The “When I Die” Folder: What Australians Should Put In It

Almost everyone who decides to make a “when I die” folder stalls in the same place. They know why they want one. They just don’t know what actually goes inside it. This is the answer — what to put in, what to deliberately leave out, what to keep it in, and who to tell.

It goes by a dozen names. A when-I-die folder. An in-case-I-die binder. A death folder. The legacy drawer. Plenty of people just call it “the box”, which is accurate, because it usually is one.

The name doesn’t matter. What matters is that it exists, that the right things are in it, and that somebody other than you knows where it lives. Get those three right and you have saved your family the single most exhausting part of the fortnight after a death: the detective work.

What the folder actually is

A when-I-die folder is not a legal document, and that is the most freeing thing about it. You cannot get it wrong. You don’t need a solicitor, a witness or a particular form of words. Nobody is going to contest your handwriting.

What it is, is a map. Your Will says who inherits. Your folder says where everything is, who to ring, and what you wanted — and unlike the Will, it gets used in the first week, not the third month.

That distinction shapes everything below. You are not building an archive. You are writing a note to a tired, grieving person who needs to make about forty phone calls and has no idea where to start.

The eight things that go in it

Think of the contents in three kinds: originals (things that live in the folder), copies (things whose originals live elsewhere), and pointers (a note saying where something is, rather than the thing itself). Most of a good folder is pointers. That is what keeps it safe to leave in a cupboard.

1. A “read this first” page

One page at the very front, in plain language: what this folder is, who to ring first, where the Will is, and where the funeral wishes are. If the folder had only this page it would still be worth making. Date it, and sign it — not for legal reasons, just so nobody wonders whether it’s current.

2. The people to call

Names and numbers for your executor, your solicitor, your accountant, your financial adviser, your GP, your closest friends, and any employer or club that would want to know. Write which is which. Your family will know your sister’s number by heart; they will not know your accountant’s.

3. Your Will — a copy, and where the original is

Put a copy in the folder and write down where the signed original is held: the solicitor’s name and suburb, the Public Trustee, or the safe at home. The original is what gets used, and a family that can’t find it can be stuck for weeks.

4. Your enduring power of attorney and care directive

Copies again, plus where the originals are and who is appointed. Note that these documents are named differently in every state and territory — an enduring power of attorney in one place, an enduring guardianship or advance personal plan in another — so write down exactly what you signed and when.

5. Your money map

Which banks, which accounts, which insurers, which loans. Not balances — those change, and a stale figure is worse than none. Just the institutions and roughly what sits where, so nobody has to guess whether there is a fourth account somewhere.

6. Your super, on its own page

Every fund you hold, your member number, and — the part almost everyone forgets — who you have nominated and the date you last renewed it. There’s more on why this matters below.

7. Your funeral and final wishes

Burial or cremation, any pre-paid plan and with whom, the music, the readings, who you want to speak, and anything you emphatically do not want. Families make these decisions inside 48 hours, exhausted, often disagreeing. A page in your handwriting settles arguments that would otherwise last years.

8. Where things are

The safe and where the key or combination is recorded. The deed box. Spare car and house keys. The storage unit nobody remembers. Title documents, share certificates, the jewellery that’s meant to go to someone specific.

What should never go in it

This is the half of the job nobody writes about, and it’s the half that keeps the folder safe enough to actually leave somewhere findable.

• Full passwords, PINs or card numbers. A folder is not a safe. Record where the passwords live — a password manager and who has the master key, or a sealed envelope in the safe — so the folder points at them instead of holding them.
• The only signed original of your Will, unless the folder itself is in a fireproof safe. Copies are replaceable. That one page is not.
• Irreplaceable originals you’d struggle to get again — certificates, title deeds — if the folder is going to live in a kitchen drawer.
• Anything you’d hate a burglar to read. A useful test: if this folder were photographed and posted online, what in it would actually hurt? Take that out and replace it with a pointer.

