When someone dies, their family doesn't struggle with the obvious things. They struggle with the invisible ones.

They know roughly what bank accounts exist. They might find the will. What they don't know is the broadband provider, the direct debits to cancel, the second email address, the PIN for the phone, or which utility company handles the electricity.

The paperwork and admin involved in settling an estate typically takes families 200–300 hours over six months to a year. Much of that time is spent searching for information that the person who died simply never wrote down.

1. The phone PIN

A phone locked behind a PIN is inaccessible to anyone else — including your family. Apple and Google have next-of-kin processes, but both are slow and require death certificates and legal documentation. Meanwhile, contacts, photos, 2FA codes, and banking apps are locked inside.

2. All the email accounts

Most people have more than one. Password reset emails — the mechanism used to access almost everything else — go to email inboxes. If the family can't access email, they often can't access anything else either.

3. Active subscriptions and direct debits

Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, Sky, gym memberships, insurance policies, magazine subscriptions. The average UK adult has 7–12 active subscriptions. Finding and cancelling them requires bank statements and often account logins. Without a list, families pay for months of services they're not using.

4. The mortgage provider

Especially if the property has been remortgaged or if the partner wasn't involved in the original arrangement. The lender needs to be notified promptly — and life insurance tied to the mortgage needs to be claimed.

5. Which pension providers hold money

The average UK worker holds 11 jobs during their career. Each may have had a workplace pension. Finding all of them after death — without records — is one of the most time-consuming tasks families face.

6. The digital assets

Domain names, cryptocurrency (including any hardware wallet and seed phrase), online brokerage accounts, PayPal balances. These have real monetary value and are routinely lost entirely.

7. Life insurance policies

Around 40% of UK life insurance policies are never claimed — the most common reason being that the family didn't know they existed. If you have a policy, your family needs to know: the provider, the policy number, the sum assured, and where the documents are.

8. The solicitor's details

If a will exists, the solicitor who drafted it often holds the original. The family needs to know which firm, which solicitor, and where to contact them.

9. The people to contact

Accountant, financial adviser, GP, specialist consultants, employer HR department, landlord. Each has a role to play after a death. None of their contact details are obvious.

The common thread: none of these are secrets. They're just things that live in someone's head, and they disappear when that person does.

The solution isn't complicated. It's writing it down — in one place, kept up to date, accessible to the people who need it when they need it.