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My mother-in-law passed away unexpectedly last week from a stroke. She saved everything, and I mean everything. So I’m sorting through all of her papers and documents and we are not sure how far back we are supposed to keep them. Five years? Ten? She stowed every bill, statement, receipt, note, lottery ticket, everything, since the dawn of time. She did have a will but we do not know all of her assets yet. So how much, and what, should we hold onto right now? Thanks all.


My husband‘s older brother is POA but is co-executor with my husband. There are no other living relatives besides them.

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They used to say canceled checks 7 years but banks don't give checks back anymore. I think income tax forms 5 years. I have all Moms papers in a box. Her whole life in one box.

Mom was in an AL and then LTC. So I kept the bills from the AL and AL info. I kept statements for two years showing where I paid out to the AL and to the LTC until she went on Medicaid.

I kept the Medicaid records. Her application, lien info and payment of the lien. The lien info I will keep 5 years.

I kept her State ID and Social Security card. Her and my Dads birth certificates and baptism records.

She paid no income taxes because she only received SS. She passed penniless.

I kept the deed to the house (house was 125 yrs old, deed very interesting) and all mortgage info showing it was paid off. I kept all the realtor info.

She did have shares that I was able to transfer over to me so I kept her records on them.

I kept all Probate papers. And records I had kept for the final accting. I got small amounts of money after her death so kept track who they were from and what they were for. You should have a lawyer for probate. I did the initial filings but needed the house, that was left to my brother, put back into the estate. Needed a lawyer for that and he went ahead and finished Probate for me. So nice. Ask the lawyer what you may need for the final accting.

I kept no bills, like utilities, over a year old. Mom had no charge accts. But, if Mom owes a balance, keep the last year. Her statements, if she was like my Mom what went in came out so unless there were some big expenditures, maybe the beginning and end of one year and into the next year.

I sat on the floor with all of Moms papers. I made piles. She had receipts for things that had been paid off and were gone. Receipts for Dads life insurance that she had cashed it. She had the policies. You should check with the company to make sure any policies were cashed in. I had a shredder nearby. So then that left me with less piles that I went thru again.

Its overwhelming but you just have to think, will we need this for anything. Mom died in 2017. Every year or so I go thru the box and get rid of paperwork no longer relevant. I am hoping after five years I can get her paperwork down to a pouch the funeral home gave me. It really comes down to, she is gone. If anyone comes after her for money, sorry there isn't any and I am not responsible.
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OuterBanks74 Nov 2021
Taxes need to be kept 7 yrs. That’s how many years they can go back if your audited.
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I had to do this for my aunt, who was very disorganized with her money and accounts. Depending on her financial position, her estate may have to go into probate. If she had a will, the executor is responsible for gathering her assets and distributing them to the beneficiaries. If there are assets, you may benefit by having an attorney who knows how to handle estates, and ask them to explain the process to you. Keep at least the last statement of every account that she had. The funeral home notifies Social Security/Medicare of her death and should provide death certificates for you (there may be a charge for additional certificates). I needed many of them for my aunt who had multiple accounts. Additional statements will come in until they are notified by her estate's executor that she is deceased. If the accounts have to continue (for example, utilities and property tax payments until the sale of a house), they should be changed to the name of the estate, or to the beneficiary if probate is not required. Do a search of Unclaimed Property (it's with each State's Treasury Department). For my aunt, I had to do it for a couple of states where she had lived. I found a lot of her money in Unclaimed Property. Keep the will if you find it. Keep her last utility, rent or tax bills. Her estate should pay any pending and ongoing bills until everything is distributed to the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries then have to change the titles and names of the accounts over to their names.
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I keep everything 7 years, except brokerage statements and real estate transactions which I keep forever. Always keep those in case I need to establish original value or sale info. My husband keeps airplane records forever.
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IRS rules on retention of data, which varies by the type and conditions surrounding the use of data.

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc305
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Patathome01 Dec 2021
Thank you for the IRS link.
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My mom passed away 14 months ago and I am so glad that I kept every piece of paper that was in her apartment. She had a will but I still had to go back through the papers. I had sorted it into files which made it much easier to find things. The accountant told me to hang on to everything for several more years.
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I am sorry for your families loss.

May The Lord give you grieving mercies , wisdom and understanding to deal with this.
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Just barely destroyed all of FIL's paperwork. He's been gone 17 years. All that remains is one deed to a piece of property in NM which is worth $600. He paid $3,000 for it 35 years ago.

Kind of sad, really. A whole life ends up being contained in one legal sized envelope.
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Cover99 Dec 2021
Frisse Kater (Youtube), puts this all in perspective.
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LoopyLoo: Firstly, I am so very sorry for the loss of your mother in law and send condolences. Perhaps it would be wise for you to seek the counsel of an elder law attorney.
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IRS will usually only consider the last 7 years unless there is some IRS problem from further back that is not resolved. So look for the prior taxes and make sure those are solid. If everything is OK there, you can toss anything older than 7 years unless it involves deeds, car titles and any other high ticket item to show ownership.
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Once they have sorted out probate then I would keep financial documents for the period the IRS require, but nothing should arise once probate is granted so its a bit of excess precaution but certainly I would keep financial things the IRS could ask for. Until you have probate keep everything - get a stack of A4 envelopes and files different things in different envelopes so easily found and stack them in file storage boxes so executors can find anything they need easily.
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