Death Folder Checklist UK — Free & Printable | Valoren
Printed 24 August 2026
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Free · Nothing gatedPlanning ahead · England & Wales
The death folder checklist
A death folder is the one place your family will look when you die — for the will, the accounts, the access routes, the funeral you actually wanted. Here is everything that belongs in it.
The whole checklist is on this page. Ten groups, in full, free to print. No account, no email needed, nothing held back for later.
On-page and printable · No download to chase · Records guidance, not legal advice
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A records checklist, not legal coverage. A death folder has no legal force of its own — it tells people where things are. A will, and any lasting power of attorney, are the documents that carry authority. This page describes practice in England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. For deadlines, fees and the legal requirements themselves, check gov.uk.
§1What a death folder actually is
A death folder is not a legal document — it is a finding aid.One place that tells whoever comes next where everything is, who to call, and what you wanted. Its entire value sits in three words: found, understood, current.
Most families lose their first weeks not to grief but to searching — for the will, for the pension nobody knew about, for the password to the email address every other account resets through. None of that searching is necessary, and none of it is what you would want them doing.
Whoever finds it
On the first day they need three things: a phone number, what you wanted done, and where the will is. Put those on the first page and let the rest wait.
The executor, months on
They have to establish what existed — accounts, policies, property, debts. A list with reference numbers on it saves them writing to institutions on the off-chance.
You, a year from now
A folder is only true on the day it is written. The one that helps anybody is the one that got corrected when the bank changed and the phone was replaced.
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§2The checklist, in full
Ten groups. Work through them in any order.Most people find the first two quick and the digital one longer than they expected. Nothing here is behind a form — print it, tick it, or copy the headings into whatever you already use.
Birth certificate — and where the original is kept
Marriage or civil partnership certificate
Decree absolute or dissolution order, if you have divorced
Deed poll or any change-of-name document
Passport and driving licence, with the numbers noted
National Insurance number
Adoption papers or any court order about family status
NHS number, GP practice, and where you are registered
These are the papers every organisation asks for and nobody can find in the moment. Note where the originals live rather than stuffing them all in one folder that could be lost in one go.
2
The will, and where the original is
The document everything waits on
Whether a will exists, and the date it was signed
Where the signed original is held — firm, safe, or storage service
The reference or account number the holder files it under
Names and contact details for every executor named
Anyone who should be told they have been named, and has not been
Any codicil, and where that original sits
Any earlier will, clearly marked as replaced
A letter of wishes, if one exists, and where to find it
A copy of a will is not the will. If nobody knows which firm holds the signed original, the estate can stall before it has started — and this is one line to write.
3
Money coming in and going out
Accounts, income, debts
Current accounts — bank, sort code, last four digits only
Savings accounts, ISAs and fixed-term bonds
Premium Bonds and any National Savings holdings
Investment accounts, share certificates and the registrars used
Every pension separately, with scheme name and member reference
State pension and any benefits currently claimed
Employer, payroll number, and a named contact in HR
Direct debits and standing orders, listed by who is paid
Credit cards, loans, overdrafts and any hire purchase
Anyone who owes you money, and anyone you owe
Each scheme is a separate organisation with its own paperwork, so list them individually — never as “my pensions”.
4
Property, land and possessions
The things with paperwork attached
Your home — owned or rented, and in whose names
Land Registry title number, if the property is registered
Mortgage lender, account number, and where the deeds sit
Landlord, letting agent and tenancy dates, if you rent
Any second property, land, garage, allotment or storage unit
Vehicles, registration numbers, and where the V5C is kept
Items of real value, with any valuation or provenance you hold
Safe, lock-up or safe deposit box — and who holds the key
Write down whose names are on the title and in what shares. It is the first question anyone dealing with the property will ask, and the answer is not visible from the outside.
5
Insurance and protection
Policies that pay out, or lapse
Life insurance — insurer, policy number, and whether it is written in trust
Critical illness and income protection policies
Buildings and contents insurance
Car, travel, pet and gadget cover
Any pre-paid funeral plan, with provider and plan number
Private medical or dental cover
Death-in-service cover held through an employer
Note whether a life policy is written in trust. It is one line on the page and it is among the first things an insurer will ask about.
