Estate Planning in the Face of Natural Disasters

Takeaways

• Natural disasters such as wildfires, floods, and hurricanes highlight the importance of disaster preparedness in estate planning.

• Such events can destroy crucial estate planning documents, leading to complications like probate delays, disputes, and difficulty accessing medical care. Proactive steps that include secure digital backups and off-site storage can help mitigate these risks.

• Losing key documents in a disaster is distressing, but many can be replaced through agencies like FEMA, attorneys, and financial institutions. Insurance policies may also cover document replacement, and relief programs provide financial and logistical support for disaster victims.

Every year, the United States experiences a large number of floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters, and the frequency and intensity of these events appears to be increasing.

The recent Los Angeles wildfires are a stark reminder of the sudden intensity with which disaster can strike, resulting in the loss of life and property. As survivors begin to pick up the pieces, they may also find that they’ve lost important documents.

The loss of these documents may not only cause immediate issues, such as making it difficult to apply for relief and insurance claims, but also affect long-term estate planning. In addition to storing crucial documents securely in multiple locations, there are proactive steps you can take to build disaster preparedness into your estate plan and ways to replace estate planning documents that have been lost in the wake of a natural disaster.

The Rising Costs of Natural Disasters

Driven by strong winds and dry conditions, wildfires have ravaged Los Angeles to start 2025. These fires have rapidly spread across the region, impacting communities from the Pacific Palisades to the northern reaches of Los Angeles County. As of this writing, more than 31,000 people in southern California are under mandatory evacuation orders.

The fires have caused catastrophic damage, with thousands of homes and structures destroyed. Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to ash, hundreds of thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate their homes, and dozens of deaths have been attributed to the fires.

Economic losses from the Los Angeles wildfires are estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Early estimates indicate that the wildfires could be the costliest disaster in U.S. history, surpassing even the losses of Hurricane Katrina. J.P. Morgan predicts they could cost insurance companies more than $20 billion, while total costs could be $250 billion to $275 billion.

Natural disasters are an unfortunate part of life that we have limited control over. Certain areas are disaster-prone, but evidence suggests that both the frequency and cost of natural disasters are rising.

In 2024, the U.S. experienced 27 natural disaster events that each led to at least a billion dollars in losses, and 2023 had the most billion-dollar disasters of any year to date. The annual average for the most recent five years (2020 to 2024) is 23 such events — more than double the 1980 to 2024 annual average of nine events. In 2024 alone, the cost of these disasters was nearly $183 billion.

The time between these events is also shrinking. From 2019 to 2023, there were only 16 days on average between billion-dollar disasters, compared to 82 days in the 1980s.

Natural Disasters, Lost Documents, and Estate Planning

Estate planning takes the approach that life is full of unexpected events and tragedies that can’t be eliminated, but can be hedged against, to some degree, through forward-thinking legal measures.

The two main outcomes that estate planning protects against are one’s loss of capacity and death. But with the rise of devastating natural disasters like the L.A. wildfires, it may also be wise to place measures in an estate plan that account for disaster-related document loss that can complicate or delay administration of your estate and cause confusion and uncertainty for your loved ones.

• If your will is lost and can’t be found, you’ll be considered intestate if you were to pass away without having replaced it. That means the state will decide how your money, property, and other possessions are distributed, which may not align with your wishes.
• The court process known as probate could be significantly delayed if you have lost certain important documents, making it harder for your heirs to access assets and settle your estate after your death.
• Missing documents can lead to disputes among family members and potential legal battles over your estate if you pass away. Your family won’t have clear instructions on your wishes for your assets, health care, or guardianship of minor children.
• If estate planning documents such as your living will or health care power of attorney are lost, your medical wishes may not be known or honored should you lose the ability to communicate them yourself. As a result, your family’s ability to make informed decisions about your treatment or access your medical records could be hindered.
• Missing deeds or titles can complicate the transfer of property to your heirs.
• Without records of your assets, some of your accounts or valuables may be overlooked or lost.
• Lost documents can make your estate more vulnerable to fraud.

It may be easy to think “it won’t happen to me,” but the statistics tell a different story.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), nearly half (43 percent) of small businesses never reopen after a major disaster, often due to the irretrievable loss of critical records. However, FEMA notes that businesses that are prepared for document loss and have continuation plans are typically back up and running as normal sooner than businesses without plans.

The need to hedge against worst-case scenarios like a natural disaster is just as real for individuals as it is for businesses. Measures such as cloud storage, portable drives, and fireproof safes can help to protect crucial documents, but they’re not foolproof. Accessing digital files requires a device and Internet connection, both of which might be unavailable after a disaster, and fireproof safes can be lost or damaged in severe events.

