Why most people never start

Estate planning sits in the same mental category as going to the dentist. You know you should. You intend to. You keep not doing it.

Part of the reason is the framing. "Estate planning" sounds like something wealthy people do with solicitors. Marble offices, thick documents, fees by the hour.

But what your family actually needs is simpler than that. It's information. Where things are. Who to call. What you want. Most of it can be gathered in a single weekend if you know what you're looking for.

Here's the full checklist.

Legal documents

  • Will — Do you have one? When was it last updated? Where is the original stored? Who is your solicitor?
  • Lasting Power of Attorney (Property and Financial) — Allows someone to manage your finances if you lose capacity. Have you made one? Who is named?
  • Lasting Power of Attorney (Health and Welfare) — Allows someone to make medical decisions if you can't. Separate document from the financial LPA.
  • Funeral wishes — Burial or cremation? Any specific requests? Have you prepaid a funeral plan?

Financial accounts

  • List every current account, savings account, and ISA — bank name, account number, sort code
  • Note whether each account is sole or joint, and who the other account holder is
  • Premium Bonds — do you have any? Value? NS&I account number?
  • Cash ISAs and investment accounts
  • Pension pots — every workplace and personal pension you've ever had. Provider name, policy number, estimated value. Crucially: who is nominated as beneficiary?
  • State pension entitlement — your National Insurance record on the HMRC website

Property and assets

  • Your home — mortgage lender, account number, outstanding balance, whether it's in sole or joint names
  • Other property you own
  • Vehicles — registration numbers, whether they're owned or on finance
  • Valuables — jewellery, art, collections. Are they insured? Do you have valuations?

Protection and insurance

  • Life insurance policies — provider, policy number, sum assured, who the beneficiary is. Note: life insurance paid to a named beneficiary doesn't go through your estate, so it won't be covered by your will.
  • Critical illness cover
  • Income protection
  • Building and contents insurance — provider and renewal date

Digital life

  • Email accounts — your primary email address(es) and whether you use two-factor authentication
  • Social media accounts and your wishes for them (deactivate, memorialize, or delete)
  • Password manager — if you use one, how does your family access the master password?
  • Phone passcode — this unlocks most other things
  • Subscriptions — Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, and anything else charging regularly. These continue until cancelled.
  • Cryptocurrency, if you hold any — where it's held, how it's accessed

People to contact

  • Your solicitor
  • Your IFA or financial adviser
  • Your accountant
  • Your GP surgery
  • The executor of your will — do they know they're named? Do they know where the will is?

Children and family

  • If your children are under 18, who is named as guardian in your will?
  • Does that person know they're named? Have you discussed what that would mean?
  • Where are the children's passports and birth certificates?
  • What are the school and GP contact details?

Personal messages

  • Consider writing letters to the people you love — not instructions, just words. Many people wish they had the chance to say things they never got to.

How long does this actually take?

If you sit down with focus and have most of the relevant documents to hand, most people can work through the above in three to four hours across a weekend.

The hardest part is finding the documents. The second hardest part is starting.

If you'd like a guided version of this — one that walks you through each category as structured questions, stores everything in an encrypted vault, and produces a shareable summary for your family — that's exactly what Sudden is for.