September is National Preparedness Month! Whether you have a single house fire or a huge national emergency, there are steps you can take to ensure your personal and business paperwork is in order. Documents to keep in a fire proof safe or safe deposit box:

• birth certificates
• social security cards
• passports
• list of insurance policy numbers/contact info
• list of bank account/credit card numbers
• home inventory photo CD
• car title

Disaster Preparedness Resources

www.ready.gov www.redcross.org

Other Preparedness Tips:

• Create a 72 hour kit - with enough water, food & other supplies for each member of your family to survive for 72 hours. Visit the above websites for a full list of what to include in your disaster kit.
• Regularly back up non-financial business files to the cloud for easy retrieval.
• Use an external hard drive for financial files and store in a fire proof safe, safe deposit box or off-site storage.
• Choose a day each year to update your home inventory photos/list. Patriot's Day (September 11) is a good day to serve as a reminder.
• Take photos of each area of your home to remind you of the items you own. Generate a list from these photos that includes serial numbers, copies of receipts, etc. This will make it much simpler, if you have a need to prove ownership to the insurance company.

If you need help organizing your paperwork for disaster preparedness, call Lasting Order at 812-858-2457 for a FREE 15-minute phone consultation!

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