Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I am
only publishing my interpretation of my situation. You should seek your
own legal representation for your own particular
situation. Do not rely on my
opinions or statements for your own purposes as state
and local law varies as do individual circumstances.
Previously this year, I almost had to go to a deposition
for a Small Claims Court judgment and provide the prosecuting
attorneys with financial statements for the past several years
(Three years, in fact. Thirty-six months. Read the
Exact Documentation Request). This would have included
monthly statements for my checking account, my various savings
accounts, brokerage accounts and any other financially related
accounts. Oh, and individual U.S. income tax returns, too.
Luckily, I have always made a practice of keeping my statements
filed nicely and neatly in a filing cabinet so the request could
have been fulfilled rather easily.
Lately, however, this
routine of receiving statements in the mail and filing those
statements in the appropriate file folders in my filing cabinet
has been upset. My bank is trying to save trees and postage and
has started sending only electronic copies via email of my
monthly statements. As part of that process, the bank has
started making available my monthly statements online in pdf
format. This is a handy way for me to get past statements, but
the bank only keeps the last sixteen (16) statements online. Any
bank statements over sixteen months I have to request from the
bank. The bank will, of course, gladly provide me any statement
copies that I request... but they will do so for a fee per
statement.
As all banks have their own fees for
various services and for the different types of accounts, it is
important that you verify what your accounts maintain for you
and for what they will charge you a fee.
As with my checking
account with my bank, I have started saving the monthly
statements online to a secure location on my laptop (this is
backed up on a regular basis to a second location as well).
While I do not print these files (I am saving trees, too), I at
least have a digital copy that I can get to without any fees or
charges. I intend to do the same thing for all of my accounts -
checking, saving, brokerage, retirement, etc. If I ever do have
to go back five years for financial statements, this could save
me a great deal of money; and saving it to my laptop only takes
up disc space and a little time and gives me a little
peace-of-mind - which is at a premium these days.
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