Can I throw these things out?

We were told to add copies of wills, death certificates, other related documents to our long term files, to keep for ten years or preferably permanently.

You don’t need to keep numerous copies but if you got money out of this event you want documentation in case of an audit.

I needed my uncle’s death certificate four years after his death to settle an old account with the cable company.

I would keep at least one copy of each. Somewhere you might have to account for the monies you received from the insurance policy.



Surprise surprise, I had to come up with a copy of my divorce papers from the 1960s.  Try doing that one without exact dates.

I would keep one hard copy of each. And I'd also scan them.

It's a couple pieces of paper; what's the downside in keeping them? You may never need them, but you also might, and it's a giant pain in the ass to get copies if you don't have them. My dad has been dead for nearly 20 years and I needed his death certificate only a couple years ago.

I say KEEP and here’s why. My mom and MIL both passed away seven years ago. A couple months back, I think Librarylady posted a link to the missingmoney.com website and I looked up my name and DH’s name with no hits. BUT!!! There WAS a hit for his mom that was a retirement account that got missed by her attorney when she died worth several thousand dollars, and another hit for my mom’s twin sister who passed away in 2001 (never married, no kids and it was likely that my mom was the sole beneficiary) also worth several thousand dollars.

Claiming MIL’s account was pretty easy since DH was the executor of the estate and he had all the necessary paperwork on file already, but my aunt’s won’t be so easy. My mom was her twin’s executor, my sister was my mom’s executor and I don’t know what my sister did with all of the paperwork that my mom likely kept from when she handled her twin’s estate. The worst part is that even though I told my dumb sister about it right away when I discovered it, she hasn’t done a single thing to attempt to claim it. If my mom was the sole beneficiary it would mean almost a grand in my and each one of my sibling’s pockets but my stupid sister has to find the paperwork (copies of death certificates and wills for both my aunt and my mom) and file with the state to claim it.

Needless to say, I’m not all that hopeful that I will ever see that money unless I go to the county and try to get copies of all of that documentation myself. Which is frustrating since my sister probably has all of it holed up in a dusty box in a corner somewhere. Ugh.

Then scan them and get rid of the hard copy except a certified copy of the death certificate. 

Sorry, don't care to share the particulars. But it would have been a giant pain in the ass if we didn't have the documentation. As it was, it was taken care of in a couple days. 

Keep one copy, file it somewhere you know where it is but won't see it all the time. Toss the rest. Grieve your asshole of a brother.

Sadly, my mom will not write a will. Refuses. I've done everything to convince her. Nope. Her death will be the end of my brother and my relationship due to this. He will pull the same crap as yours. Has already started. I just wave it off. I'm not the golden child, I never will be. I had to let that all go.