As an executor of my father’s estate, I’ve learned some lessons the past week. Here are some quick tips for you to help make it easier for your children, spouse, or other heirs when you die:
- If you have a safety deposit box in a bank, you need to make someone else signatory to the box. Be it a spouse, a child, or even a lawyer, anything’s better than you being the only one who can get into your safety deposit box. Why? Because when you die, no one can get in it until AFTER your will has cleared probate and, in some jurisdictions, a judge has issued a specific waiver for your estate to get into the box. You have a safety deposit box, in part, to store important papers. Guess what? These papers are even more important when you die. So your heirs need access to them.
- Speaking of safety deposit boxes, guess what happens when you die and someone needs access to the box? They need the key. File the key with an estate lawyer, a local family lawyer, or in an obvious place in your house. Then, tell someone where it is. It’s not important, in my opinion, to safeguard a safety deposit box key, as it is to safeguard other keys. Because no one can use it unless they can prove they have the legal right to use it.
- Keeping an envelope in your desk drawer for your heirs to read in case of your death is important. List your insurance policies (the account number and the underwriter), the companies you pay bills to regularly (gas, electric, water, auto, mortgage, etc.), the banks at which you have checking and savings accounts (and their account numbers), and anything else that someone who has to take over your life in case you die or are incapacitated needs to know. Such a list is extremely helpful. My dad died suddenly and didn’t leave us any of this information. It took 4 full days of looking through every single piece of paper in his house for us to figure out what was what. It was an enormous amount of work, and the timing is, frankly, terrible when you’re grieving.
- Make sure you have a will, and ensure your heirs know where it is. You can file it with an attorney, or you can just give a copy of it to friends or family. Whatever you do, do not store it in the safety deposit box or in a safe. Your heirs can’t get to it there!





