As a service to our clients, Bluestem provides shredding services for your unwanted documents. For small quantities of files, no appointment is required! Drop them by of office during normal business hours. For large quantities, please call before dropping by files to ensure we have enough secure storage space until our next shredding cycle.
Wondering how long to keep financial records? Here are some guidelines:
Tax returns – Save your federal and state tax returns indefinitely. Keep supporting documents such as W-2s and receipts for 5-7 years. This covers most statutory limitations, except cases of fraud.
Investments – Keep either purchase confirmations or any statement with purchase information until the investment is sold. When sold, put this purchase information together with the sales information in your taxes folder for the year in which the investment was sold.
Bank Statements and Credit Card Receipts – Keep these items for at least one-year, except:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀· Tax related items should be kept per the recommendations for Tax Returns (above).
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀· Receipts for larger purchases should be filed in the warranty information of your filing system.
Real Estate – Keep all closing statements from the purchase and any refinances of your home and mortgages. Receipts and contracts for any substantial improvements made to the property should be saved, and we recommend that you track improvements. When you sell the property, this information becomes part of your tax file for the year in which the property is sold (see Tax Returns above).
Utility bills – Keep electric, gas, water, garbage pick-up, and cable bills, for 3 – 4 months on a rotating basis to verify correct billing. If you declare an office-in-home on your tax return, keep utility bills for the entire year. It may also be a good idea to keep a full year set of statements if you are planning on selling your home.
Pay stubs – Keep your pay stubs throughout the year until you receive your W-2. After verifying that the W-2 is correct, you may discard the pay stubs. If you participate in an Employee Stock Purchase Program (ESPP), verify that you have a statement detailing all purchases before you discard the pay stub that shows the activity.
Insurance policies – Keep the declaration page for all insurance coverage for at least two years. Do this to track the year-to-year changes in policy costs. Keep the insurance policy itself as long as you maintain the insurance coverage.
Legal Documents – Wills, Trusts and Power of Attorney should be kept until new versions are executed. Ensure key persons named to various roles know where to find copies of these documents.
You are always welcome to check with us if you have more questions about how long to keep documents.