---
name: important-docs-vault
description: Use when someone wants one secure place for vital documents, both a physical store and an encrypted digital one, with an inventory, an emergency access plan, and a rule for originals versus copies. Distinct from [[estate-planning]] (deciding what happens to assets and who decides), [[last-will-and-testament]] (drafting the will itself), [[password-manager]] (storing logins), and [[identity-protection]] (guarding against misuse of identity data).
---

# Important Docs Vault

A vault is one known place, plus one known digital folder, where the
papers that are painful to replace live, with a list of what is in them
and a plan for who can open them if the owner cannot. This skill helps
a user build the inventory, choose where originals and copies go, and
write the emergency access note.

## Input required

- **Household**: who lives there, who depends on the user, and who might
  need access in an emergency.
- **Country or region**, because which documents exist and how they are
  replaced varies. Check the current official source for replacements.
- **Current storage**: drawers, boxes, phone photos, cloud folders,
  safe-deposit box, a lawyer's office.
- **Threats that matter**: fire, flood, theft, a dead phone, a locked
  account, the user's incapacity or death.

If details are missing, state assumptions or ask the questions below
once, then proceed.

## Questions to ask first

Ask in **one batch of at most five questions**, skipping any already
answered:

1. Which country or countries are your documents issued in?
2. Where do your important papers live now, physical and digital?
3. Who would need to find and open them if you were unreachable?
4. Do you already have a will, powers of attorney, or similar papers?
5. What do you already own for storage (fire-resistant box, safe,
   encrypted drive, password manager)?

## Method

1. **Build the inventory.** List categories first, then items: identity
   (passport, birth and marriage certificates, citizenship papers),
   money (account list, loan and tax papers), property (deeds, leases,
   vehicle titles), insurance (policies and claim contacts), health
   (directives, vaccination records, prescriptions), legal (will,
   powers of attorney), work (contracts, certificates), and
   household (warranties, pet records).
2. **Decide original or copy for each item.** Keep an original where an
   institution requires it and a replacement is slow. Keep a copy
   where a copy is accepted. Where unsure, check the issuing body.
3. **Choose the physical home.** One container in one findable place.
   Fire- and water-resistant matters more than a fancy lock. Weigh a
   bank box (safer from fire and theft, but access may be limited
   after a death or outside opening hours) against a home box (always
   reachable, but exposed to the same disaster as the house).
4. **Choose the digital home.** Scan or photograph each item and keep
   the files in one encrypted folder or vault with a clear naming
   scheme, for example `passport-jordan-exp2031.pdf`. Keep one
   offline encrypted copy as well, not only a cloud copy.
5. **Make the index.** One page listing each item, where the original
   is, where the copy is, and any expiry date. The index must not
   contain account numbers, passwords, or ID numbers.
6. **Plan emergency access.** Name one or two trusted people. Decide
   how they get in: a sealed envelope, a spare key held by one of
   them, or access sharing built into the user's password manager.
   Write a one-page "where things are" note for them.
7. **Add expiry and review dates.** Put document expiry dates and a
   yearly vault review in the calendar.
8. **Test it.** Ask the trusted person to find one document using only
   the note. Fix whatever failed.

## Output format

- **Inventory table**: item, category, original location, copy
  location, expiry date, replacement source.
- **Storage choices** with the tradeoff for each.
- **Emergency access note**, one page, plain language, with no secrets
  in it.
- **Review schedule**: yearly review plus expiry reminders.
- **First-week task list**, at most ten items.

## Ground rules

- **Never ask the user to paste** passwords, recovery codes, account
  numbers, full card numbers, or government ID numbers. Work from
  document names and locations only.
- **Do not state legal specifics.** Which papers are valid, who may
  access a box after death, and what a copy is worth vary by country.
  Tell the user to check the current official source or a lawyer.
- **Never store the key next to the lock.** The recovery method for an
  encrypted vault must live somewhere the user's helper can reach but
  a burglar cannot.
- **Do not tell users to discard originals** after scanning.
- **Name tools as examples only**, never as recommendations.

## Self-check before answering

- Does every inventory item have a location, and an expiry date where
  one exists?
- Is there a digital copy that survives the loss of the house?
- Can a named person actually get in, and do they know it?
- Does the index contain no secrets?
- Is there a review date?

## Common pitfalls

- **Scattered storage**: the passport in one drawer, the deed in a
  cousin's attic, and nobody has a list.
- **Only one copy**: a single cloud folder behind a locked account.
- **Secret nobody can open**: encrypted files with no handover plan.
- **Safe-deposit surprise**: a box that the family cannot enter when
  needed.
- **Stale vault**: expired passports and superseded policies mixed with
  current ones.
- **Index holding secrets**: the list becomes the thing to steal.

## Example prompt

> Help me set up a vault for our important documents. We have a house,
> two kids, and a will from years ago. Build the inventory, tell me
> what should be an original and what a copy, and write the note my
> sister would need to find everything.

## Learn more

- [[estate-planning]] for deciding what happens to assets and who acts.
- [[last-will-and-testament]] for the will that belongs in the vault.
- [[password-manager]] for logins and emergency sharing of them.
- [[identity-protection]] for reducing the harm if a document leaks.
- [[home-backup-kit]] for the grab-and-go version of the essentials.