Essential financial information to include in your legacy document

My friend's father died on a Tuesday. By Thursday, she was sitting at his kitchen table with a shoebox full of old bank statements, three sets of keys she couldn't identify, and a sticky note that said "Fidelity — call Rob." She didn't know who Rob was. She didn't know if her dad had a pension, or life insurance, or a mortgage balance, or what his WiFi password was. She spent the next four months piecing together his financial life from envelopes, old emails, and phone calls to institutions that wouldn't talk to her without paperwork she didn't have yet.

This is what happens when someone dies without a financial legacy document. Not a will. Not a trust. A plain, practical record of where the money is, who holds it, how to access it, and what's owed. The kind of document that turns four months of detective work into a single afternoon of phone calls.

Most people's financial lives are scattered across a dozen institutions, three email addresses, and a password manager their spouse doesn't know exists. This post is about fixing that.

What a financial legacy document actually is

A financial legacy document is different from a will. Your will says who gets what. Your financial legacy document says where everything is and how to reach it. Think of it as the map your family needs before they can follow the will's instructions.

It doesn't need to be fancy. A spreadsheet works. A binder works. A folder on a shared drive works. What matters is that it exists, it's complete, and someone besides you knows where to find it. If you're thinking about how to organize the broader picture, our guide on how to prepare your financial legacy for future generations covers the strategic side of things. This post is about the nuts and bolts.

Here's what to put in it.

Bank accounts and everyday money

Start with the money your family will need first. When someone dies, bills keep coming. The mortgage doesn't pause. Groceries still cost money. Your family needs to know where the operating cash is.

For each account, record:

Bank or credit union name and branch (if relevant)
Account type (checking, savings, money market, CD)
Account number
Routing number (for electronic transfers)
Online login information (username, password, or reference to your password manager)
Linked debit cards
Automatic deposits coming in (paychecks, Social Security, pension payments)
Automatic payments going out (mortgage, utilities, subscriptions)
Contact person at the bank, if you have a relationship manager
Approximate balance (update this annually, not obsessively)

Pay special attention to the automatic payments. When someone dies, their spouse often discovers recurring charges they didn't know about. A streaming service here, a gym membership there, an annual software renewal that's been running for years. List them all. Your family will need to cancel or redirect each one.

If you have accounts at multiple banks, list every single one. People forget about the savings account they opened at a credit union ten years ago, or the CD that's been quietly rolling over at a bank they no longer use.

Investment and brokerage accounts

This is where things get complicated for survivors, because investment accounts come in many flavors and each one has its own rules about access after death.

For each investment account, record:

Institution name (Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, etc.)
Account type (individual brokerage, joint, TOD/transfer on death)
Account number
Login credentials or password manager reference
Financial advisor's name and phone number (if you have one)
Beneficiary designations (who you named, and when you last updated them)
General description of holdings (you don't need to list every stock, but "mostly index funds" or "a mix of individual stocks and bonds" gives your family context)

Here's something people miss: beneficiary designations on investment accounts override your will. If your will says everything goes to your spouse but your old 401(k) still lists your ex, the ex gets the 401(k). Review your beneficiaries. Write them down. Update them when life changes.

Retirement accounts

Retirement accounts have their own special rules about who can inherit them, how withdrawals work, and what the tax implications are. Your family needs to know these accounts exist, and they'll likely need professional help figuring out the details.

For each retirement account, record:

Account type (Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k), 403(b), SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, pension)
Institution or plan administrator
Account number
Employer name (for employer-sponsored plans, especially old ones from previous jobs)
Beneficiary designations (primary and contingent)
Whether you're currently taking required minimum distributions
Contact information for the plan administrator
Any special provisions, like a Roth conversion ladder or a pension with survivor benefits

Old 401(k)s from previous employers are the most commonly forgotten retirement accounts. If you've changed jobs a few times, you might have retirement money sitting in places you haven't thought about in years. Track them all down and list them here.

For pensions specifically, note whether your pension has a survivor benefit option, and whether you elected it. This is a big deal. If you chose the higher monthly payment without survivor benefits, your spouse's income drops to zero from that pension when you die. If you chose the survivor option, they need to know who to call to start receiving payments.

Insurance policies

Insurance is the thing your family needs most urgently and can find least easily. Policies live in filing cabinets, email inboxes, and employer benefits portals. When someone dies, the clock starts ticking on claims.

Life insurance

For each policy, record:

Insurance company name
Policy number
Type of policy (term, whole life, universal)
Death benefit amount
Beneficiaries (primary and contingent)
Whether it's through your employer (group life insurance often ends when employment ends, so note if you've left that job)
Agent's name and contact information
Premium amount and payment frequency (so your family knows if a policy is about to lapse)
Cash value (for whole life or universal policies)

Don't forget about small policies. Some people have a group life policy through work, a personal term policy they bought years ago, and maybe an accidental death policy bundled with a credit card. List all of them.

