What documents does your family need when you die?

When someone dies, the people left behind have to do a lot of things at once. They're grieving. They're organising a funeral. They're fielding phone calls. And somewhere in the middle of all that, they have to find a will, contact a bank, notify a superannuation fund, and figure out what accounts exist and what to do with them.

Most families are not prepared for this. Not because they're careless, but because nobody told them what to prepare, and the person who knew where everything was is no longer there to ask.

This is a guide to what your family will actually need. Not a legal document. Not financial advice. Just a plain account of what tends to go wrong, and what you can do about it while you're still here to do it.

The will

Everything starts here. Your will is the legal document that says who gets what, who is in charge of carrying out your wishes, and (if relevant) who should look after your children.

If you don't have a current will, that's the first thing to fix. An out-of-date will — one that was written before you married, divorced, had children, or acquired significant assets — can cause as much trouble as no will at all.

Your family needs to know three things:

**That a will exists.** Surprisingly often, families aren't sure whether a will was ever made.

**Where it is.** The original document matters. A copy is usually not enough to probate. If your will is held by a solicitor, your family needs to know which one. If it's in your home, they need to know where.

**Who your executor is.** Your executor is the person responsible for carrying out the will. They need to know they've been named, and roughly what's involved.

Superannuation

Super doesn't automatically form part of your estate. It sits outside your will, and the fund has discretion over who receives it — unless you've made a binding death benefit nomination.

This is important because it means your super could go somewhere you didn't intend, or the decision could be delayed while the fund decides. A binding nomination locks in your choice.

Your family needs to know: which fund or funds you have, your member number, and whether you've made a binding nomination. If you have multiple funds from different jobs over the years, they all need to be accounted for.

There are billions of dollars in unclaimed superannuation in Australia. Some of it belongs to people whose families simply didn't know the accounts existed.

Bank accounts and investments

Your bank accounts, share portfolio, term deposits, and other financial accounts need to be closed and transferred or distributed. To do that, your family needs to know what exists.

This sounds obvious. In practice, people accumulate accounts over decades — old accounts from previous banks, a share portfolio set up in the nineties, a term deposit that auto-renews. Your family won't necessarily know about all of them.

Write it down. Institution name, type of account, rough balance if you're comfortable with that. That's all they need to start.

Insurance

Life insurance, income protection, home and contents, car, health. Your family needs to know what policies exist, who they're through, and what the policy numbers are.

Life insurance in particular can go unclaimed when families don't know it exists. It doesn't appear in your bank statements and there's no automatic notification system. If you have a policy, the only way your family will know to claim it is if you've told them.

Property

If you own property — your home, an investment property, a share in a holiday house — there will be a title deed somewhere. Your family will need it.

More importantly, they'll need to know the details of any mortgage, and who to contact to begin the transfer or sale process.

If you own property jointly, the rules around what happens to your share depend on how the title is structured. Your solicitor can explain this, and it's worth understanding before your family has to deal with it under pressure.

Digital accounts

This is the area most people haven't thought about, and where families increasingly get stuck.

Email accounts. Social media. Online banking. iCloud. Google account. Netflix, Spotify, Amazon. Cryptocurrency wallets. A domain name that auto-renews. A business email that sends from your name for months after you've died because no one knew the password to turn it off.

Some of these have financial value. Some have sentimental value (your photos in iCloud, your messages). Some just need to be closed. But your family can't do any of that without the login details.

You don't have to give them the passwords now. But store them somewhere — a password manager, a written document in a safe — and make sure the right person knows where to look.

The person in charge

Beyond the executor (who handles the estate), your family will need to know who to call for various things: your GP, your solicitor, your accountant, your financial adviser. These are the people who hold information and who can help.

Write down names, phone numbers, and email addresses. If any of these professionals are likely to be confused about which client you are — if you share a common name, for instance — include your client number or date of birth.

What most people don't do

All of this information is useless if no one can find it.

A document saved on your computer that no one can access. A note in a safe no one knows the combination to. A will held by a solicitor whose name you never mentioned. These are all equivalent to having prepared nothing.

The practical requirement is simple: one trusted person needs to know that a document exists, and roughly where to find it. That person is usually your executor, or the person most likely to be managing things when the time comes.

A handover document — something that lists all of this in one place and explains where to go and who to call — is the most useful thing you can prepare. It doesn't need to be formal. A clear, plainly-written document that your executor can work through is worth more than any amount of unfiled paperwork.

Longafter's vault is designed exactly for this: a secure, encrypted place to store all of this information, with a handover pack you can share with your executor when the time is right. You can start with whatever feels most urgent and build from there.

The best time to do this is before anyone needs it.