Jim Stokes' financial life is practically paperless. His portfolio, which includes a handful of bank accounts, at least 10 mutual-fund accounts with a half-dozen fund companies, an online brokerage account and a 401(k), would typically generate mail of Himalayan proportions. But Stokes handles it all electronically, managing investments, viewing statements and paying bills online.

"I tried to stop maintaining the huge paper trail that follows you your whole life," says Stokes, a 48-year-old X-ray technologist in Novato, Calif.

Spurred by an array of new electronic services and financial-services firms' promotion of paperless accounts, many consumers are considering a similar move. A number of major banks, including Washington Mutual Inc. and Sovereign Bancorp Inc., have recently begun promising to make a donation to environmental groups when customers switch to doing some business online. Citigroup Inc. offers to have a tree planted for each credit-card holder who goes paperless. And mutual-fund giant Vanguard Group Inc. last week said it would waive account fees for customers who agree to electronic delivery of statements, fund reports and prospectuses.

Financial firms stand to save substantial sums in printing and mailing costs when customers manage accounts online. The firms say consumers also benefit because paper-free transactions are more environmentally friendly and better protected from fraud. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission recently endorsed some electronic delivery, permitting companies to provide shareholders with proxy materials online, in part because investors get the information faster.

But a paperless financial life can also raise concerns for consumers. Many financial institutions archive documents online only for a few months. Important financial information can be lost in the flood of e-mail in consumers' inboxes. And a number of security experts say that going paperless isn't any safer, and may in fact make consumers more vulnerable to online fraudsters.

Consumers also risk neglecting their accounts when a paper statement doesn't land in their mailbox each month. Rich Hurd, a 46-year-old systems analyst in Nazareth, Pa., made his department-store credit-card account paperless and set up automatic payment from his bank account. But he then got out of the habit of reviewing his statements. About a year ago, he found he'd been hit with a couple of late fees because the minimum payment on his credit card had increased, and he'd been underpaying his bill. Hurd still pays his bills online, but he insists on receiving a paper statement in the mail.

Consumers also may never receive important electronic financial documents. "Electronic delivery is less reliable because email addresses change and things get filtered into spam boxes," says Avivah Litan, an analyst at research firm Gartner Inc.

Some paperless practices have caught on. A recent survey by Harris Interactive Inc. and Marketing Workshop Inc. found that, in households with Internet connections, consumers are now paying more of their bills online than by paper check. The study was sponsored by CheckFree Corp., a major player in online bill payment.

But in other areas, consumers seem reluctant to relinquish paper completely. Just 15 percent of online banking customers have stopped receiving paper statements from their primary bank, according to a 2006 survey by JupiterResearch. At Vanguard, adoption of online statements has been "pretty modest," the company says.

Banks and fund companies tout the accessibility of paperless documents, but often they store statements or check images online only for a few months or a couple of years. That means important documents may not be readily available when customers need them most. The Internal Revenue Service can generally audit taxpayers for three years after they have filed their return, or six years if income has been substantially understated.

For that reason, people need to maintain records of their cost basis in stocks or bonds not only until the investment is sold but for at least three years after the return reporting the gain or loss is filed, says Anne Christensen, accounting professor at Montana State University. Likewise, bank and credit-card statements or canceled checks that might substantiate deductions like charitable donations should be kept for several years after the return claiming the tax deduction is filed. And documents showing contributions to an individual retirement account should be kept for many years, until all the money is withdrawn from that account, Christensen says.

Financial firms say greater security is an important reason to go paperless. All-electronic customers don't have to worry about paper statements getting stolen out of their mailbox, the firms say, and since they tend to check their accounts more often, they detect fraud more quickly.

But some security experts disagree with the assertion that going paperless is safer. Online fraudsters have "these big data warehouses with our information stored electronically," says Litan, "and they're not getting that information out of people's mailboxes."