How to Handle Safety Deposit Boxes During Estate Planning in Tampa

The latest statistics show that although banks across the country have millions of available safety deposit boxes, they are slowly being phased out. Many lie empty, and many consumers prefer to store their important documents digitally. However, there are still many Tampa residents who store valuable physical items in their safety deposit boxes. How do you approach this issue during estate planning in Tampa?

Understand the Facts About Safe Deposit Boxes

Before you begin implementing your safe deposit box into your estate plan, you might want to become aware of how this type of storage works. First, you should know that the contents of your safe deposit box are never insured. While the balance of your bank account is insured by the FDIC up to a certain point, this insurance does not extend to anything kept in your safe deposit box.

It may also be difficult for other people to access your safe deposit box. Generally speaking, banks only allow access to the people who initially set up the box. This means that your personal representative, lawyers, and family members will not be able to access the contents if you pass away or become incapacitated. They will need to obtain a court order to access the box, and this can take both time and money.

You can only store certain things in safety deposit boxes. While the contents of these boxes are always private, you may face consequences if the bank finds out you are keeping controlled substances, weapons, explosives, and other items. Some banks also bar you from storing cash in their safe deposit boxes.

How to Add a Safety Deposit Box to Your Estate Plan

If you’d like to integrate the safety deposit box into your estate plan, one option is to make a beneficiary a joint owner of the box. As a joint owner, your beneficiary will automatically inherit the contents of the box when you pass away. This should also bypass the probate process.

You might also want to leave the contents of the box to a beneficiary by using a Will. However, the Will will need to go through probate before your beneficiary can inherit the contents. With this strategy, you’ll also need to make sure your beneficiary receives the key to the box after you pass away.

Because of the limitations of a safe deposit box, you might also want to simply cancel your box and transfer the contents to a different location. This might be a home safe. You can also transfer the contents of your box into a trust.

Can a Seminole Estate Planning Lawyer Help With Physical Assets?

A New Port Richey estate planning lawyer may be able to help you address various physical assets. If you have valuables locked away in a safety deposit box, it is important to discuss their role in your estate plan. The last thing you want is for these items to go missing or unclaimed after you pass away. Discuss this subject in more detail with Knudsen Law today.

Sources: 

thefinancialbrand.com/news/banking-branch-transformation/how-the-end-of-the-safe-deposit-box-is-a-signal-for-bankings-future-192869

aarp.org/money/personal-finance/safe-deposit-boxes