Field notes for the game.
Everything on this page is optional. Keep the worksheet in its own tab and come here when a question deserves a longer answer; nothing you read or watch here is required to finish the file.
If a printed Family File has reached you, this is all you need to know.
The file keeps two kinds of information apart on purpose. Ordinary facts, like names, institutions, and where documents live, are typed or printed. True secrets, like passwords, account numbers, and codes, appear only on ruled lines marked with a ✎ pen sign; they were written by hand and never touched a computer. That is why the printed copy is the real one: treat it like the keys it contains.
A half-finished file is still a working file. Whatever pages exist, start with the cover sheet, which says where everything else is kept, and the first-calls page, which says who already knows the situation.
Four documents do most of the work. You only need to know what each one is for, whether it exists, and where the original sleeps.
The worksheet deliberately asks where the originals live rather than what they say. Locating the papers is the family's job; interpreting them is your attorney's. If none of these documents exist yet, finishing the worksheet first makes the attorney visit shorter and cheaper: it is the intake interview, done in advance.
The encyclopedia entry: every device on this page in context, with the vocabulary your attorney will use.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estate_planningOne good master password, written in pen on the printout, beats forty passwords scattered through a notebook.
A password manager is a small vault program that remembers every password so you only have to remember one. For the Family File it changes everything: instead of listing dozens of logins that go stale within a year, the printout carries a single hand-written master password, and the vault keeps the rest current.
Pick one, move your logins into it over a week of ordinary use, then write the master password on the worksheet's ✎ lines and nowhere else. Any of these three is a sound choice:
From the encrypted-email people; a generous free tier. Its Emergency Access feature is this worksheet's idea in software: people you trust can request the vault, a waiting period passes, and the keys change hands. My full review, and how I use it, lives here.
proton.me/pass · brianthackston.com/tools/proton-passPaid, polished, and the easiest to set up for someone who dislikes computers.
1password.comFuneral homes call it pre-need planning. Families call it the conversation they wish they'd had.
When a death comes first and the planning second, a family makes a dozen purchasing decisions in seventy-two hours, grieving, at list price. Written wishes reverse that: the choices get made calmly, once, by the person they belong to.
The worksheet covers the decisions that matter most: burial or cremation, a chosen funeral home if any, anything prepaid, and the shape of the service. If prepayment interests you, ask whether the plan is transferable and what happens to the money if the home closes; your attorney can read the contract in minutes.
The FTC's plain-language guide to the Funeral Rule: itemized pricing is your right, and the questions worth asking at any pre-need meeting.
consumer.ftc.gov/articles/shopping-funeral-servicesOne practical paragraph per station, for the pages that don’t need an essay.
A fireproof document box at home is the usual answer: findable, safe from the two likeliest disasters, and no appointment needed. Your attorney’s office or a safe deposit box work too, provided the executor can get in. Wherever it lands, the cover sheet plus one told person is what makes it findable.
Birth, marriage, and death certificates are ordered from the vital-records office of the county or state where the event happened, usually online for a small fee. Order two or three certified copies at once; institutions often keep the one you hand them.
Estate documents name children in birth order by convention, so listing them that way saves your attorney a sorting step. If anyone named receives government benefits or cannot manage money safely, one sentence on the worksheet is enough; the right kind of trust does the rest.
The short list exists because the first two days are mostly phone calls: someone to sit with, someone who has keys, clergy if wanted, then the professionals. Advisors are on the page because they already know the accounts and can freeze, forward, and file faster than anyone starting cold.
The best executor is organized, nearby, and willing, in that order; seniority is not a qualification. Always name a backup. People move, age, and decline the job more often than anyone expects.
Balances change monthly and would date the file instantly; the map of institutions and account types stays true for years. One caution worth knowing: beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance override the will, so it’s worth checking they still say what’s intended.
Unclaimed life-insurance searches exist precisely because carriers were never written down. Naming the carrier and agent on the worksheet makes the locator services unnecessary.
A photo of the actual pill bottles, retaken whenever prescriptions change, beats any typed list nobody updates. The worksheet asks where that list lives; a shared photo album is a fine answer.
A single folder near the electrical panel: appliance manuals, the service people, where the water shutoff is. The worksheet points to it; the binder holds the detail.
Heirlooms carry their stories only as long as someone remembers them; a short letter in your own hand does the remembering permanently. Even three sentences per person is a real inheritance.
Return to the worksheet, or print this page for the folder where the file lives. More entries will join this page as they are written.