Legacy records: what your family needs to know about you

My aunt kept impeccable financial records. Binders labeled by year, color-coded tabs, every tax return filed in order going back to 1987. When she died, her kids knew exactly where to find her investment accounts and insurance policies.

What they didn't know was the password to her email. Or the name of her primary care doctor. Or that she'd been paying for a storage unit across town. Or what she wanted done with the house she'd lived in for thirty years.

She left behind perfect legacy records for the IRS and almost nothing for the people who actually loved her.

That gap -- between what we think our families need and what they actually need -- is what this guide is about. Because real legacy records go far beyond a filing cabinet. They include the practical, the financial, the legal, the medical, and the deeply personal. They answer the questions your family will have at two in the morning when they're sitting on the kitchen floor trying to figure out what to do next.

The financial stuff (yes, start here)

Money isn't the most important part of your legacy records, but it's the most urgent. When someone dies, bills don't stop. Mortgages don't pause. Credit card companies don't wait for the family to finish grieving.

Your family needs to know:

Bank accounts and investments. Every account, every institution, every login. Include checking, savings, brokerage accounts, retirement funds, HSAs, and that old 401(k) from the job you left in 2014. If there are joint accounts, note who the other account holder is. If there are beneficiary designations, write down who you named and when.

Debts and obligations. Mortgages, car loans, student loans, credit card balances, personal loans, that money you borrowed from your brother-in-law. Your family needs the full picture, not the curated version. Include account numbers and contact information for each lender.

Insurance policies. Life insurance, health insurance, homeowner's or renter's insurance, auto insurance, umbrella policies, long-term care insurance. For each one: the company, the policy number, the agent's name if you have one, and where the physical documents are stored.

Income sources and recurring payments. Pensions, Social Security, rental income, freelance clients who owe you money. On the flip side: subscriptions, autopay bills, charitable donations that come out monthly. Your family will need to know what's coming in and what's going out.

Taxes. Where you file, who prepares your taxes (if someone does), and where to find your most recent returns. This matters more than people realize, especially in the year someone dies.

If you want a more detailed breakdown of what financial information to gather, the guide on documents you should leave for your family is a good place to start.

The legal documents that actually matter

You probably know you should have a will. You might even have one. But there's a constellation of legal documents that your family needs access to, and most people keep them scattered across safe deposit boxes, email attachments, and the bottom drawer of a desk nobody else opens.

Here's what to pull together:

Will or trust documents and the name of the attorney who prepared them
Power of attorney (financial and medical) -- who can make decisions if you can't
Advance healthcare directive or living will -- your medical wishes if you're incapacitated
Birth certificate, marriage certificate, divorce decrees
Social Security card and passport
Property deeds, vehicle titles, business ownership documents
Beneficiary designations for retirement accounts, life insurance, and transfer-on-death accounts (these override your will, and a lot of people don't realize that)

Don't just list these documents. Tell your family where they are. "The will is in the fireproof safe in the closet, combination is 24-8-36" is infinitely more useful than "I have a will somewhere."

Your digital life (the part most people forget)

Here's a number that might surprise you: the average person has over 100 online accounts. Email, social media, banking, shopping, streaming, cloud storage, phone apps, work platforms. When you die, every single one of those becomes a problem your family has to solve.

Your digital legacy records should include:

Email accounts. These are the master key to almost everything else. Password resets, account notifications, correspondence your family might need -- it all flows through email.

Password manager access. If you use one (and you should), your family needs the master password. If you don't use one, you need a secure list of login credentials for your most important accounts. Write them down, store them safely, and tell someone where to find them.

Social media accounts. Do you want them memorialized, deleted, or left alone? Facebook has a legacy contact feature. Other platforms have their own policies. But none of them will know what you want unless you tell someone.

Cloud storage and digital files. Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox -- anything that holds photos, documents, or files your family might want or need.

Phone and computer access. Passcodes, PINs, biometric backup codes. A locked phone with no way in can cut your family off from photos, messages, and two-factor authentication they need to access other accounts.

Subscriptions and digital purchases. Streaming services, software licenses, domain names, website hosting. Some of these are easy to cancel. Others (like a domain name that auto-renews) can become surprisingly expensive if nobody catches them.

For a deeper walk-through of how to organize all of this, the guide to digital end-of-life planning covers the specifics.

Medical history and healthcare preferences

This section does double duty. It's for emergencies while you're still alive and for your family after you're gone.

Your medical history. Current diagnoses, past surgeries, allergies (especially drug allergies), medications and dosages, and the names of your doctors. If you have a condition that runs in your family, note it. Your kids and grandkids may need this information for their own healthcare someday, and you won't be around to answer the question.

