How can I ensure my assets don't get "lost" or unclaimed after death?

skillboy88

Hi

I want to plan for the future and have quite a few bank accounts and share trading accounts, ISA's etc. I do most of by banking, trading and investing online so don't usually have hardcopy statements.

When I pass away, I plan to leave all my assets to my wife and children. 

How can I ensure that upon my death my wife and kids are fully knowledgeable about all my various accounts?

Is there a process whereby all the companies I have these accounts with will somehow be automatically notified that I have passed and so then contact my wife?  Or, do I need to write a list of all these accounts now and give the details to my wife and kids? 

What I am concerned about is after my death, my wife isn't aware of my accounts and so the money / shares go unclaimed and are effectively "lost". 

Any help much appreciated.

Arthurarthur52

It sounds harsh but locked in the safe we have a death book. It lists all the accounts we have the Cc etc. And online passwords. 

Should one of us go the others has access to the book and if we went together a family member has keys and can obtain the information and a copy of our wills. They also have approx one months expenditure in cash to tide them over. It’s not a fun exercise but hubby has shares with Halifax holding them and I have work shares. He can claim his pension now I have a few years for early retirement. 

Not sure if this helps. 

Keep_pedalling

One of the things you can do is have a major decluttering of bank accounts, get it down to two, dealing with 10, 15 or 20 banks after a death is going to be a right pain.

Do you really need multiple share trading accounts?

We have whittled down to 2 joint current accounts, an emergency fund in a joint savings account, a not quite so emergency fund in premium bonds and one platform holding our S&S ISAs. This info is kept in our safe with a copy of our will along with other vital info for our executors such as a statement of gifts given in the last 7 years and the contact details of out solicitor and IFA.

SevenOfNine

We have assorted bank & savings accounts. Quite a few of both - this is Money Saving Expert after all! I keep a completely up-to-date list in a safe place & family know. Some of ours is joint anyway, but it's all kept on the same list together with the single things.

Flugelhorn

I agree with @Arthurarthur52 we have a list of accounts and assets with the will, gets updated every so often

Keep_pedalling

SevenOfNine said:

We have assorted bank & savings accounts. Quite a few of both - this is Money Saving Expert after all! I keep a completely up-to-date list in a safe place & family know. Some of ours is joint anyway, but it's all kept on the same list together with the single things.

I know why people did it, but is it worth it anymore now that the high interest current accounts are non where near as attractive as they were? 

naedanger

Another vote for ArthurAurthur52's method, or a variation of it. (I don't think there is a better method.)

You should also prepare a POA document, and you may find at some point in your life one of your attorneys helps or takes over the running of your affairs, in which case they should be familiar with your assets by the time you pass away.

Another thought to consider, if you are concerned: don't go fully paperless with any financial institution, always ask for at least one type of communication to be by paper.

Surfbabe

My dad left a folder of letters pre-written electronically with all addresses reference numbers etc for us to make things easier when he died. It did once we got the document open - this was in 1996 and he'd left it all on a password protected floppy disc 

skillboy88

Mickey666 said:

skillboy88 said:

Hi

I want to plan for the future and have quite a few bank accounts and share trading accounts, ISA's etc. I do most of by banking, trading and investing online so don't usually have hardcopy statements.

When I pass away, I plan to leave all my assets to my wife and children. 

How can I ensure that upon my death my wife and kids are fully knowledgeable about all my various accounts?

Is there a process whereby all the companies I have these accounts with will somehow be automatically notified that I have passed and so then contact my wife?  Or, do I need to write a list of all these accounts now and give the details to my wife and kids? 

What I am concerned about is after my death, my wife isn't aware of my accounts and so the money / shares go unclaimed and are effectively "lost". 

Any help much appreciated.

So why not just tell your wife? 
I really can't understand why you'd want to hide this sort of thing from the 'life partner' you're supposed to love and trust.

Basically, you can't rely on anything after you die.  Banks might eventually get around to looking for spouses or relatives of dormant accounts, but they are not going to be automatically notified of your death if no one knows about the accounts, so they'll just lie dormant for years, maybe decades.

You have to get your act together while you're alive!

She knows and I have already given her details about them. Just that things are always changing so just wondering the best way to go about it. A safe with a document and copy of wills sounds like a good way to go.

Mojisola

skillboy88 said:

She knows and I have already given her details about them. Just that things are always changing so just wondering the best way to go about it. A safe with a document and copy of wills sounds like a good way to go.

Add to that a list of your passwords (or clues to your passwords that your OH/executors will understand). 

MovingForwards

I've a list with a copy of my will and told my OH where to find it. It's easy to overcomplicate things.