In light of the recent dramatic weather events, including hurricanes and tornadoes, it is a good time to discuss preservation of estate planning documents.  In many instances, people escape from their homes with only the clothes on their back, or even if they do have a bit of time to gather items to take, they may not think about their estate planning documents.

In addition to paper copies, it is a good idea to preserve your estate planning documents electronically and store them either in a secure cloud back-up or a physical back-up to your computer housed in a different location.  Then documents can be reprinted from an electronic copy.  The only document that might be a problem not having the original in this scenario, at least in most states, would be the will.  However, if you can produce a signed copy of the will, there is usually statutory authority providing a means to prove a copy of a lost or destroyed will.  In Colorado, the statute is C.R.S. § 15-12-402(3).

We routinely provide electronic PDF copies of their documents to our clients, and as a further safeguard, we have electronic copies stored on our servers with multiple back-ups at different locations.  Hopefully the situation never arises that such copies have to be accessed, but it is always better to be prepared.