What happens to my bank account savings if I die?

DiamondLil

IvanOpinion said:

badger09 said:

Nurse2047 said:

Can I ask what spreadsheet people use that’s  password protected ? Excel or anything else ? Thanks 

I use Excel

Same here.

And same here.

I use Excel to track budgeting, cash / savings accounts and investments. 

huw01

The thought the OP had crossed my mind last year as a lot of the digital / app only banks would to pretty invisable to anybody but me. 

My sister is my next of kin and she knows I bank with Santander but really wouldn't know of any other accounts, investments or pensions that I have.

So I prepared a list detailing the bank / building society name, institution, account number, sort code of any accounts and investments that I have. 

The list is in a google document which she has read only access to and I've also printed it off and put it in an envelope for her.

Bobblehat

Similar to others on here, I keep an encrypted Word doc for Mrs Bobblehat, she knows the password. I keep it up-to-date regularly. If she goes before I do, my next-in-line executor will be informed of its existence.

The document contains details of the location of important things, physical documents and items, and a simple embedded spreadsheet summary of Bank/BS account details and approx amounts. It also contains details of computer files, which ones are useful (and why!) and which ones to ignore!

The document also contains brief details of income and expenditure, to make it easy to contact relevant pension providers and utility companies etc. There is a table of passwords embedded for things like tech devices, online accounts and lastly, but importantly, a list of things not to bother looking for (in order to save time and worry after I pass on!) e.g. share certificates, loan agreements, to pull just a couple of examples from that list.

Yes, it takes a bit of time to keep the document up-to-date, mainly just the Bank/BS details as they change often, but not that much time in the bigger scheme of things, and I feel the effort is worth it.

nottsphil

jimexbox said:

I don't think it's morbid, it's reality. If you're in a relationship, one will die before the other. My wife is happy for me to manage our savings/pensions. Men usually die before women, so it's prudent that she has information on all accounts, as I move cash around in eachothers names. 

It would be even more prudent to have a third person in-the-know, in case you both die in a car crash. 
Just sayin' 🥺