The checklist — six areas
Every item carries a short note on what makes it actually done — because "make a will" is not the hard part, and "write down your passwords" is advice worth ignoring. 35 items across six areas, all of it free and none of it requiring an account.
Documents
The papers themselves — and, just as important, where each original is kept.
- Your will, and where the original is
Note the firm or person holding it, any reference number, and the date it was signed. Where there is no valid will, the rules of intestacy decide who inherits in England & Wales — so the location of the original matters nearly as much as the document.
- Lasting powers of attorney
There are two: one for property and financial affairs, one for health and welfare. They are separate documents, registered with the OPG, and they can only be made while you still have the capacity to choose who acts for you.
- Birth, marriage and civil partnership certificates
Plus any deed poll, decree absolute or dissolution order. Institutions ask for originals far more often than people expect, and replacements take time nobody has spare.
- Property deeds and title numbers
If the title is registered, the title number is usually enough for anyone to find the rest. If it is not registered, write down who physically holds the deeds — a lender, a solicitor, or a drawer at home.
- A letter of wishes
The informal note that sits beside a will and explains the thinking behind it — tone, reasons, and the small personal instructions that do not belong in a legal document.
- Where the folder actually lives
One place, and two people who know about it. A perfect set of papers that nobody can find is precisely the failure this whole exercise exists to prevent.
Money
Not balances. Where things are held, and who to ask.
- Every account, and who holds it
Current, savings, ISAs, joint accounts, credit-union or building-society passbooks. The provider and the rough purpose is enough — balances go stale within a month and nobody needs them.
- Pensions, including the forgotten ones
Workplace schemes from earlier jobs are the ones most often lost. List each scheme and provider, and check the nomination or expression-of-wishes form each scheme holds still names the person you would choose today.
- Life cover and death-in-service
Policy numbers, the insurer, and whether the policy is written in trust — your insurer or adviser can confirm which, and it changes who deals with the payout.
- What is owed
Mortgage, loans, cards, car finance, buy-now-pay-later, and anything held jointly. Debts do not quietly disappear, and whoever sorts things out needs the list far more urgently than they need the assets.
- Money leaving every month
Direct debits, standing orders and subscriptions. Someone will eventually stop these one at a time; a written list turns a fortnight of detective work into a single afternoon.
- Investments and holdings
Shares, funds, Premium Bonds, NS&I, anything held through an app. Record where it is held and how the holding is evidenced — a certificate, a statement, an account number. Never the login.
Property and possessions
The physical things — and how each one is actually owned.
- How the home is held
Sole name or joint — and if joint, whether as joint tenants or tenants in common. It matters: property held as joint tenants passes automatically to the survivor, outside the estate. Your conveyancer or the register will confirm which applies.
- Renting rather than owning
Note the landlord or agent, the tenancy type and the renewal date. A tenancy is a live obligation with a clock on it, not a possession that simply sits there.
- Vehicles, storage and outbuildings
A car, a motorbike under a cover, a storage unit still on direct debit, a lock-up, an allotment, a safe deposit box. The forgotten ones are usually the ones still costing money every month.
- Anything promised to a particular person
Write it down. Promises made warmly across a kitchen table are easily forgotten and easily disputed, and a single written line settles what a year of argument cannot.
- Keys and access
Who holds a spare key, an alarm code, a gate fob, a neighbour's copy. Record the names of the people who have them — not the codes themselves.
Digital life
The section every checklist includes and almost none get right. Record where things are. Never record the passwords.
- Your email account, first
It is the recovery route to nearly everything else. If someone can lawfully reach the email, most other doors open in the ordinary way; if they cannot, very few do.
- Accounts that hold money or take it
Payment apps, marketplaces with a balance, cloud storage, streaming, anything with a card on file. Two questions per account: does it hold value, and does it take money monthly?
- Where the photographs actually live
A phone, a laptop, a cloud account, an external drive in a drawer. It is the thing families most often go looking for, and the thing least often written down anywhere.
- Legacy contacts and inactive-account settings
Several large providers let you nominate someone in advance, inside your own account settings. Each takes minutes, and each works without anyone ever holding your password.
- Devices, and who could unlock them
Record that a device exists and who would know how to reach what is on it. Not the PIN, not the pattern, not the passcode.
