Nobody can find your accounts if you have not written them down

These are listed in the order worth acting on, which with financial record keeping is not the order they are usually presented in.

Paperless created the problem

When statements arrived by post, an executor or family member could identify accounts simply by opening the mail for a few months. Electronic statements leave nothing to find, and access to the email account holding them is itself often restricted.

Accounts with providers the family has never heard of are effectively invisible. Several countries operate tracing services for lost pensions and dormant accounts, but they rely on knowing what to look for.

The list is the deliverable

A single document listing every institution, the type of account and roughly where the paperwork lives is more useful than any amount of filed detail. It does not need balances, which go out of date immediately and create a security risk. Including old workplace pensions, overseas accounts, premium bonds or equivalents, and any investments held directly is where the value is.

Reviewing it annually, at the same time as any other financial review, keeps it current with almost no effort.

Credentials need a deliberate method

Writing passwords in a notebook is insecure; storing them only in your head is unrecoverable. A password manager with a documented recovery process, or a sealed record held with legal documents, are the two common approaches. Some services offer legacy or inheritance features nominating someone who can request access after death, which is worth configuring where available.

Sharing live credentials during your lifetime may breach terms of service and is not the same as arranging lawful access.

Digital assets and subscriptions

Photographs, documents and correspondence held in cloud services can be lost entirely if nobody can access the account. Recurring subscriptions continue charging after death until somebody cancels them, which requires knowing they exist. Domain names, online businesses and cryptocurrency holdings are frequently unrecoverable without keys or credentials.

Practically, for cryptocurrency in particular, no institution can restore access, which makes documented key custody essential.

Tell someone where the list is

A perfectly maintained record nobody can find is the same as no record. The location should be known to your executor and to at least one other trusted person. Keeping it with a will held by a solicitor, or in a home safe whose existence is known, are both workable.

Practically, storing it exclusively in an encrypted file whose password nobody has is a common and self-defeating arrangement.

The right answer depends on your tax situation, which this cannot see.

It helps while you are alive too

The same list is what you need after a phone is lost, a card is stolen, or a provider fails. It also surfaces forgotten accounts paying poor rates and subscriptions nobody uses, which usually pays for the effort immediately. For someone managing a relative's affairs under a power of attorney, it is the difference between weeks of work and an afternoon.

Over a full year, requirements around estate administration and digital access differ by country, so local legal advice is worth taking for anything complex.

Everything above, in order of what to do first

1. Paperless created the problem. When statements arrived by post, an executor or family member could identify accounts simply by opening the mail for a few months.
2. The list is the deliverable. A single document listing every institution, the type of account and roughly where the paperwork lives is more useful than any amount of filed detail.
3. Credentials need a deliberate method. Writing passwords in a notebook is insecure; storing them only in your head is unrecoverable.
4. Digital assets and subscriptions. Photographs, documents and correspondence held in cloud services can be lost entirely if nobody can access the account.
5. Tell someone where the list is. A perfectly maintained record nobody can find is the same as no record.
6. It helps while you are alive too. The same list is what you need after a phone is lost, a card is stolen, or a provider fails.

The takeaway

Write the list, keep it current, and make sure somebody knows where it is. Everything else is detail.

Costs compound as reliably as returns do, and in the same direction.