What Essential Documents Do I Need in My Vaults?
There's a question underneath all of this that's worth sitting with for a second: if you weren't reachable tomorrow, what would your family need to find, and how long would it take them?
For most households the honest answer is weeks. Not because anything was hidden, but because it was scattered — a policy in a drawer, an account nobody knew about, a password on a sticky note that got thrown out. This article is the list that closes that gap.
Each section below tells you what to gather, where it goes in your vault, and which fields the form will ask for — so you can collect it once and enter it once.
1. Financial accounts
Assets › Financial
The single highest-value thing in your vault. A family that doesn't know an account exists cannot claim it, and unclaimed accounts eventually escheat to the state. Add one record per account.
Gather: a recent statement from each bank, brokerage, and retirement account.
The form asks for:
- Account type — checking, savings, brokerage, 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, 529, HSA
- Institution (required) and last 4 digits of the account number
- Account title — whose name it's in. Joint accounts pass to the other holder immediately; sole accounts may not.
- Who did the bank list to receive this account? — the payable-on-death name
- Amount — a range, so it doesn't go stale
- Next review date — sets a reminder
2. Insurance policies
Assets › Life insurance · Health › Medical insurance
Gather: declarations pages for life, disability, health, homeowners, auto, and umbrella coverage. Include employer-provided life insurance — it's the one families most often miss, because no paperwork ever came home.
The life insurance form asks for: policy type, carrier (required), policy number, coverage amount, the named beneficiary, and the renewal date.
The medical insurance form asks for: carrier, member ID, group number, plan type, and the open enrollment date. Add this even if you're healthy — it's what a hospital asks for first, and it links to your emergency wallet card.
3. IDs and vital records
Personal › ID's
Gather: passports, driver's licenses, birth certificates, Social Security cards, marriage certificates, green cards, military IDs — for every member of the household.
The form asks for: document type, who it belongs to (required), the document number, the issuing authority, and the expiration date.
Fill in every expiration date, even the ones years out. Passports especially — renewal takes weeks, and the discovery usually happens when someone's checking in for a flight.
4. Legal and estate documents
Legal › Last will, Trusts, Power of attorney, Health directives, Guardianship
Gather: your will, any trusts, financial and medical powers of attorney, advance directives or living wills, and guardianship designations. If a document exists but you don't have a copy, record where it is and who drafted it — that alone saves your family a search.
The form asks for: document type, the executor, trustee, or agent, the drafting attorney or firm, the execution date, whether it was notarized, and the last review date.
Don't have a will yet? Each of these subcategories includes wizards built to your state's requirements — you can create one here rather than uploading one.
5. Children and dependents
Personal › Children & dependents
Gather: for each child or dependent adult — date of birth, school or daycare, and the medical details a caregiver would need in the first hour.
The form asks for: name (required), relationship, date of birth, who would care for them if you couldn't, school or daycare, medical or special needs, and anything else about their care.
Answer the guardian question here even if it's in your will. Your will is a legal instrument that may take weeks to surface; this is what someone reads on night one.
6. Online accounts and passwords
Personal › Web, social media & devices
Gather: email accounts first — email is the master key that resets everything else. Then banking logins, phone and computer passcodes, subscriptions, and social media.
The form asks for: the service (required), username, password, 2FA method, what should happen to the account (memorialize, close, transfer, or download the data), and when the password was last changed.
The 2FA field is the one to take seriously. A password is useless if the verification code goes to a phone that's been disconnected. Note where the backup codes are.
7. Property, vehicles, and debts
Assets › Property, Vehicles · Debts › Mortgages, Credit cards
Gather: deeds, parcel numbers, property tax bills, vehicle titles and VINs, mortgage statements, and outstanding balances.
Property asks for: type, address, deed or parcel number, annual tax amount, the tax due date, and linked insurance. Vehicles ask for: type, make and model, year, VIN, who holds the title, any lienholder, insurance carrier, and the registration renewal date.
