Helpful Stuff: In Case of Emergency Document

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I know a lot of you are in the midst of your New Year’s resolutions, and I bet a lot of you have resolved to get more organized. I recently got more organized concerning my Hit by a Bus plan. The Hit by a Bus plan involves getting all your In Case of Emergency (ICE) documents ready to go. No one wants to think about getting hit by a bus tomorrow, but hey, if you do, at least you can make it as easy as possible on your loved ones. Here are the things I did:

Put emergency contact info in your wallet, phone, and glove box. I’ve read that those are the three places emergency workers look first.

My iPhone is locked with a key code (and yours should be too), but I used the If Found app from the iTunes app store to make a background for my phone with my husband’s contact info on it. That way, the phone doesn’t have to be unlocked for them to find his info.

In my wallet, I wrote my two emergency contacts’ names and cell phone numbers on the back of my physician’s business card, and put it in a clear photo holder, easily visible when my wallet is open. I also have my insurance cards in there.

For my glove box, I used this form.

Devise a reasonable home filing system that other people would be able to figure out if they had to. I did this by getting the Freedom Filer system, but you can do it any way you want, as long as your files are easy to find. I file everything in my file cabinet. There are no papers floating around in other boxes or containers, except for previous years’ tax documents and the stuff in the fireproof safe, which are both stored in the same room as the files. I don’t use hiding places for things because (1) I forget where I hid stuff, and (2) I want people to be able to find important docs if they need to.

Create an In Case of Emergency document and give it to your emergency contacts. Since my contacts (my husband and my mother, in case you were wondering) are pretty tech-savvy, I did this document as a Google doc at docs.google.com and then shared it with them, but there’s no reason you couldn’t print it and give it to someone.

In the doc, I included where to find my passwords, the details of my life insurance, who to call at my job for information on my benefits, who to call at my publisher about my future royalties, who to contact about any volunteer work loose ends (passwords, etc., since I maintain a website for a group I’m in), and which contacts of mine I want to be sure are notified of my untimely death via being Hit by a Bus.

You might also consider including a list of what items belong to your employer and must be turned back in, special instructions for home/car maintenance, and anything else you think might be helpful to someone who had to take over for you.

Here are the things I haven’t done yet, but should:

1. Write a will.

2. Write a living will.

3. Fill out Power of Attorney forms (financial & medical).

I haven’t done these mostly because you have to buy the forms or get a lawyer (I think) and I’m not being that aggressive about things. I need to do them, though, and I will.

What about you? Have anything to add to my list?

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  • http://www.bethcaudill.net/ Beth C.

    You don’t have to have a lawyer to do a will, but you will want to have it notarized. My husband and I did wills when we both flew out of the country after my first child was born. We used one of the MyWill type computer software programs. And then we had a neighbor notarize it. (She happened to be a notary but you can also take it to a bank and use their notary through customer support I think.)

    However, we are going to use a lawyer for our next one because we want to set up trusts for the kids. Not a simple thing and not something we want to mess with on our own.

    I’ve done a lot of the same stuff but it isn’t quite so organized in one place. We used to have the stuff in three rooms but I got on an organizing kick and will be changing the system. I’m designating Sunday’s as filing day. Whether it is for bills, business or whatever needs to be done. I hope this will make it easier to stay on top of filing and I won’t be swamped with stuff.

    And hopefully make finding and filing taxes easier. While I have a folder for personal and business taxes…the receipts never seemed to end up in the folder until tax time. :)

  • http://www.xanga.com/halfy79 Halfy79

    This is great stuff! I’m thinking of buying that Freedom Filer stuff. It looks like fun! :-P Plus Mike and I have been talking about how we need to combine our papers now and purge OLD stuff. So this might be a good time!

    Also – my company’s benefits now include lawyer coverage (additional employee contribution) and I took it since we’ll be buying a house this year. Maybe I’ll even use it to get those wills and junk drawn up!!

  • http://www.bethcaudill.net/ Beth C.

    Just as a contrary opinion, my husband disagrees with some of this. He doesn’t think you should carry more than the basic info in the car or on your phone. His point is which is more likely to happen – the big bus in the sky taking you out or someone breaking in/stealing your phone or car.

    A police officer will be able to track down a lot of info about you from the VIN number on the car. And well keeping copies of important documents in a Safety Deposit box works for hiding info that could be stolen from the home.

    He’s a paranoid computer security geek. We have lots of ‘friendly’ discussions about what is safe and what isn’t. You need to decide at what level you feel comfortable having your personal info out and about in the world.

    I will say that we personally don’t do enough to keep our info totally secure but then again, I like having a life and not worrying every minute that someone will steal from me. If you want to be scared by what can be taken, watch the Discovery show It Takes a Thief.

    It’s amazing what havoc a person can do to a house in 5 minutes if they care nothing for the possessions.