Healthcare preferences. Do you want to be resuscitated? Are you an organ donor? Do you have a DNR order? Have you talked to your doctor about palliative care or hospice preferences? These aren't comfortable questions, but the alternative is your family making these decisions in a hospital hallway while they're in shock.

Health insurance details. Your plan, your ID number, your primary care provider, and how to file a claim. If you're on Medicare or Medicaid, include your card and any supplemental coverage.

Pharmacy information. Which pharmacy you use and any prescriptions that are on auto-refill.

Write this information down even if you're healthy. Especially if you're healthy. Because the people who most need medical legacy records are the ones who never expected to.

The personal stuff nobody tells you to include

This is the section that separates a useful filing system from something your family will actually treasure.

Your story. Not your resume. Your story. Where you grew up and what it was like. How you met your partner. The job you hated that taught you the most. The decision you almost didn't make that changed everything. The ordinary Tuesday that, looking back, might have been the best day of your life.

Your kids think they know your story, but they know the version they lived through. They don't know the version that came before them, and they don't know the version you've been quietly living alongside them.

Your values and beliefs. What do you believe about work, love, money, faith, family, forgiveness? What principles have guided your decisions? What did you get wrong and how did your thinking change? These don't have to be grand philosophical statements. "I believe you should always tip well and never go to bed angry" is as real as it gets.

Letters to the people you love. A legacy letter to your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, your best friend. Not a group message. Individual letters, written to specific people, saying the things you want them to carry with you after you're gone. These are, without question, the most meaningful part of any legacy record. If you write nothing else, write these.

For help with the writing process and keeping these letters safe, the guide on planning and storing your legacy letters securely is worth reading.

Your wishes for after you're gone. Burial or cremation? A funeral or a celebration of life? A specific song you want played, a reading you want included, a person you want to speak? Do you want flowers or donations to a cause you cared about? Where do you want your ashes scattered, if that's the route you choose? These preferences take an enormous burden off your family at the worst possible time.

The little things. Your favorite recipes, especially the ones you've never written down. The story behind the painting in the hallway. Why you kept that dented coffee mug. The name of the song that always made you cry in the car. Your family won't know to miss these details until they're gone, and then they'll wish more than anything that you'd written them down.

Contacts your family will need

When someone dies, there's a surprisingly long list of people to notify and coordinate with. Make it easy on your family by compiling:

Attorney and financial advisor (names, firms, phone numbers)
Insurance agents for every policy you hold
Employer or business partners and HR contact information
Accountant or tax preparer
Close friends and extended family who should be notified (your family may not have everyone's number)
Religious or spiritual leader if you'd like one involved in your services
Executor of your estate (make sure this person knows they've been named and agrees to do it)
Doctors -- primary care, specialists, therapist

Include anyone your family would need to call in the first few weeks. Don't assume they'll know who to reach out to. Your world is bigger than the people sitting at your dinner table, and a lot of those connections live only in your phone.

How to organize all of this (and where to keep it)

Gathering this information is one thing. Making it findable is another.

Use a single location. A binder, a secure digital vault, a combination of both. The format matters less than the consistency. Don't split your legacy records across six different places unless there's a good reason.

Tell at least two people where it is. Your spouse, your oldest child, your executor, a trusted friend. If only one person knows and something happens to both of you, the whole effort is wasted.

Update it once a year. Passwords change. Accounts open and close. Relationships shift. Set a recurring date -- your birthday, the new year, tax season -- and spend an hour making sure everything is current.

Keep it secure. These records contain sensitive information. A fireproof safe at home, a safety deposit box at the bank, or an encrypted digital vault all work. A folder on your desktop labeled "IMPORTANT" does not.

Don't wait until it's done to share its existence. You can tell your family "I'm putting together a legacy file for you" long before every section is complete. Knowing it exists and knowing where to find it is half the value.

Start with what you know

You don't have to finish this in a weekend. You don't even have to finish it this year. But you do have to start.

Pick the section that feels most natural and write down what you already know off the top of your head. Your bank accounts. Your medications. The password to your email. One memory from your childhood that your kids have never heard.

Then come back next week and add a little more. The guide to creating a legacy document can help you think through the process if you're not sure where to begin.

The goal isn't perfection. The goal is that when your family needs this information -- and they will, someday -- it's there. Not locked in your head, not scattered across drawers and hard drives, not lost with you.

There. Waiting. Written in your own words, organized with your own care, left behind by someone who loved them enough to think ahead.

When I Die Files gives you a private, secure place to gather all of this -- the documents, the letters, the details, the stories -- and make sure the right people can access it when the time comes.