Hurricane Sandy and your personal financial records

You've got your 3 days' supplies of food and water. You have clothes, blankets, prescriptions, a weather radio, flashlights and extra batteries as well as a cell phone charger. Do you also have copies of your personal financial records - in at least 2 formats? Financial records are crucial at this time. If they were to get wet and/or lost, it would take a lot of work and time to get them again. Gather together copies of birth and marriage certificates, drivers' and professional licenses/certificates, diplomas and transcripts, and green cards. You also need insurance papers, such as car and home-owners or renters insurance. If you are lucky enough to have flood insurance, get that as well. Get your medical, dental, disability and long-term care or other insurance cards and policies as well as bank records. Also collect information about retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and investments. Write down the names of your utilities, contact information and account numbers. If you need to cancel your accounts, you will be able to do this more easily. Take photos (maybe using your cell phone) of your property. Take close-ups of valuable things, such as jewelry, furniture and your car. Write down any details listed on the jewelry or furniture if you have time. The power may fail, so bring some cash for emergencies in the event you cannot use your credit cards. Speaking of credit cards, photo-copy the front and back of them. The back has the telephone number to call if your card is lost. Of course, if your card is lost, you won't have this number - and will be liable for the cost of goods charged to it. (Nice racket, isn't it?) If you have a business, get your liability and other business insurance policies, as well as business licenses, too. Get names and contact information for all your employees. That may mean cell phone and e-mail addresses. Get a list of all your creditors and those who owe you funds. If you are an employee, write down the contact information for co-workers and your boss, if possible. Make a list of your relatives' and close friends' contact information, so you can contact them later if needed. Designate one person outside of the anticipated disaster zone to be the contact person for the family - and send him or her a copy of the list of the relatives. As each person arrives in a shelter or other location, that person calls your contact person if possible to say she or he is safe. If you have time, also make a list of this information above. For example, write the name of your bank, its' address, phone number and URL, as well as your bank account numbers. Write your credit/debit card numbers here, as well as the number to call if they are lost or stolen. Do the same for all your insurance policies, with the name of the company, contact information, your agent's name if you have one, the policy number and the number to contact if you have a claim. Be sure to list when the information was last updated. Then scan the actual documents or the list above and put a copy onto a password-protected flash-drive you take with you. Make a copy of the documents and/or the list and put it into a sealed plastic bag that goes with you, as well. (This is especially helpful if there is no power and you need the information on the list.) If you are not in the path of this hurricane, prepare this information anyway. It not only will help with a disaster, but will also make it so much easier when you need to make changes to your financial information and need account numbers and contact information. It will also be invaluable to your heirs or other executors of your estate. Business Speech Improvement provides intensive training in verbal skills. Check out our coaching and e-books! The information above is provided as a public service.