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Estate planning checklist

The single thing that makes the weeks after a death easier or harder is whether the executor can quickly find what they need: the will, the bank accounts, the pension nominations, the insurance policies, the digital-account access. None of this is intellectually difficult, but tracking it down from cold while grieving turns a six-week job into a six-month one. The point of estate planning is to compress that work into a single afternoon now, in exchange for not making the family do it later.

This guide is a checklist of the documents and information that matter, with cross-references to the dedicated guides on each one.

If you can only do one thing today: write down on a single sheet of paper (a) where the will is stored, (b) the name of the solicitor who drafted it (if any), and (c) which executor knows about it. That sheet is the spine of an estate plan; everything else can be added later.

Document What it does Effective when
Will Names beneficiaries, executor, guardians for under-18 children After death
Lasting power of attorney Authorises an attorney to manage finances and/or welfare While alive but lacking capacity
Advance decision to refuse treatment Refuses specific medical treatments in advance While alive but lacking capacity
Letter of wishes Non-binding personal guidance to executor and family After death

The first three each need their own dedicated guide:

  • Making a will — the legal formalities, the five drafting routes from DIY to specialist solicitor, the clauses every will needs, choosing executors, when to update, and the pricing realities (£10–£30 DIY, £90–£300 online, £150–£600+ solicitor).
  • Lasting power of attorney — the LPA in England and Wales, Continuing and Welfare Powers of Attorney in Scotland, the Enduring Power of Attorney in Northern Ireland, registration fees (£92 / £99 / £180), and why setting one up costs a fraction of the Court of Protection alternative.
  • Advance decisions and living wills — what the ADRT under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 can and cannot refuse, the validity and applicability tests, the stricter formalities for refusing life-sustaining treatment, and the position in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The letter of wishes is a non-binding personal note that sits alongside the will. It explains the reasoning behind specific decisions (especially useful where someone has been deliberately left out, to head off a later challenge), records funeral preferences, sets out parenting values for any nominated guardians, and lists where everything else lives. It can be updated whenever the testator wants without re-signing the will.

The financial inventory

Every UK adult deals with somewhere between 10 and 50 financial relationships — bank accounts, savings, ISAs, pensions, life insurance, investment platforms, mortgages, credit cards, premium bonds, occasional accounts at building societies or NS&I. The executor has to identify and notify each one. A current list takes the executor's first month off the critical path.

The minimum useful inventory:

  • Bank and building society accounts — institution, sort code, account number, branch (where it matters).
  • Cash savings, ISAs, NS&I products — provider, account number, NS&I holder's number for premium bonds.
  • Investment accounts — platform, account number, approximate value, asset mix (whether the portfolio is held in trust or in personal name matters for tax).
  • Workplace and personal pensions — provider, scheme reference, the date the expression of wishes form was last updated.
  • Life insurance and death-in-service — insurer, policy number, sum assured, whether the policy is written in trust (a policy in trust pays directly to the named beneficiary outside the estate, which matters for both inheritance tax and probate).
  • Mortgage and other secured loans — lender, account number, presence of a mortgage protection policy.
  • Unsecured credit — credit cards, personal loans, hire-purchase, buy-now-pay-later.

For a fuller treatment of which institution does what when notified, see Notifying banks after a death and Claiming life insurance.

Reference numbers

Half a dozen numbers turn up in nearly every official conversation. The executor will need them for the death registration, for Tell Us Once, for HMRC, for the DWP, and for the probate application:

  • National Insurance number — needed for almost every government interaction.
  • NHS number (England and Wales) / CHI number (Scotland) / Health and Care number (Northern Ireland) — needed for the death certificate paperwork and any NHS-related benefit cessation.
  • Passport number — needed for some Tell Us Once interactions and to cancel the passport.
  • Driving licence number — needed to notify the DVLA (or the DVA in Northern Ireland).
  • Council Tax account number — needed to claim the Class F exemption or other reduction.
  • Tax reference (UTR) — for self-employed people, sole traders, and anyone in self-assessment.

Keep these in a single sheet — typed, not handwritten — labelled clearly and stored where the executor can find it.

Property, vehicles, and belongings

  • Property deeds and title — for registered property in England and Wales, the title is held electronically by HM Land Registry and the executor can buy a copy for £3; for unregistered property, the original deeds matter and their location should be recorded. Equivalent registers: Registers of Scotland (sasines / Land Register); Land Registry of Northern Ireland.
  • Tenancy agreements — landlord contact, deposit-protection scheme, tenancy end date.
  • Vehicle V5C registration documents — needed to notify the DVLA; finance balance for any car bought on PCP or HP.
  • Self-storage units, garage rental, lock-up workshop — easy to forget; the contract may not be at the home address.
  • Items kept somewhere other than home — items at a relative's house, a holiday home, a shared workshop. List the location.