Proactive Estate Planning for Natural Disasters

At a minimum, copies of your estate planning documents should be stored in a safe location outside of your home or business. For privacy and security reasons, you don’t want too many people to have access, but you shouldn’t be the only person who knows where these documents are stored and how to access them in an emergency.

One copy can be kept with your attorney, who should already have the most up-to-date information on file. You might also want to give copies to loved ones, especially those such as your executor, trustees, and trusted decision-makers named in your estate plan (e.g., your power of attorney agents).

Make backups that are digitally stored with other important documents on an encrypted cloud service or external hard drive that’s kept in a separate, secure location, such as a safe deposit box. Use cloud services with features that allow you to share specific folders or files with trusted individuals or provide those individuals with login information for the cloud service or physical drive.

Beyond these basic measures, here are some additional ways to strengthen your estate plan against the uncertainties of natural disasters:

• Create a detailed asset list of everything you own and how much it’s worth. After a disaster, this list can help to prove your losses to the insurance company and aid you in applying for disaster relief. If original documents are destroyed, the asset list could serve as the primary record of what is included in your estate.
• Place valuable assets in a trust. Although a trust can’t physically protect these estate assets, they can offer protection against creditor claims that could arise following a natural disaster. Tangible personal property that can be placed in a trust includes real estate, jewelry, artwork, collectibles, and antiques.
• Review property values, especially after a fire or other disaster, and update your insurance coverage and beneficiary designations accordingly if property values have changed.
• Prepare for displacement by making sure you and your trusted contacts can access estate planning documents during a disaster emergency. This information can be part of a “Go Bag.”
• Put clauses in your estate plan that permit immediate emergency distributions to be made to beneficiaries affected by a natural disaster.
• Review health directives so that responders and medical teams can access them in an emergency.
• Consider incorporating charitable giving into your estate plan to support disaster relief efforts.

The Road to Recovery: How to Replace Lost Documents and Other Relief Measures

Losing documents such as birth certificates, medical records, and estate planning documents in a natural disaster can make a bad situation even worse if these documents are unrecoverable. Luckily, it is possible to replace many lost documents by contacting the appropriate government office.

In response to the Los Angeles wildfires, FEMA put out this resource guide for replacing documents — including property deeds, driver’s licenses, insurance policy information, birth certificates, Social Security cards, and passports — lost to the blazes. FEMA says that a good place to start is at a local Disaster Recovery Center (DRC).

If you lose your estate planning documents in a natural disaster, you can also take these steps to recover them:

• Contact your attorney: If you work with an estate planning attorney, they should have copies of your documents.
• Check with the court: If your will was filed with the probate court, you can obtain a copy there.
• Financial institutions: Banks, investment firms, and insurance companies typically keep copies of key client documents.
• County recorder’s office: Copies of documents that were recorded (like deeds and some trusts) can be obtained from the county recorder’s office.
• Online storage: If you use a secure online storage service, you can access your documents from any location. Amid the recent disasters in L.A. and North Carolina, Space X has supplied free Starlink (satellite Internet) terminals to affected areas for those unable to get online.

Finding Relief

State and local governments, as well as private organizations, provide resources and other forms of assistance to natural disaster victims.

• Your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy might cover some or all of the costs of replacing lost documents, since they’re considered part of your personal property.
• The federal government has promised to cover 100 percent of the costs of the initial L.A. fire response.
• Victims are also eligible for a one-time $770 payment to pay for essential items. An application can be made online, via the FEMA app, by phone (call 1-800-621-3362), or in person at a DRC.
• The IRS announced tax filing and payment relief to Los Angeles residents and business owners impacted by the fires.
• FEMA also offers recovery tips and assistance programs to eligible fire victims and businesses. It may be able to help pay for certain costs such as replacing personal property, finding a place to stay, and paying for essentials.
• The American Red Cross provides shelter, food, and other vital assistance to disaster victims.
• The Salvation Army has programs and resources to assist disaster victims.
• United Way connects people with local resources and support services.
• Feeding America is working with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to distribute emergency food supplies.
• Team Rubicon is a veteran-led humanitarian organization that delivers disaster relief and aid.

Losing your home and possessions in a natural disaster is devastating enough, but the loss of key documents can add another layer of complexity to an already difficult situation.

The L.A. wildfires, although unprecedented in their scope, could be part of a new normal in which natural disasters are more prevalent and more damaging. Within this context, the estate planning axiom of “preparing for the worst” takes on added importance and new dimensions.

To protect your family and your legacy against the very real possibility of a natural disaster, before and after disaster strikes, contact your estate planning attorney.