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by ryandrake 1479 days ago
Anyone who acts as the "head of their household" and manages the family's finances, pays the bills, and manages the day to day home ops, do your heirs a favor and write out a Death Book[1] today, that contains all your various accounts, passwords, copies of important documents, and so on. PRINT IT OUT and put it in a safe or other secure place. I recently had two acquaintances who died pretty suddenly and young-ish (in their 40s). One was prepared and had his shit together, and it helped his family more easily pick up the pieces while they grieved. The other one did NOT have his shit together at all, and the result was even more stress and phone calls piled on to his family during an already difficult time.

1: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/to-help-your-heirs-write-a...

1 comments

Good advice - tracking down all of dad's account information was very laborious after he passed away - we found an insurance policy that covered my mom that I assume he didn't know about since he never made a claim.

We have our list printed and locked in a firesafe (which is bolted to the floor and not easy to find for a thief), as well as electronically in a shared 1Password vault shared between my wife and I. My sister (and executor of our will) knows that the paper is in the fire safe, just in case something disastrous happens to both my wife and I. They'll need a locksmith to get in the safe though.