6
The digital side
The group most folders skip
The main email address — the one every other account resets through
How your trusted person reaches your password manager, without you writing any password down
Phone and laptop — make, model, and how they are unlocked
Subscriptions and anything that renews against a card
Social accounts, and any legacy contact or memorialisation setting already made
Photos and cloud storage, and who should end up with them
Domains, websites, or an online business you run
Loyalty points, air miles and gift-card balances
Any cryptocurrency — that it exists, and who already knows how to reach it
Write the route, never the key — the next section covers what that means in practice.
7
People, and who depends on you
The list only you can write
Children — names, dates of birth, schools
Your intentions about guardianship, and whether they appear in the will
Anyone who depends on you for care, and what a normal day looks like for them
Pets, their vet, and who has actually agreed to take them
Who should be told, in the order you would want them told
Friends who would appear in no official record anywhere
Solicitor, accountant, financial adviser — names and firms
Employer, and anyone at work who should hear it directly
No official record produces the “who to tell” list. If you do not write it, it does not exist.
8
Health, care and capacity
Needed before death, as well as after
GP practice, plus any consultant or specialist involved
Current medication, doses, and allergies
Any lasting power of attorney — LP1F for property and finances, LP1H for health and welfare — and where the registered original is
Whether an advance decision to refuse treatment exists, and where
An advance statement of your preferences, if you have written one
Your organ and tissue donation choice, and whether your family know it
Care arrangements already in place, and who pays for them
These documents matter while you are alive as much as afterwards. An attorney who cannot locate the registered original is an attorney who cannot act on it.
9
Funeral, and the day itself
Decisions, not debates
Burial or cremation, stated plainly
Any plot, plan or arrangement already paid for
Where you would want it held, and who should lead it
Music, readings, flowers — or explicitly none of them
A photograph you would be content to have used
Who should be invited, and anyone who should not be
What should happen to ashes, if that applies
Whether you want a notice published, and where
Write the decision, not the reasoning. Families argue about cremation and music because nobody left a sentence saying which — and a sentence is all it takes.
10
Messages, and what the will cannot carry
The part people actually remember
Letters to specific people, sealed or open
Items promised to someone that the will does not name
Access to photo archives, journals or anything private
Anything you want destroyed unread — say so clearly and say where
What should happen to this folder itself afterwards
Anything you would only ever say once, written down while you can
A will distributes an estate. It is a poor place for a sentence meant for one person — and most of what people want to leave behind is a sentence, not a share.
This is a records checklist, and only that. It makes what you already have findable. It does not create a will, it does not replace one, and it is not a complete account of what the law requires of an estate.
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§3What to leave out — passwords, and the rest
A folder built to be found is a poor safe.Everything above is written so it can be handed over. That same quality makes five things actively dangerous to put in it — and the first one is the one almost everybody gets wrong. Write the route, never the key.
1
Passwords, written out in full
A folder is designed to be found, which makes it the worst possible place for anything that opens an account on its own. If it is photographed, copied or simply read by the wrong person, every account is open at once. Write the route, not the key — where the password manager is, who already holds the recovery method, which phone the codes arrive on. Check your own provider's terms before you write anything down; they set what they allow.
2
PINs, card numbers and security answers
Mother's maiden name, first school, first pet. These are credentials, not biography — and a folder that holds them has to be guarded like a bank card rather than filed like a document. Leave them out entirely. Anyone with lawful authority after a death is asked for evidence, not for your memorable word.
3
Anything you have not dated
An account number that closed two years ago sends an executor to the wrong institution, and they have no way of knowing. Date the front page, and date every page you change. A reader who can see how old a page is knows how far to trust it; a reader who cannot has to verify all of it from scratch.
4
Anything you would not want read aloud
Assume this folder is opened by whoever finds it, at the worst hour of their life, without you there to explain the context. If a line would wound someone who was never meant to see it, put it in a sealed envelope addressed to one person and note in the folder that it exists. That is a different object with a different reader.
5
The only copy of anything
If the folder is the sole place a document exists, one fire or one flood takes the document and the map to it together. Note where originals live rather than gathering them all in one box, and keep at least one record in a second place — another building, another person, another form.
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§4Where to keep it, and who should know
The commonest failure is not a missing document.It is a complete, careful folder that nobody could find — in a house being cleared by people who did not know to look for one. A folder nobody can find is the same as no folder.
✓One physical copy somewhere fire-safe, and known.
✓One person who knows it exists — and knows how to reach it without you.
✓A second person, in case the first is unreachable, abroad, or travelling with you.
✓A note inside saying who else holds a copy, so nobody works from an old version.
✓A date on the front page, and a date against every page you change.
✓Nothing in it that would harm anyone if the wrong person read it first.
