Free in-case-of-death binder template (printable)

Editable PDF, Word and Google Docs versions are coming. They aren’t ready yet, so for now the template prints straight from this page: each section comes out on its own sheet, ready to fill in with a pen.

If you’re still deciding what belongs in a binder at all, start with our death binder checklist, which covers what to include and what to leave out. This page is the form itself. For the wider set of documents to arrange, stage by stage, see getting your affairs in order.

What’s in the death binder template

Twelve sections, each on its own page so you can fill them in one at a time and replace a single page when something changes.

1. Start here. Your full legal name, date of birth, and the three people to call first. The one page someone should read if they read nothing else.
2. Where the documents are. A location index for your will, any trust, your financial power of attorney, your health care proxy and living will, deeds and titles. It records where each original is kept and who has copies. It does not hold the documents.
3. People and professionals. Executor, agents under each power of attorney, attorney, accountant, financial advisor, insurance agent, doctor, and backups for each.
4. Account map. Every bank, brokerage, retirement and credit account: institution, type, last four digits, and how statements arrive.
5. Debts and bills. Mortgage, loans, cards, and anything on autopay.
6. Insurance. Every policy: carrier, policy number, agent, and who is named as beneficiary.
7. Recurring charges and subscriptions. Streaming, storage units, memberships, software, anything that bills a card quietly.
8. Digital access. Which accounts matter, whether legacy contacts are set, and where the password manager’s emergency information is kept. No passwords on this page.
9. Home, vehicles and property. Keys, the safe deposit box and where its key is, storage units, vehicle titles, utilities.
10. Medical information. Doctors, pharmacy, medications, allergies, and where your advance directive is.
11. Dependents and pets. Who cares for them, and the routines someone would need on day one.
12. Final wishes and letters. Service preferences, anything prearranged, and space for letters to the people you love.

Plus a one-page update log at the back.

The five sections most templates leave out

Most free templates stop at “list your bank accounts.” These five are where families say the search actually got stuck.

How each statement arrives

The account map has a column most templates don’t: paper, email or app. An account that sends paper will announce itself in the mailbox. One that emails a login you can’t open, or lives only in a phone app, won’t. One person on r/personalfinance put it this way: in the era of paperless billing, they had “no idea how you would ever figure out” every obligation a person had.

Employer benefits and group life insurance

Group life insurance through an employer, a pension, an old 401(k) at a former job, and final pay are easy to forget because they never arrive as bills. The insurance page has a line for each employer, current and past.

Legacy contact settings

Apple, Google and Facebook each let you name someone in advance to receive access or manage your account after death. These settings only help if they were turned on while you were alive. The digital page asks, for each: is it set, and to whom? Our guides to Apple’s legacy contact and Google’s Inactive Account Manager walk through each.

Where the emergency kit is, instead of the passwords

A binder that holds every password is a theft risk sitting in a drawer. And a written password often isn’t enough anyway, because the sign-in code goes to a phone nobody can unlock (why a password list stops working). The template asks where your password manager’s emergency information is kept and who can unlock your phone, and leaves the passwords out.

The update log

The page most people skip, and the one that tells your family whether to trust the rest. Every time you change a page, write the date and what changed. A binder last touched years ago is a map of accounts you may have closed.

How to fill it in without stalling

Start with page 1 and page 4. The call list and the account map are the two pages your family would reach for first.

Do one section per sitting. Twelve short sessions are easier to finish than one long weekend.

Leave a blank rather than guess. A blank tells your executor to look. A wrong entry sends them somewhere else.

Date the bottom of every page. Then tell one person where the binder lives.

Filling it in with a parent

Many of these templates get filled in by an adult child sitting beside a parent. A few things make that easier.

Let your parent hold the pen, or at least the decisions. It’s their information, and the sections about final wishes and letters only mean something in their words.

Start with the pages that are just facts: the call list, the doctors, the account map. Leave final wishes for a later conversation.

Bring the mail. A month of statements, bills and insurance notices fills in most of the account map and the insurance page, and it surfaces accounts neither of you remembered.

Agree on where the finished binder will live and who else should know. If your parent names someone other than you as executor or agent, that person needs to know where the binder is too.

Where the template stops

A paper template has two limits. It is only as current as the last time you opened it, and it is in one place, which may not be where the emergency is. Our death binder guide covers both in more detail, along with what a binder can’t do on its own.

Common questions

Is this death binder template really free?

Yes. It prints straight from this page without an email address or an account.

Is there a Word version of the in-case-of-death binder template?

Not yet. Editable Word, PDF and Google Docs versions are being prepared. For now, print this page and fill it in by hand.

Should I write my passwords in the binder?

We'd suggest not. Record where your password manager's emergency information is kept instead, and who can unlock your phone. A printed page of passwords can be stolen and goes out of date quickly.

How often should I update it?

Whenever something changes, plus once a year. Open the update log and add the date, even if nothing changed.

Does filling in this template replace a will or other legal documents?

No. The template records where your documents are and what exists. It is not a legal document and does not replace a will, a power of attorney or an advance directive.

General information, not legal advice. Last reviewed 2026-09-26.