What do I need to leave my family?
Most people assume their family will figure it out. In practice, figuring it out takes months — and costs far more than it should, in time, money, and stress. Here's what actually needs to exist before you're gone.
A will
A will is the legal document that says who gets what. Without one, the law decides — and the law's answer is often not what you would have chosen. If you're married or in a civil partnership, your spouse doesn't automatically inherit everything. If you're unmarried, a long-term partner may get nothing at all.
A will doesn't need to be complex. It needs to exist, to be signed correctly in front of two witnesses, and to be findable. If your family can't locate it, it's almost as if it doesn't exist.
Where your money and accounts are
Banks don't proactively tell families what accounts the deceased held. Neither do pension providers, NS&I, investment platforms, or HMRC. Your family will need to contact each one individually — but only if they know to look.
The most useful thing you can leave is a simple list: each bank or provider, the rough account type, and where the login details or paperwork can be found. It doesn't need to include passwords — just enough that someone knows where to start.
Insurance and pension details
Life insurance policies are only paid out if someone knows to claim. The same is true for death-in-service benefits from an employer, and any pension that carries a lump-sum death benefit. These can be substantial amounts — and they go unclaimed every year simply because the family didn't know the policy existed.
Write down the provider names, policy numbers, and where the documents are kept. That's all it takes.
Your funeral wishes
Burial or cremation. A church service or something secular. A specific piece of music. Whether you want flowers. These feel like small details, but when a family is grieving, every decision they have to make from scratch costs emotional energy they may not have. Writing down even a rough preference removes that burden entirely.
If you've taken out a prepaid funeral plan, make sure your family knows where the documentation is and who the provider is.
Digital accounts and subscriptions
Email accounts, photo libraries, social media profiles, streaming services — these are increasingly significant parts of a person's life, and dealing with them after a death is genuinely complicated. Some platforms allow you to designate a legacy contact or set instructions for your account. Others require a death certificate and a formal process.
At minimum, leave a note of which accounts exist and what you'd like done with them. A password manager reference, or the location of a physical list, is enough.
A letter, if you want to
None of the above is as hard to write as a personal letter — but many people find it the most important thing they leave. It doesn't have to be long. It doesn't have to cover everything. It just has to say something.
Where to keep all of this
The information needs to be accessible to the right people, but private enough that you're comfortable recording it honestly. A physical folder works, but can be lost, damaged, or forgotten. A secure digital record is better — provided your family know it exists and can access it when needed.
When I'm Gone is built for exactly this: a private, encrypted record of everything listed above, structured so it's complete and usable. It's a one-off £12.95, takes an hour or two to fill in, and is there whenever your family needs it.