What Should Every Family Keep in One Place?

Every household should keep a single record covering identity documents, financial accounts, insurance policies, medical information, digital account access, and legal documents such as a will or power of attorney. The most commonly missed category is digital access — without it, families are often locked out of accounts they are legally entitled to.

The problem this solves

When something happens suddenly — illness, an accident, a death — the people around you need information quickly, and it is almost always scattered. Some is in a drawer, some in an email account nobody can open, some only in one person's head.

The result is families spending weeks reconstructing basic facts during the period they are least able to. Most of that is avoidable with an afternoon's work.

What to record

Identity and personal

• Full legal names, dates and places of birth
• Passport, driving licence, SIN or NI number locations
• Birth, marriage, and divorce certificates — and where the originals are
• Immigration or citizenship documents

Financial

• Bank and credit union accounts
• Credit cards and outstanding loans
• Mortgage details and property deeds
• Pensions, RRSPs, investment accounts
• Recurring subscriptions and direct debits — often overlooked, and they keep charging
• Your accountant or financial adviser's contact details

Insurance

• Life, health, home, vehicle, travel policies
• Policy numbers, providers, and named beneficiaries
• Any employer-provided cover, which families frequently don't know exists

Medical

• GP and specialist contacts
• Current medications and doses
• Allergies and existing conditions
• Blood type
• Any advance directive or care wishes

Digital access — the most commonly missed

• Primary email accounts — the master key, since most password resets route through them
• Phone and computer passcodes
• Password manager master password
• Social media accounts and what you want done with them
• Cloud storage holding family photos
• Cryptocurrency wallets and recovery phrases, which are unrecoverable if lost
• Any domain names, websites, or online businesses

Legal

• Will — and where the signed original is held
• Power of attorney documents
• Executor's name and contact details
• Your solicitor's details
• Funeral or burial wishes

Why this should be on paper

Storing all of this in a digital file creates a single point of failure and a security risk: one compromised account exposes everything. It also assumes whoever needs it can get into your devices — which is precisely what they often cannot do.

A written record in a known secure location — a safe, a locked drawer, with a solicitor — sidesteps both problems. It cannot be hacked and it doesn't require a password.

Two people should know where it is

A perfect record nobody can find is worthless. Tell at least two trusted people where it is kept and how to access it. Review it once a year — accounts close, policies change, people move.

This isn't morbid, it's practical

This work is usually deferred because it feels like tempting fate. In practice it is one of the more caring things you can do for the people around you: it means that at the worst moment, they are not also fighting a bank for access to an account.

The Digital Life Log Book was built for exactly this — a structured, offline place to hold all of the above, with room to update it as things change.

Common questions