When can I legally destroy financial documents?

Five years you can pretty much get rid of it all.

You might want to keep her last income tax paperwork. Last bank statement. Maybe the Probate paperwork a little longer. Her funeral papers. But I think you will be safe shredding it all. The IRS only goes back five years.

katiekat, excellent question. I have roamed around the Internet and found a variety of different answers for the same question. Seems like no experts are able to agree on how long to keep such items.

My parents kept copies of their income taxes since day one when the earth was discovered, so I went amuck with shredding keeping just the past few years. Chances of my parent's income taxes being audited is like less than 1%. But I did save the last couple of years.

I did keep all the Deeds to houses long since sold, and "paid" mortgage notes. I will need to check around and see if I really do need to keep these items.

My parents and grandparent's birth certificates, marriage license, etc. I have in the family tree binder.