I wholeheartedly disagree with this advice. The bank is definitely the WRONG place. A safe at home is definitely the wrong place, because if you are every burglarized, the first thing they will rip out of the wall is your save. Here’s what you do… get yourself a vacuum sealer and place your important original documents in the bag and double or triple seal it and place it in the back or bottom of your freezer… Thieves are not interested in your frozen food.
He advises never to put your important documents in a bank safe deposit box. It is possible that it will get locked up if you pass away or become incompetent. Then, the process to get back into the box demands you have those documents that are now locked up, in the box. It can take up to 3o days and cost thousands of dollars to get back into that safety deposit box.
Walters says it is important to keep your important estate planning documents at home. He suggests purchasing a two-drawer fireproof file cabinet in which documents such as passports, birth certificates, citizenship documents, etc. can be stored. “If your house burns down, it will be sitting on the slab, waiting for you,” Walters said.