- The line worth holding
A list of where is safe to keep in a drawer for years. A list of passwords is not. If you take one thing from this section, take that — it is the point on which the popular checklists are simply wrong.
People to name
Names — and whether each person has actually been told.
- Executors, and whether they know
The person named in a will to deal with an estate is an executor. Where there is no will, the person who deals with it is an administrator instead — appointed under the intestacy rules rather than chosen by you.
- Attorneys, and replacements
Whoever you name under an LPA, plus at least one replacement. A single attorney with no substitute is a plan with exactly one point of failure in it.
- A first contact for the household
The person who would be rung first. Not necessarily the executor, and not necessarily family — one name, chosen calmly, and told in advance rather than discovered.
- Guardians, if you have children under 18
Named in the will, and — the step most often skipped — asked first, properly, before the name goes anywhere near a document.
- Professionals, by name and firm
Solicitor, accountant, financial adviser, GP surgery. A firm name and a client reference is the difference between one phone call and an afternoon of them.
- Who to tell, and in what order
A short list, in the order you would want it worked through. It costs ten minutes and it is quietly the kindest item on this entire page.
Wishes
The part that is not paperwork — and the part families are most relieved to find written down.
- Funeral or cremation
Which one, whether anything is prepaid, and the provider if so. Note it somewhere findable rather than only inside the will — a will is often not read until after the funeral has already happened.
- The details that make it yours
Music, readings, who speaks, what people should wear, whether you would want flowers or a collection instead. Small things, and impossible to guess.
- Organ and tissue donation
Whether you have registered a decision, and whether the people closest to you know what it is. Both halves matter; the second one is the half usually missing.
- Care preferences, if health changes
Where you would want to be looked after, what matters most to you day to day, and what you would not want. Written calmly now, read gratefully later.
- Pets
Who takes them, what they eat, the vet's name and any medication. The most-forgotten item on every version of this list, and the one that causes the most immediate distress.
- Anything you want said
A letter, a recording, a note for one particular person. There is no required format — only that somebody knows it exists and where to find it.
One rule holds the whole list together: write down where things are and who to ask — never the passwords, PINs or security answers. A list of locations is safe in a drawer for a decade. A list of credentials is a standing risk to the person who wrote it, from the day it is written.
What happens if the will never gets made
Area one opens with the will for a reason. Where there is no valid will, the law decides — and the outcome surprises a great many people who assumed the obvious would happen. The figures below are England & Wales.
Where there is no will, the intestacy rules decide who inherits — not you.
A surviving spouse or civil partner inherits the whole estate where it is worth £322,000 or less. Above that they take £322,000, the personal possessions, and half of what remains — the rest passing to children. The figure was set on 26 July 2023.
Under the intestacy rules an unmarried or cohabiting partner inherits nothing, however long you lived together and whatever you shared. The exceptions are assets held as joint tenants, which pass automatically outside the estate, and a discretionary court claim.
The application fee is £526 where the estate is worth more than £5,000, and there is no fee at all at £5,000 or less. It rose from £300 on 13 July 2026.
There is a second difference people rarely expect. The person who deals with an estate left without a will is an administrator, not an executor, and they apply for a grant of letters of administration on form PA1A rather than a grant of probate. The right to apply follows a fixed statutory order — spouse or civil partner first, then children and grandchildren, then parents, then siblings, and on down the family tree. Applicants must be 18 or over and have mental capacity. Where nobody in that chain applies, an estate can eventually pass to the Crown as bona vacantia.
None of that is an argument for panic. It is only the reason the will sits at the top of area one rather than somewhere near the bottom. What a will does, and when it needs a solicitor
Where to go next — all free
Each of these takes one area of the checklist and gives you somewhere to actually put the answers. Nothing on this row costs anything, and none of it needs an account.
There is more of this — briefs on capacity, pensions, digital access and the rest — in the library. And if what you are facing is a parent's affairs rather than your own, there is a version of this written for that.
Questions people ask first
Whose affairs are you putting in order?
Which of these applies to you
The same material sorted by situation rather than by life area — for whoever is doing the sorting out.
Go to this pageDoing this for a parent
The version for the adult child helping — what to ask, and how to help without taking the decisions over.
Go to this pageGetting organised as a family
When more than one of you is involved — one shared record, still owned by the person it describes.
Go to this page