Other insurance

Also document:

Health insurance (carrier, policy number, who's covered, how to file claims for final medical bills)
Long-term care insurance (if you have it, this is incredibly valuable information for your family)
Homeowner's or renter's insurance
Auto insurance
Umbrella policy (if applicable)

Your family may need to file claims, maintain coverage on shared property, or cancel policies. Having the details in one place saves them from hunting through junk drawers and old emails.

Debts and what you owe

Nobody likes making this list, but it might be the most important one. Debt doesn't disappear when you die. Some of it transfers to your estate, some of it can affect your spouse, and all of it needs to be addressed. If your family doesn't know what you owe, they can't make informed decisions about the estate.

For each debt, record:

Creditor name
Type of debt (mortgage, auto loan, student loan, personal loan, HELOC, credit card)
Account number
Current balance (approximate is fine, update annually)
Monthly payment amount
Interest rate
Whether anyone co-signed (co-signers remain responsible for the debt)
Auto-pay status (is it set up? From which account?)
Payoff date (if applicable)

Credit cards

List every credit card, even the ones you barely use. Include:

Card issuer and last four digits
Approximate balance
Whether it carries a balance month to month
Any authorized users (they'll need to be removed)
Rewards points or cash back balances (these sometimes have value that can be redeemed)

Mortgage

If you own a home, your family needs:

Lender name and loan number
Monthly payment amount and what it includes (principal, interest, taxes, insurance)
Remaining balance
Whether the mortgage has life insurance attached
Location of the deed and title documents

Subscriptions and recurring charges

This one sounds minor, but it adds up fast. The average American household has over a dozen active subscriptions. After a death, these keep charging until someone cancels them.

Make a list of every recurring charge on your credit cards and bank accounts:

Streaming services (Netflix, Spotify, etc.)
Software subscriptions (Adobe, Microsoft 365, etc.)
Membership fees (gym, warehouse clubs, professional associations)
Cloud storage (iCloud, Google One, Dropbox)
News and media subscriptions
Meal kits, delivery services
Domain names and web hosting
App store subscriptions

For each one, note which card or account it charges and whether there's an annual vs. monthly billing cycle. Annual charges are the sneaky ones, they show up months later when everyone has stopped thinking about account cleanup.

Digital accounts with financial value

We live online now, and some of those digital accounts have real money attached to them.

Document:

PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle (balances and linked bank accounts)
Cryptocurrency wallets (exchange name, wallet addresses, and seed phrases or recovery keys. If your family can't access your crypto wallet, that money is gone forever.)
Online marketplace accounts (eBay, Amazon seller, Etsy) with inventory or pending payouts
Loyalty programs with cash value (airline miles, hotel points, credit card rewards)
Domain names you own that have resale value
Digital businesses or side hustles that generate income

Crypto deserves special emphasis. There is no customer service number for a Bitcoin wallet. If you hold cryptocurrency and your family doesn't have your private keys or seed phrase, that money vanishes. Write it down. Store it securely. Our guide on how to safely store important documents for emergency access covers the practical side of secure storage.

Tax information

Your family will need to file at least one more tax return on your behalf (for the year you die), and possibly deal with estate taxes depending on the size of your estate.

Keep accessible:

Your accountant or tax preparer's name and contact info
Location of past tax returns (at least the last three years)
Your Social Security number (they'll need it for the final return and death certificate applications)
Estimated income sources for the current year
Location of tax-related documents (W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, charitable donation receipts)
Any ongoing tax situations (payment plans with the IRS, audits, amended returns)

If you're self-employed, your family also needs to know about quarterly estimated tax payments and any business tax obligations.

How to organize all of this

You've got two real options, and using both is ideal.

A physical binder or folder. Print everything out, organize it by category with dividers, and keep it in a fireproof safe or a secure location. Update it once a year. Old school, but it works, and it doesn't require any passwords to open.

A secure digital document. A spreadsheet or document stored in an encrypted location (a password manager's secure notes feature works well for this). Easier to update, easier to share, easier to keep current.

Whichever method you choose, make sure at least one other person knows it exists and can access it. A financial legacy document that nobody can find is the same as not having one.

For a broader look at what belongs in your legacy document beyond finances, from memories to values: what to include in your legacy document covers the personal side. And for the full legal picture, our post on the top 10 legal documents you need to secure your legacy is a good companion to this one.

A conversation, not just a document

The document is the tangible part. But the conversation around it matters just as much. Tell your spouse, your adult children, your executor, or whoever needs to know that this document exists. Tell them where it is. Walk them through the basics.

You don't have to share every account balance over dinner. But saying "There's a binder in the safe with all of our financial information. The combination is taped inside the medicine cabinet. If anything happens to me, start there" takes thirty seconds and saves your family months of confusion.

Nobody looks forward to this work. But the people who do it are giving their families something that most people don't think to give: a clear path through one of the hardest times of their lives. Not just money. The map to the money. The contacts. The account numbers. The passwords. Everything they need to keep moving forward instead of standing in a kitchen, staring at a shoebox, wondering who Rob is.

Sit down this weekend. Start with your bank accounts. One category at a time. You'll be surprised how quickly the list comes together once you begin.