The Second Drawer, a family paper-trail kit
The deeds, the pensions, the policies, the spare key. Plenty of families go looking for them in a hurry. This kit gets it all written down while nobody is.
Open the deskPrintable kit, $22.
The desk
When somebody goes into hospital, or doesn't come home, the people left behind can spend a long time looking for paper. Which bank. Which drawer. Which solicitor. It happens to clever people too. Keep scrolling and I'll open each part.
How long? Four sittings, an hour or two each, ideally inside a fortnight. Then one evening a year.
Part I, the letter
Not a will. A letter: who to ring first, what's arranged, what you'd like and what you very much wouldn't. The kit gives you the headings, so there's no blank page. It goes at the front of the binder, and you write it last.
The “if something happens to me” letter.
Part II, the inventory
Birth and marriage certificates, the deeds or the tenancy, insurance, pensions, the car, the will if there is one. One line each: what it is, where it lives, who to ask. The drawer finally makes sense to someone who isn't you.
UK or US? Where the two differ, the kit says so.
Part III, the accounts
Every bank, card, pension and subscription, by name, with where the statements arrive. Not one password, not one PIN. Paper is for where to look, not how to get in.
Use a password manager? Say so, and what you've arranged for emergencies. Never the master password.
Part IV, the originals
A copy is a comfort. The original is what gets asked for. The kit has a plain map for it: which room, which box, which key, and who holds the spare. I shan't say where mine lives. I've told one person, and written it down. Do the same.
The where-the-originals-are map.
Part V, once a year
The Birthday Rule: one evening in the week of your birthday, every year. Read every page, cross out what's changed, sign and date the bottom. One evening, a pen, and a cup of something. That is what stops a binder becoming another drawer nobody opens.
For a parent? Do yours first. Then you'll know what to ask, and can ask it gently.
One binder, five tabs, and a family who knows where to look.
Print it? Yes, that's rather the point. A binder on a shelf outlives a dead laptop.
Twenty seconds, be honest
Mark each one. O if only you could find it today, H if someone could, with help, B if anyone could. Nobody sees this but you. It isn't saved or sent anywhere. These are eight of the twenty in the kit.
Why I keep going on about paper
I learned property from the paperwork up: deeds, leases, the letters solicitors send. Paper is dull right up until the day it's the only thing that matters.
If you've signed something, write down where you put it.
The kit itself
The Second Drawer is a 63-page printable kit, in A4 and in US Letter (you get both, and a green cover for the front pocket), to fill in by hand and keep in a binder of your own. Binder not included. You'll have one somewhere.
And five extras at the back: the One Sheet, Show Yours First, The Other Will, Twenty-Four Words and the Finder's Cards.
Tap a page to read it larger.
Sixty-three pages in all.
$22. Printed at home, kept on the shelf.
Never in this binder: a will, advice, a password, an upload.
Not a will. For that, see a solicitor in the UK or an estate-planning attorney in the US. In the UK, MoneyHelper explains how wills work, for free.
Not advice. It isn't financial, legal or tax advice, and it won't tell you what to do with your money. It's organisation: getting what you already have written down and findable.
Not a password book. It never asks for a password, a PIN or a full account number. Nothing on paper should.
Not online. It lives on your shelf. Nothing to log in to, nothing uploaded, no copy anywhere but yours.
On every accounts page in the kit the line is printed in green: Never on this page: passwords, PINs, memorable words, security answers, full account or card numbers.
The letter, the inventory, the accounts, the originals and the yearly check, in one binder. Do it while it's dull.