Advice from Nashville's Financial Guru Dave Ramsey

Dave Says
By Dave Ramsey
Author of Financial Peace and The Total Money Makeover
10/19/2004

How long should one keep estate and will papers?

Dear Dave,

My wife's father passed away about eight years ago and she was executor of his estate. About two weeks ago I was cleaning out our attic for a yard sale and came upon boxes of old tax records and cancelled checks from his estate. Is there any rule of thumb about how long you have to keep this stuff? All of the accounts pertaining to his affairs have been closed for years.

Ed
Nashville, Tenn.

Dear Ed,

Ninety-eight percent of the time I would suggest you keep all of those records for seven years. However, she probably had an estate attorney she worked with on his estate and, just to be certain, I would recommend she place a phone call to them asking this question. It would be a good idea to hold onto a basic file on the estate process, but that's all. I think you're probably safe to trash anything except memorabilia at this point, but I would double-check with an attorney just to be safe.
Dave

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