Skill guide · Digital Data & Documents

Document Go-Bag & Digital Backup

The paperwork you'd need to prove who you are, file an insurance claim, or access your accounts, if the originals burned, flooded, or were left behind. This is the hands-on side of the Digital Data & Documents chapter and its addendum.

What to include

Which of these matter most depends on who's in the household: custody and guardianship papers matter most for families with children, especially in a split-custody or blended household, a healthcare power of attorney and advance directive matter most for elderly or medically vulnerable family members, since those are the documents that let someone else make medical decisions on their behalf if they can't, and immigration status documents belong in this bag for exactly the same reason as a birth certificate does for anyone else: they're federally required proof of status (lawful permanent residents 18 and older are legally required to carry proof of registration) and genuinely difficult and slow to replace if lost. Without a signed advance directive or healthcare power of attorney on file, a family can end up needing a court-ordered guardianship to make medical decisions for an incapacitated relative, a slower and more expensive process than having the paperwork ready in advance. This list assumes the "Legal" documents already exist; see Wills, Power of Attorney & Guardianship if they don't yet, most households' don't.

Physical copies: a real go-bag, not just a folder

1. Gather originals or clear copies of everything above. Copies are fine for most of this list; keep the true originals (birth certificates, titles, wills) in the same bag if you can, since re-issuing them is its own bureaucratic ordeal.
2. Store them in a fireproof, waterproof document bag or safe, not a regular folder or drawer. A basic fireproof/waterproof bag is inexpensive and rated to survive real house-fire temperatures for long enough to matter.
3. Keep it somewhere you'd actually grab on the way out the door, not in a back closet you'd forget under stress.

Where to find it: fireproof document bags and small fireproof safes are sold at office supply stores, hardware stores, and general retailers; look for a stated temperature and duration rating (not just the word "fireproof") and a separate water-resistance claim, since the two are tested differently.

Digital backup: copies in more than one place

Physical documents can burn, flood, or simply get left behind in a fast evacuation. Back up digitally too, and in a genuinely different location than the physical copies, not just a second folder on the same laptop that could be destroyed alongside the go-bag.

1. Scan or photograph every document in the list above.
2. Save one copy to an encrypted USB drive kept with (or near) the physical go-bag.
3. Save a second copy to encrypted cloud storage, so it survives even if your home and everything in it is destroyed at once.
4. Use a password manager for account logins rather than relying on memory or a written list that could be lost with everything else; most password managers also let a trusted family member access your accounts in an emergency if you set that up in advance.

Sources

• Ready.gov / FEMA, important documents and Go-Bag guidance: Ready.gov
• Be Ready Utah, "Important Documents & Money": Be Ready Utah
• Advance directives, healthcare power of attorney, and guardianship alternatives for incapacitated adults: National Institute on Aging
• Immigration status documents (green card, EAD, visa, naturalization certificate) and the legal requirement to carry proof of registration: USCIS

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