just a bit safer than a text.
Put your D as a beneficiary on all accounts, including Transfer or Death and Payable On Death. They will then avoid probate. If you are in California you an also setup your house under a ToD so that it too passes without probate. Add your D as a co-owner (“or”) on the car. Add your D as a check signer (and ToD) so she could legally sign after your demise. No fuss, no muss.
Personally don’t see value in a safety deposit box unless it holds valuables like jewelry.
… and it is owned by Facebook, so you know where it all ends up.
Back to topic.
I wouldn’t want the kid as co-owner on feed of property that appreciates—they will not get the great step up on basis upon death of the original owner. Something to consider.
Many people on this thread seem to think it’s a high priority to avoid probate. That might be true in some states, but in many states probate isn’t necessarily costly or complicated, and often doesn’t require hiring a lawyer. Here in Minnesota, for example, most estates are probated under what’s called “informal probate,” without the supervision of a judge and often without a lawyer. A court employee, the probate registrar, names a personal representative of the estate upon petition from an interested party (usually a relative of the deceased party). The personal representative takes an inventory of the estate, makes sure all debts and taxes are paid after publishing a general notice to potential unknown creditors, then distributes assets according to the terms of the will (if any) or the laws of intestacy if there is no will. That’s it, done, really no fuss or muss. DW served a personal representative for her mother’s estate through this process. There was some paperwork, but not all that much. No attorney’s fees, minimal probate fees, a small cost to publish notice to creditors, that’s it. Sure, the will became a public record, but so what? Who’s going to care about the financial affairs of a 99-year-old deceased woman with a modest estate after she’s gone? And even if they do, so what? She’s gone, so she no longer has a privacy interest, and credit rating agencies and others a;ready have pretty detailed financial information on the beneficiaries of her will, so there’s really not much privacy about these things anyway.
The danger is these kinds of discussions is that people tend to universalize on their own experience, or look to draw lessons from someone else in another jurisdiction. But state law on trusts and estates varies widely from state to state. so experience in any one state might have close to zero relevance in another state.
Adding your kid as an owner will likely require filing a gift tax form because it is an instant gift. If the state allows TODD, that would be more preferable IMO. Plus there are other issues… So talk to an estate lawyer. If you still want to “add” the kid, make sure that the ownership is set up as JTWROS and not as tenants in common.