Five Reasons To Put the Original of Your Florida Will in a Bank Safe Deposit Box

Florida probate attorneys spend a lot of time meeting with clients and helping them create their estate plans and planning for the future. All of that work ends up on paper in the form of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, living wills, designations of health care surrogates, and beneficiary designations.

In most cases, the originals of those documents will be needed at the critical time of incapacity or death. So, even though we live in an electronic age, the preservation of the paper documents we sign must be paramount.

Using bank safe deposit boxes as secure storage for these documents, along with real estate deeds, car titles, birth certificates, marriage licenses, and other important documents, has long been the gold standard.

But in recent years, as banks have reduced the number of their bricks and mortar locations, the availability and use of their safe deposit boxes has dwindled. Box rents are not profitable to banks, so this is understandable. 

Nevertheless, the issue remains: we need a place to keep our important documents. Here are five reasons why bank safe deposit boxes remain the logical choice.

First, if you always keep your wills and other important documents in a bank safe deposit box you will always know where they are. You won’t lose them. You won’t misplace them.

Second, if your safe deposit box is in the same bank that has your checking account, then when you become incapacitated or die, your family will know which bank has your safe deposit box, too, so they can find your original Florida will and other important documents.

Third, Florida law requires that a bank officer be present when a bank safe deposit box is opened after you die. Florida Statutes Sections 655.935, 655.936, and 733.6065. This keeps someone from reading the will, not liking what it says, and then shredding it.

Fourth, Florida banks generally have security procedures in place that keep safe deposit boxes more secure from theft than home safes. Sometimes banks locate their safe deposit boxes in their walk-in vaults. In any case, they are generally protected by a vaulted door. And they usually require two keys for access: the customer’s key and the bank’s key.

Fifth, bank safe deposit boxes are generally protected from hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, and other disasters, at least more so than our homes are protected.

In summary, Florida residents would be well-served to place their original wills, trusts, and other important documents in their bank’s safe deposit boxes.