If you keep a digital version alongside the paper one, say so on the front page of both — and make them agree. Two folders that disagree are worse than one that is slightly out of date, because the reader has no way of knowing which one to believe.
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§5If you came here for an end-of-life planning checklist
End-of-life planning has two halves, and only one of them is this page.The decisions half is the will, the lasting power of attorney (LP1F for property and finances, LP1H for health and welfare), the funeral you want, the care you would accept. The records half — what exists, where it is, who to contact — is the folder above.
Most people need both, and they fail in opposite ways. Decisions get made and then never written down anywhere findable. Records get written down and then never revisited. The folder is where the decisions land so they can be found — which is why the two lists keep collapsing into each other.
A folder written once is a folder that will be wrong.Accounts close. Policies lapse. People move, and phones get replaced. The checklist above costs you an afternoon; the maintenance is the part that decides whether any of it still works in five years. There are two ways to carry that, and neither of them is required — the page above is complete on its own.
The Household Continuity Dossier£195 first year, then £99/year
The same ten groups, held as records rather than as a folder you have to remember to revisit.Each record has its own page, its own prompts, and a review cycle so the version your family opens is the current one — not the one written the year you set it up. Your trusted person reaches it with one link, without an account.
If you would rather answer questions than face a blank folder. You work through a short set of prompts and get back a finished, printable brief within one business day — no subscription, no account. It is the done-for-you version of the first pass, not a replacement for keeping it current. The £29 counts in full toward the dossier’s first year if you move up within 30 days — nothing you start with is wasted.
Already dealing with a death rather than planning for one? The Executor's First Hour (£179, prepared and sent within 12 hours) is built for that. If it is a parent you are supporting while they are still here, that is Caring for a Parent (£79).
Not doing this today?
This page will still be here.
Leave an email and we'll send you a link back to this checklist. Everything above stays free and open either way.
§7Questions, answered plainly
A death folder is one place holding everything a family needs to find after a death — documents, accounts, contacts and wishes. It has no legal standing of its own.
It is a finding aid: it tells whoever comes next where things are and who to call, so nobody spends the first fortnight opening drawers. Some people call it an in-case-of-death folder, a death file, or an if-I-die folder. They are the same object under different names.
This page is the template, and there is a print-ready PDF of it. The full checklist above is the complete list — nothing is held back behind a form, an account or a payment.
Download the PDF, or print the page straight from your browser — or copy the ten group headings into whatever you already use. There is no email to wait for and no signup: the page and the file carry the same complete list, and both stay here.
Live passwords, PINs, full card numbers and security answers. A folder is designed to be findable, which makes it a poor place for anything that opens an account on its own.
Write the route, not the key — where the password manager is, who already holds the recovery method, which phone the codes arrive on. Assume the folder will be read by whoever finds it, at the worst moment, without you there to explain it.
Somewhere fire-safe, and known to at least two people. A folder nobody can find is the same as no folder at all.
Tell one person it exists and how to reach it, tell a second in case the first is unreachable, and write inside the folder who else holds a copy. If you keep a digital version as well, note where it is — and make sure the two say the same thing.
They overlap, but they are not the same. An end-of-life planning checklist covers decisions — making a will, setting up a lasting power of attorney, funeral wishes, care preferences.
A death folder covers records: what exists, where it is, who to contact. Most people need both halves, and the folder is where the decisions get written down so they can actually be found afterwards.
No. A will is a legal document with formal requirements; a folder is a set of notes, and it carries no authority to give anything to anyone.
An instruction in a folder does not override what a will says. Use the folder to record that a will exists, where the signed original is held and who the executors are — and check gov.uk for what making a valid will in England and Wales involves.
Whenever something in it stops being true, and once a year regardless. Accounts close, policies lapse, people move, phones get replaced.
Put a date on the front page and on every page you change, so anyone reading it knows how far to trust it. This is the part that quietly fails: almost everyone writes a folder once, and almost nobody goes back to it.
Same object — the binder is the American name for it, and most templates under that name are written for US paperwork. This checklist is the England-and-Wales version of the same idea.
It exists because of what happens in the weeks after a death: banks usually freeze sole accounts once they are told — so money in an account is not the same as your family being able to reach it (how frozen accounts work) — and the government's Tell Us Once service tells the state, not the banks, insurers or pension providers, who each have to be told separately (the free Notification Map).
The folder is what carries your family through exactly that stretch: who to call, where things are kept, and in what order.