What Goes in a Death File: The 23 Things Your Family Looks For First

"Death file" is not a legal term. No attorney will use it. But it is the phrase ordinary people reach for when they describe the thing they want to leave behind, and it describes the job better than anything the profession has come up with.

A death file is the folder your family opens first. Not the will, which their attorney will handle. The file that answers the practical questions in the days right after, when nobody can think straight and everything seems to require a document nobody can find.

Here is what belongs in it, grouped by when it gets needed.

The first 48 hours

1. Your full legal name, date of birth, and place of birth. Required for the death certificate. Sounds obvious. Adult children routinely do not know a parent's exact place of birth.

2. Your Social Security number. Needed almost immediately, and needed repeatedly.

3. Your parents' full names, including your mother's maiden name. The death certificate asks. Grandchildren often cannot answer.

4. Whether you are a veteran, and your discharge papers. This affects burial benefits and survivor benefits, and the paperwork is easier to find now than later.

5. Your funeral and burial wishes. Written down, in your own words. Burial or cremation. Any prepaid arrangement, and with whom. Any religious requirement. This is the single most valuable page in the file, because it removes a decision your family would otherwise make while arguing and guessing.

6. Who to call first. A short list of names and numbers. Family, closest friends, employer, clergy.

The first two weeks

7. Your will, and where the signed original is. A copy in the file is helpful. The original's location is essential.

8. Your executor's name and contact details. Plus a note explaining why you chose them, which does more to prevent family friction than people expect.

9. Your attorney, accountant, and financial adviser. Names, firms, phone numbers.

10. Every bank and credit union account. Institution, account type, last four digits. Include dormant accounts.

11. Every insurance policy. Life, health, disability, long-term care, home, auto. Insurer, policy number, and the agent's contact. Include employer group coverage, which is the type most commonly forgotten.

12. Every retirement and investment account. Current 401(k), old 401(k)s from previous employers, IRAs, brokerage accounts, pensions, annuities.

13. Beneficiary designations, and when you last checked them. These override your will. An ex-spouse named on a 1998 form still inherits.

14. Your debts. Mortgage, car loans, credit cards, personal loans, medical debt. Executors must settle debts before distributing anything, and an unknown debt surfacing late can force money to be clawed back.

The first month

15. Property you own. Real estate, vehicles, boats, land. Where the deed or title physically is.

16. Your safe deposit box. Which bank, which branch, where the key is, and who is authorized on it.

17. Recurring payments and subscriptions. What is on autopay and from which account, so the right things get stopped and the important things do not lapse.

18. Your tax records. Where the last few years of returns are, and who prepared them.

19. Business interests. Ownership stakes, partnership agreements, operating agreements, and who your partners are.

20. Digital accounts that hold value. Email, cloud storage, domain names, anything with a balance. Not passwords. The existence and location of the accounts, so someone knows to go looking.

Eventually, but still important

21. Medical information. Your advance directive, healthcare proxy, physicians, medications, allergies. This one is arguably urgent rather than eventual, because it matters most while you are alive and unable to speak for yourself.

22. Pets. Who takes them, what they eat, which vet.

23. The things only you know. Where the spare key is. Which neighbor has the alarm code. That the third drawer sticks. Why the storage unit exists. A page of household knowledge that seems trivial until it is gone.

Two rules about how to store it

Never write down passwords. Not in this file, not in a document in the cloud, not anywhere that could be read by someone who should not read it. Record that an account exists and where. The access itself should live in a password manager with a legacy contact configured, which is a different tool for a different job.

Tell someone it exists. This is the failure mode nobody plans for. Families have torn houses apart looking for exactly this file, not knowing it was already sitting in a drawer they had walked past. Your executor should be able to answer "where is it?" today, without calling you.

Start with six

Twenty-three items is a project, and projects get postponed. If you do nothing else this month, write down these six:

Your funeral wishes. Where the original will is. Every bank you use. Every insurance policy you hold. Your executor's phone number. Where the deed is.

That single page, left somewhere findable, puts your family further ahead than most families ever get.

Estatey helps you record what you own and where it is, so the people who need that information can find it. Estatey is not a law firm and does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice. For advice about your own situation, speak to a qualified professional in your state.