Finding accounts
How to find someone's accounts after they die
When nobody left a map, the search still has a shape — the paper trail, the tax record, the free official locators, and the credit bureaus, in the order that saves the most months.
Guidance
Plain-language help for what comes next.
Short, careful guides on how different accounts and policies are generally found and claimed — written for families, in clear language. They explain how things usually work, so the people you love aren’t left guessing.
A small, growing library, grouped by where things are held. Each guide covers one kind of account or decision, in the time it takes to read a letter.
Start here
Checklist
A digital estate planning checklist
Seven steps, one evening — the inventory, the beneficiary forms that quietly override a will, the legacy tools, the password manager, the instructions, the map, and the yearly review.
Retirement & benefits
Employer plans
What happens to a 401(k), pension, or stock plan when someone dies
Workplace retirement and stock plans are among the hardest assets for families to find — and the paperwork on file can quietly override a will. Here’s how they generally work, and what to look for.
Retirement
What happens to an IRA when someone dies
An IRA passes by the beneficiary form on file, not the will — and the rules for inheriting one changed recently. How they generally work, and how to find the custodian.
Bank & investment accounts
Bank accounts
What happens to bank accounts and CDs when someone dies
Payable-on-death designations, FDIC and NCUA insurance, and what happens to an account that goes quiet — plus how a family claims what’s there.
Investments
Transferring brokerage and investment accounts after a death
Transfer-on-death registration, how a custodian moves holdings to a beneficiary, and what records a family needs to locate the account.
Savings bonds
Finding and claiming savings bonds and Treasury securities after a death
Paper vs. electronic bonds, when they stop earning, and how families find forgotten or matured bonds now that Treasury Hunt has closed.
Property & insurance
Real estate
What happens to real estate and property when someone dies
How you hold title often matters more than the will — survivorship and transfer-on-death deeds, and what happens to the mortgage.
Vehicles
What happens to a car or other titled property when someone dies
With a car, the title — not the will — usually decides who gets it. Joint and transfer-on-death titles, DMV transfers, and what happens to the loan.
Life insurance
Finding a life insurance policy and filing a claim after a death
The beneficiary form pays out, not the will — how to find a lost policy with the free NAIC locator, and how to file a claim.
Digital & the final sweep
Online accounts
What happens to your online accounts when you die
Google, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft each handle a death differently — the legacy tools worth turning on today, the paperwork path, and the password-manager decision that matters most.
Digital assets
What happens to crypto and digital assets when someone dies
Exchange-held vs. self-custodied crypto, the lost-seed-phrase problem, and how the law lets an executor reach online accounts.
Unclaimed property
Unclaimed property: how a family finds what was left behind
The catch-all final sweep — how the state unclaimed-property system works, and how a family systematically searches every source above.
The quieter way
Reading this later is harder. Recording it now is easy.
Most of what these guides describe gets simpler if the people you love already know where to look. That’s the whole idea behind Trust Relay — a quiet map of where your accounts live, kept ready.