How to Make a List of Bank Accounts for Your Family

When someone dies, the money is rarely the hard part. Finding it is. Banks have procedures, heirs have rights, and it all works, but only for accounts the family knows exist. A simple list of bank accounts for your family is one of the highest-value pages you will ever write, and it takes about an hour.

Unclaimed assets are a real phenomenon. Dormant account schemes in the UK, the Netherlands and elsewhere exist precisely because people die with accounts nobody knew about. You do not need to be wealthy for this to matter; a forgotten savings account with a few thousand in it is exactly the kind of thing that slips through.

What goes on the list

Work through these categories. For each item, note the institution and the type of account. That is enough.

• Current and savings accounts. Every bank, including the old one you keep meaning to close.
• Investments. Brokers, robo-advisors, employer share plans.
• Pensions. Current employer, old employers, private pensions. Old workplace pensions are the most commonly lost asset of all.
• Crypto. Which exchanges or wallets exist. Self-custody wallets need special care; we cover that in a separate guide on crypto inheritance.
• Debts and loans. Mortgage, personal loans, credit cards. Heirs need the full picture, not just the pleasant half.
• Recurring payments. Subscriptions, memberships, charity donations. These keep drawing money until someone cancels them.

What deliberately stays off the list

No passwords. No PINs. Logging into a dead person’s bank account, even with the best intentions, is not how this is supposed to work and can cause real problems in the settlement. Banks have a formal route for next of kin: death certificate, proof of inheritance, and the bank takes it from there.

Your list has one job: making sure the family knows where to knock. The doors open through official channels.

Account numbers are a middle case. They speed things up, but they are sensitive enough that they belong in encrypted storage only, never in a plain document in a drawer or a shared cloud folder.

Where the list should live

A paper list works, and it is where many people start. It has two known failure modes: it goes stale, and anyone who finds it can read it. A spreadsheet in the cloud fixes the staleness and makes the privacy worse.

This is the problem a purpose-built vault solves. In Kinfolder, your accounts overview lives encrypted on your own device, and the person you choose can reach it only when it is genuinely needed, not before. You update it in the app when something changes, and your family gets a complete, current picture on the worst week of their lives instead of a shoebox of statements.

Keep it maintained, lightly

Set a yearly reminder, perhaps around tax season when the statements are out anyway. Add and remove accounts as they open and close. Ten minutes a year keeps the list trustworthy.

If you want to go beyond finances, the same logic applies to your insurance policies and your passwords. One organised place, one trusted person, no treasure hunt.