To properly prepare for an emergency, you need to do more than stock up on drinking water and food. You also need to make sure that your financial and estate planning documents are safe.
It has been a terrible past few months for disasters in the U.S. Powerful hurricanes have hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. Forest fires have ravaged parts of California.
Millions of people are still trying to pick up the pieces and get back to their normal lives. It will be a long time before they are able to do so.
The most unfortunate will never be able to get back to normal since they did not survive, or they have lost loved ones to the disasters.
While it is impossible to avoid natural disasters, you can be prepared for one, as the Napa Valley Register discusses in “Your emergency financial first aid kit.”
Preparing for an emergency means you need to do things such as make sure you have a supply of non-perishable food and drinking water.
You should also have plans for somewhere to go, in case you need to evacuate.
Most people understand that they need to do those things. What you might not think about is how to prepare financially.
In any emergency, it is possible you will lose your important financial and estate planning documents. A fire does not care if a document is a will or a three-year-old “to do” list that was never thrown away.
You can prepare to protect your important documents.
FEMA even offers a kit you can use that will make it easy to replace any lost or destroyed financial and estate planning documents.
Reference: Napa Valley Register (Nov. 5, 2017) “Your emergency financial first aid kit.”