What to keep it in

People overthink this and then never start. In order of how much I’d actually recommend them:

• A display folder with plastic sleeves, five dollars from the newsagent. Genuinely fine. Slip a page into each sleeve, add as you go. The low stakes are the point — you’ll actually begin.
• A fireproof document bag or small home safe. Worth it if you’re keeping originals. A fireproof bag costs less than a tank of petrol and turns the folder into somewhere you can safely keep the Will.
• A ring binder with dividers, if you like being able to reorder things. Label the spine so it’s obvious from across the room.

A digital version — a document on the computer, or a folder in the cloud — is a good second copy and a poor only copy. See the lock-out problem below.

Where to keep it

The commonest failure of a when-I-die folder isn’t a missing section. It’s that it was made beautifully, stored sensibly, and nobody could find it.

At home, with two people told, is usually the right answer. A bedroom cupboard, a filing drawer, a fireproof bag on the top shelf — anywhere consistent. Some people give a full copy to their executor and keep the original at home. That redundancy costs nothing and solves most problems.

A bank safe deposit box is generally a poor choice. Getting into one after a death can require exactly the paperwork the folder was meant to help you find — which is a circle your family doesn’t need to be standing in.

If your solicitor holds the Will, that’s ideal for the Will — but keep the folder itself where your family can reach it without an appointment.

Three Australian things people miss

Most of the advice online about death folders is American. These three are where that advice quietly stops applying.

Your super probably isn’t covered by your Will

This surprises almost everyone. Superannuation generally sits outside your estate, so it isn’t distributed by your Will unless it’s specifically directed to your estate. Most funds pay the death benefit at the trustee’s discretion — unless you have a valid binding death benefit nomination on file. And with many funds, that nomination lapses after three years unless it’s a non-lapsing one.

So a Will that says everything goes to your children can sit alongside a super fund paying out somewhere else entirely. Check the nomination on every fund you hold, write down the date you last renewed it, and put a reminder in the calendar.

Your power of attorney stops the moment you die

An enduring power of attorney covers the period when you’re alive but can’t make decisions. It ends at death. After that, authority passes to the executor named in your Will. Families regularly get this wrong — an attorney keeps paying bills from an account they no longer have authority over, and it becomes a mess to unwind. One line in your folder explaining the handover saves a real headache.

The digital lock-out

MyGov, online banking and email are increasingly protected by a code sent to your mobile. When the phone account is cancelled — often one of the first things a family does — that code goes nowhere, and the accounts holding the bills, the super statements and the insurance become unreachable.

Note in the folder which phone number the codes go to, and say plainly: don’t cancel this number yet. It’s worth knowing that the Australian Death Notification Service lets a family notify many banks and organisations at once, which removes a good chunk of the phone calls.

Who to tell, and what to say

Two people, minimum. Your executor and one other — a partner, an adult child, a sibling. One person can be away, unwell, or the one you’ve just lost.

You don’t need a solemn conversation. Something like:

That’s the whole job. In my experience people brace for this conversation and find the other person is relieved — because they’d been wondering how to raise it themselves.

The twenty-minute version

If you do nothing else this week, do this. Take one sheet of paper and write:

• Where the Will is, and who the executor is
• Which banks you’re with
• Which super fund, and whether the nomination is current
• Who to ring first — three names and numbers
• Burial or cremation
• Where the passwords are kept

Put it in an envelope, write “If something happens to me” on the front, and tell one person where it is. That sheet already does eighty per cent of the work. Everything above is just filling it in properly, at your own pace.

When you’re ready for the full sweep, our end-of-life planning checklist walks through every category of information worth recording, section by section.

Official resources worth knowing

• Services Australia — what to do when someone dies — who to tell, registering the death, and the 28-day notification window
• Australian Death Notification Service — notify multiple banks and organisations in one go
• Moneysmart — wills and powers of attorney — the government’s plain-English guide to the legal documents
• ATO — deceased estates — final tax returns and getting authority to deal with the ATO

Common questions

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