Debts belong here as much as assets do. Mortgages and loans keep accruing whether or not anyone is opening the mail, and a family that doesn't know a payment is due finds out through a default notice.
8. Cryptocurrency and digital assets
Assets › Crypto
Gather: which coins you hold, which exchange or wallet holds them, and — the part that actually matters — where the recovery phrase lives.
The form asks for: asset or coin (required), the exchange or wallet, wallet type, where the recovery phrase is stored, and who should inherit it.
Crypto has no customer service line and no probate process. Without the recovery path, the holdings are simply gone — visible on the blockchain forever, unreachable by anyone. If you hold any, this is not an optional section.
9. Medical information
Health › Medical history & medications, Emergency wallet card
Gather: for each family member — blood type, ongoing conditions, current medications and dosages, allergies, and the names of primary and specialist doctors.
The emergency wallet card is a separate, shorter record: card holder, blood type, critical allergies, emergency contact, and a link to the medical insurance record. That's the version that rides in a wallet and gets read by a stranger in a bad ten minutes.
10. Business interests
Assets › Business interests
The form asks for: business name (required), entity type, your ownership percentage, your role, who takes over if something happens to you, whether a buy-sell agreement exists, a key contact, and a review date.
If you own any part of a business, this section protects both your family and your partners. A succession question answered in advance is a business that survives; one left open is a dispute.
11. Valuables and collectibles
Assets › Valuables & collectibles
The form asks for: item type, description, where it's kept, estimated value, whether an appraisal exists, special transfer instructions for firearms, and who should inherit it.
The inheritance field prevents more family friction than almost anything else in your vault. Grandmother's ring going to the person you meant it for, in writing, ends an argument before it starts. Firearms have their own transfer rules by state — note them.
12. Pets
Health › Pets
The form asks for: the pet's name (required), type of animal, who should care for them if you couldn't, veterinarian, medications, feeding and care instructions, and the microchip number.
Ask the person before you name them. It's a real commitment, and a pet whose designated guardian didn't know is a pet in a shelter.
13. Elder care
Health › Elderly care
The form asks for: who the care is for (required), your relationship to them, the kind of care they receive, the facility or agency, their primary doctor, key medications and dosages, monthly cost, who holds power of attorney for them, what a caregiver must know in an emergency, and a review date.
This section is for the parent you're caring for, not for you. If you're the one holding all of that in your head, it's worth writing down — for whoever might have to step in for you.
14. Funeral and burial wishes
Funeral › Funeral instructions, Burial plots
Funeral instructions ask for: the kind of service you'd want, a funeral home if you have one in mind, whether anything is prepaid, the plan number, who should lead the service, songs or readings you'd want included, who should make the arrangements, and anything else your family should know.
Burial plots ask for: how you'd like to be laid to rest, the cemetery, the plot or niche number, who holds the deed, headstone wishes, whether it's prepaid, and who should handle it.
Families make these decisions in about forty-eight hours, grieving, often disagreeing, and usually spending more than they meant to. Whatever you write here — even three lines — is a gift to them.
15. Photos and personal messages
Personal › Photos · Personal Wishes › Personal messages
You don't have to upload photos one at a time. In Personal › Photos, paste a link to the whole album — Google Photos, iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive — and your family gets the collection.
Personal messages are the letters: a title, who it's for, when it should be delivered (on your passing, on a specific date, or right away), and the note itself. A birthday message that arrives on a twenty-first birthday. Something you'd want said that's hard to say now. This is the part of the vault people come back to.
If you only do five things
- Your main bank account — with the beneficiary the bank has on file
- Life insurance — carrier, policy number, coverage, beneficiary
- Everyone's IDs — with expiration dates
- Your will — or a note saying where it is and who drafted it
- Emergency medical information — blood type, allergies, medications, contacts
That's an evening's work, and it covers the first seventy-two hours after almost anything. Then assign those records to a vault — a record with no vault reaches no one.
Work through each category offline, then enter it all in one sitting:
Essential Documents List (Excel)
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