The Estate Planning Checklist: 12 Things Your Family Will Need to Find

When someone passes away in the United States, their family typically has about 30 days to juggle a funeral, banks, insurers, the IRS, Social Security — and dozens of accounts they may not even know exist. 67% of American adults have no clear estate plan (Caring.com, 2024). The result: a median cost of $14,000 for a contested probate, and 9–24 months to close an estate.

The good news? Most of that chaos is avoidable with a few hours of organization. Here is the checklist of what your loved ones will actually need to find.

The 12 things your family will need

1. Your will or trust documents — and the name of the attorney who holds the originals.
2. Beneficiary designations — 401(k), IRA, life insurance. These override your will, and outdated ones are the #1 source of family disputes.
3. Life insurance policies — insurer, policy number, death benefit.
4. A list of every financial account — checking, savings, brokerage, pensions.
5. Property deeds and titles — home, vehicles, and how they're titled (joint tenancy, TOD deed, trust).
6. Digital access — email, iCloud/Google accounts, password manager, 2FA backup codes, crypto seed phrases.
7. Your professional advisors — attorney, CPA, financial advisor, insurance agent, with phone numbers.
8. Advance Healthcare Directive and Durable POA — and where the signed originals live.
9. Funeral wishes — burial or cremation, pre-paid arrangements, the service you'd want.
10. Subscriptions and utilities — the invisible everyday your family will need to wind down.
11. Benefits your family can claim — Social Security survivor benefits, VA burial allowance, employer benefits.
12. Personal messages — the words you want each person to have when you're no longer there to say them.

Where should all of this live?

Not in a drawer, not in your head, and not scattered across email. The answer is one document your spouse, executor or trusted child can find in seconds — reviewed once a year, updated after every life event.

That's exactly what The Legacy Book is: a 110-page guided workbook, organized in 12 color-coded chapters, that walks you through every item on this list — in plain English, with prompts for U.S. specifics like TOD/POD designations, RUFADAA digital access and IRS forms. Fill it on screen or print it. Two hours this weekend, a lifetime of clarity for the people you love.