Finally!  Don’t know how long it’ll last, but my regular speeds are right where they should be…so here’s my serious topic of the day:  Keeping important documents.

So many “experts” tell us that we should toss most paperwork, keep certain documents for 7 years (tax returns), others forever (real property documents), etc., so many different types and times to remember.  My advice?  Keep it all, but stored neatly.  With most of our records being sent electronically and not printed out, there’s a good chance we’ll screw ourselves down the road.  Case in point:  I am looking to resolve a situation concerning possible/probable failure on the part of an insurance company to properly adjust a claim.  No problem, usually, except that this happened in 1998.  Why wait so long?  It only came to light within the past week and here’s the kicker:  there was no way to know this earlier. The problem:  The original agency merged into another agency; original insurance company merged into another, and new company has no record of my ever being a policy owner.  So here’s where keeping documents comes into play.  I have the original paperwork regarding the claim:  they have no record of this number, since the new format does not link into the old format; they have no record of the claims adjuster; there is nothing in any of the new company’s records that tie my name/property address/claim to any of their records and their records do not indicate that the subsidiary of the prior insurance was ever part of that company!  However, I also have an insurance bill in my files from the company, giving my name, address, policy number and subsidiary handling the insurance.   It shows the agency which handled the policy and ID number.

Now I wish to stress that at no time has the new insurance company refused to help me; on the contrary, they’ve been extraordinarily helpful, contacting various offices, department, etc. to find some concrete evidence that I existed, but, even with all my info, they are having a difficult time finding anything in their records. And I’ve spent at least 3 hours on the phone.

So what do you think my chances would have been without my papers?  Thanks for calling, there’s nothing in our records that indicates you were ever a policyholder?  Yeah, that would pretty much be it.