Insurance & Vital Documents Archive
Paperless-ngx, 1Password, Bitwarden, encrypted folders — warranties, receipts, policies, and the "if the house burns down" set.
The vital-documents set: insurance policies, warranties, receipts, deeds, titles, birth certificates, passports, vaccination records, tax returns. All scanned, OCR'd, tagged, and off-site backed up. For maintenance scheduling around appliances see Home Maintenance Scheduling; for the inventory of things covered by these policies see Home Inventory & Insurance; for end-of-life / will / power of attorney specifically see Estate, Will & End-of-Life Planning; for the document-scanning self-host stack see Self-Hosted Document Management; for the password-vault overlap see Self-Hosted Passwords; for backup strategy see Backup & Disaster Recovery.
Self-host document scanning + OCR
- ★ ★ Paperless-ngx — free OSS; the 2026 default. Watch a folder → OCR → tag with rules → search. Mobile companion apps (Paperless Mobile). The fileyou-use-once-a-year answer that actually works. See Self-Hosted Document Management.
- DocSpell — free OSS; alternative; less popular.
- Mayan EDMS — free OSS; heavier; pro-flavored.
- Teedy — free OSS; lighter.
Hosted "vault" apps
- ★ HomeZada Documents — paid + free; insurance-flavored; categorized. See Home Inventory & Insurance.
- Everplans — paid (~$75/yr); the all-in-one estate-vault; deeds + policies + wishes + accounts. See Estate, Will & End-of-Life Planning.
- Cake — paid + free; lighter Everplans-shape.
- Trustworthy — paid; "family operating system"; vault + assignees.
- Knack, Vault — niche.
Password manager secure-notes overlap
- ★ 1Password — paid; secure documents (PDF attachments + encrypted notes) work for passport scans, insurance card photos, etc. The default for many households.
- ★ Bitwarden — free + paid; secure file attachments on paid Premium / Family ($10-40/yr); the OSS default. Self-hostable as Vaultwarden. See Self-Hosted Passwords.
- Apple Passwords — free; iOS 18 / macOS 15+; secure notes; less metadata.
- Apple Notes locked notes — free; works for short-term sensitive items.
- Proton Pass / NordPass / Dashlane — secure-notes equivalents.
Encrypted folders (the simple file-based approach)
- ★ iCloud Drive folder + 2FA + family member access — free for Apple-house; the "scan PDFs to a folder" answer. Pair with Time Machine + an off-site clone (Backup & DR).
- Google Drive / Dropbox / OneDrive — same idea; pick by ecosystem.
- Cryptomator / VeraCrypt — free OSS; encrypted vaults atop any cloud drive. Use if you don't trust the provider.
- Nextcloud + E2EE — self-host with optional end-to-end encryption.
Backup strategy (the part most people skip)
The whole point: the documents must survive the event that destroys the originals. A scan on the iMac that burns with the house is not a backup.
- ★ 3-2-1 rule — 3 copies, 2 different media, 1 off-site. See Backup & DR.
- ★ Restic + Backblaze B2 / S3 — free OSS encrypted backup to cheap cloud; the geek default.
- Cloud-of-clouds — iCloud + a Bitwarden encrypted file + a thumb-drive at a relative's house.
- A grab-bag in the fire safe — paper originals of the irreplaceable (passports, birth certs, deeds, marriage cert).
What actually goes in the vault
- Identity — passports, birth certs, SS cards, marriage / divorce certs, naturalization papers, military DD-214.
- Property — deed, mortgage, title insurance, property tax history, HOA docs, surveys.
- Vehicles — title, registration, insurance card, warranty.
- Insurance — homeowner's / renter's, auto, life, umbrella, health (cards + policies).
- Health — vaccination records, prescriptions, advance directives, organ-donor cards.
- Financial — tax returns (7 years), 401(k) statements, brokerage account list, current credit card list (just account numbers, not raw cards).
- Estate — will, trust, POA, beneficiary forms, list of accounts.
- Receipts / warranties for major appliances + electronics.
- A "letter to my family" — passwords, important contacts, where everything is. See Estate, Will & End-of-Life Planning.
License / pricing
- Paperless-ngx, DocSpell, Mayan, Teedy: OSS, free, self-host.
- HomeZada: paid + free.
- Everplans, Trustworthy: paid.
- Cake: paid + free.
- 1Password: paid only.
- Bitwarden / Vaultwarden: free + paid; OSS.
- Apple Passwords / Notes, Cryptomator, Nextcloud: free or freemium.
Pick this if…
- Default self-host vault: Paperless-ngx.
- Default hosted vault, willing to pay, full estate scope: Everplans.
- Apple-house, simple: iCloud Drive folder + Apple Passwords + paper backup in fire safe.
- Already on 1Password / Bitwarden: secure notes / file attachments cover the 80%.
- Privacy-paranoid: Vaultwarden + Cryptomator + Restic + B2.
- Off-site backup matters most: anything above + Restic + B2 + a relative's house thumb drive.