For a comprehensive guide to dealing with non-cash possessions after death, see Personal belongings after a death.

Subscriptions, digital accounts, and access

The thing every modern executor underestimates. A typical adult has 30–80 active subscriptions and online accounts; many continue to debit accounts long after death because nobody knew they existed. The base list:

  • Email accounts — especially the primary account, which is where password-reset emails for everything else go. Note the provider and (if accepted by the family) the password or recovery method.
  • Social media — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, etc. Each platform has its own bereavement process (memorialisation, legacy contact, deletion). Recording a preference now saves the family making it later.
  • Streaming and subscription services — Netflix, Spotify, gym memberships, magazine subscriptions, app store auto-renewals, cloud storage, software licences.
  • Online shopping accounts with stored payment — Amazon, supermarket sites, Deliveroo, anywhere a card is on file.
  • Domain names, websites, hosting — small businesses and side projects often hide here.
  • Cryptocurrency wallets and exchange accounts — without the seed phrase or key, the asset is unrecoverable. Where to store keys is itself a hard question — a sealed envelope with a solicitor or a password manager with emergency-access enabled is usually safer than a note in the same place as the will.

A password manager with a documented emergency-access feature (most consumer password managers have one) is the cleanest current answer. The alternative — a list of passwords on paper — is high-risk while alive and a single point of failure when needed.

People to notify

A list of the relationships that need to know about the death within the first few weeks. Most of these can be handled via Tell Us Once for government bodies; the rest is private contact. Include for each: name, role, phone, email, and any account or reference number.

  • GP surgery and dentist (the GP usually triggers cancellation of repeat prescriptions; the dentist needs to close the patient record).
  • Solicitor, accountant, financial adviser, mortgage broker.
  • Employer, pension administrator, professional body.
  • Funeral director (if there is a prepaid plan).
  • Insurance providers — home, motor, travel, pet, life.
  • Utility suppliers — gas, electric, water, broadband, mobile.
  • Professional and personal contacts the family would not otherwise think to tell.

Where to keep it all

Three principles:

  1. Together — physically in one folder (often called a "death folder" or "in-case-of-death file") or digitally in a single labelled location. Scattered information is found late.
  2. Findable — labelled clearly, in the place a sensible person would look first (the household paperwork drawer, the home-office filing cabinet). Not in a bank safe deposit box, which is sealed at death.
  3. Known — at least two people know the folder exists and where it is. The executor named in the will should be told; a spouse or partner usually should be too.

For will-specific storage options (HMCTS Probate Service deposit at £23 in England and Wales, Books of Council and Session in Scotland, solicitor storage), see Where to keep a will.

Specific decisions worth recording

A handful of decisions sit outside the legal documents but matter enough that the family will guess in their absence:

  • Funeral preferences — burial or cremation, style (formal, celebration, quiet), music, readings, religious or secular tone, who should be invited. Not legally binding except in specific Scottish circumstances but always treated seriously where documented. See Recording funeral wishes.
  • Organ donation — the UK has moved to deemed consent (England 20 May 2020, Wales December 2015, Scotland 26 March 2021, Northern Ireland 1 June 2023). The family is still consulted; recording a clear position resolves any uncertainty. [source: organ-donation/uk-laws-2026-05-02.html]
  • Care of pets — who takes the animal, who can be relied on as a substitute, where the vet records and pet insurance live.
  • Guardian for any children under 18 — only legally appointable through the will, but the conversation with the proposed guardian and the parenting-values context should sit in the letter of wishes. See Naming guardians in your will.
  • Pension expression of wishes — for each pension separately. See expression of wishes form and the April 2027 IHT changes.

A practical sequencing

The whole list can look daunting. A realistic order:

Today (an afternoon's work)

  • Write down where the will is stored (or note that there isn't one).
  • List bank accounts, pensions, and life insurance with reference numbers.
  • Write down NI number, NHS number, passport number, driving licence number on a single sheet.
  • Tell one trusted person where this information lives.

Within the next month (when there is time to make the appointments)

Within six months (the more reflective work)

  • Decide whether an advance decision to refuse treatment is wanted; if so, draft it and share with GP and family.
  • Document digital-account access: passwords, recovery methods, key social-media preferences.
  • Have the conversation with whoever is named as guardian for any under-18 children.

Review every 3 to 5 years, and after every major life event (marriage, divorce, birth of a child, death of a beneficiary or executor, sale of a business, move into or out of Scotland) — see the per-document review triggers in the Making a will guide.

What this guide doesn't cover

If you're struggling, you don't have to do this alone. Samaritans (116 123, 24/7) | Cruse Bereavement Care (0808 808 1677) | Mind (0300 123 3393)

Next: End-of-life planning

Last verified: 2 May 2026 against the underlying topic guides referenced throughout.