Once you have had legal documents drafted and executed for you, the next most important consideration is - where to safely store important documents?

Here is a shortlist of the available options on where to store extra copies of important documents:

1. At home in a locked fire-proof filing cabinet or safe;

2. At the bank in a safety deposit box - ask your account representative for details;

3. At the lawyer's office - keep an extra original signed copy on file with the lawyer who prepared and executed the documents*; or

4. At a virtual vault - the Alberta Virtual Vault provides online storage space for scanned documents.

These are four options that provide you with security and assurance that your important documents are kept safe and readily accessible by you.  It is often a good idea to employ at least two or more of the options outlined above to have the greatest assurance that your documents are indeed stored safely.

*Keep in mind that all documents stored at a lawyer's office are subject to their respective file retention policies.  Typically files and related data are kept for a minimum of ten years, after which they are destroyed.