🗂️ Important documents checklist

Two jobs at once: knowing what you own, and making it findable by someone who is not you. The last group is the one people skip and the one that matters most.

42 items

1. Identity
2. Birth certificate
3. Passport, with the expiry date noted somewhere you will see it
4. Driving licence
5. Marriage or civil partnership certificate
6. Divorce papers
7. National insurance or social security number
8. Naturalisation or residence documents
9. Money
10. Bank account details, one line per account
11. Mortgage or loan agreements
12. Pension statements, including old workplace schemesThe forgotten pension from a job you had at twenty-four is the classic missing one.
13. Investment and share accounts
14. Tax returns for the last six years
15. Payslips and P60s or annual statements
16. Student loan paperwork
17. Property and possessions
18. Deeds or tenancy agreement
19. Mortgage redemption statement
20. Vehicle registration document
21. Warranties and receipts for anything expensive
22. Building work certificates and guarantees
23. Meter numbers and supplier accounts
24. Insurance and health
25. Home, contents and car policies
26. Life insurance and death-in-service cover
27. Health and travel insurance
28. GP and dentist details
29. Repeat prescriptions and allergies, written down
30. Organ donation preference
31. The end-of-life papers
32. Will, and where the signed original is held
33. Power of attorney, financial and health
34. Funeral wishes or a prepaid plan
35. Letter of wishes for anything not in the will
36. Make it findable
37. One folder, one place, and everyone who needs to knows where
38. Scanned copies in an encrypted folder or password manager
39. A one-page index listing what exists and where
40. Password manager access arranged for one trusted personA perfect document folder is useless if the only route to it is your unlocked phone.
41. Fireproof box or a bank deposit box for the irreplaceable
42. A date in the calendar to check this once a year