Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

I have no attorney. I am almost 60 and do have an estate. However, I have some very personal history videos and documents I need to leave for my son who is now 9. Though I have a will and a trust, the vids and docs are in my two step large home vault (key and password). With the death of safe deposit boxes, how do I store these physical keys and the passwords and make sure my son (and not his mother) can get the items? Obviously, I am not going to leave them at my desk in an envelope :-)


Asked on 8/09/13, 12:11 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Fran Brochstein Attorney & Mediator

Since you are only 60, hopefully, you will hopefully live a long and fruitful life & you can give them to him when he is past the age of 18 and will appreciate and cherish them.

There is no guaranteed way to do this, unfortunately. So I would seek several alternative ways of doing this...

Find someone much younger & healthier than you that you trust.

But, sometimes, people change or disappear from our lives as the years pass...

Put these things somewhere safe.

Entrust these items to this person (or persons) and instruct this person(s) to give these things to your son when they feel that he will "appreciate" them after your death. It might be long after he is 18. Sometimes when a child turns 18, they are too immature to appreciate family history.

The problem is, you have to hope this person outlives you & can locate your son after you pass.

You might want to make duplicate copies of these items in case one set gets damaged or destroyed.

You might to "entrust" these items with more than one person to make sure that your son actually receives these items. In my own family, noticed that items just seemed to "disappear". So make duplicates - better safe than sorry.

You might want to talk to an estate attorney about entrusting them at a law firm's vault to be given to your son at his 18th birthday if you are not alive.

I hope these ideas are helpful.

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Answered on 8/09/13, 12:38 pm


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