Docs / Guides

The Family File — the documents every household should hold

Every household discovers this list the hard way: at a border, in a hospital, or in a solicitor's office after a death. Writing it down in advance costs an afternoon; discovering it in arrears costs weeks and, in the probate case, sometimes the estate. Keepsake publishes the list whether or not you use Keepsake to hold it.

This page is generated from the same file the Keepsake apps read, so the list on your screen and the list here cannot disagree. You do not need Keepsake to use it. Print it, work through it with a cup of tea, and put the results wherever you keep things.

How to read the list

There are 22 rows. 14 of them apply to nearly every household — the rest depend on your circumstances, and skipping one that does not apply to you is not a gap.

• Everyone in the household (Everyone) — One per person, adults and children alike.
• Each adult (Everyone) — One per adult.
• One per household (Everyone) — The household holds one, not one each.
• If you own your home (Conditional) — Skip if you rent.
• If you rent (Conditional) — Skip if you own.
• If anyone drives (Conditional) — One per driver.
• If you are married (Conditional) — Also covers civil partnership.
• If anyone is employed or self-employed (Conditional) — One per earner.
• If you hold investments (Conditional) — Shares, funds, or property beyond your home.
• If anyone moved countries (Conditional) — Visas, residence permits, naturalisation.

Each row also says whether the paper original matters. Some of these documents are proved by a scan and some are not, and the difference decides whether a photograph on a phone was ever going to be enough.

Replacement fees are deliberately absent. They change every year in five countries at once, and a stale fee printed on a page is worse than no fee: somebody budgets for it. What is here instead is the effort band - days, weeks or months - because that is the number that changes a decision, and it is stable enough to keep true. The issuing authority is named so you can check today's fee at the source.

Links point at the issuing authority's own page and nowhere else. No affiliate links exist in this file and none will: a checklist that earns a commission on a row is an advertisement wearing a checklist's clothes.

This is a checklist, not legal advice. Wills, powers of attorney and immigration status differ enough between jurisdictions that the only safe general statement is the one made here: hold the document, and know where the original is.

Identity and citizenship

The documents that prove a person is who they say they are. Everything else in this list is easier to replace than these, and several of the others cannot be replaced without one of these.

Passport

Everyone in the household · Expires — worth a reminder · Keep the paper original

The only document most people own that proves both identity and nationality, and the one every other authority asks to see a copy of.

• What it unlocks: Travel, most bank account openings, right-to-work and right-to-rent checks, and the replacement of nearly every other document on this list.
• If you do not have it: Emergency travel documents exist, but they are single-journey, issued by a consulate, and need somebody at home to send proof of identity - which is the moment a copy in a vault stops being theoretical.
• Replacing it: Weeks — Longer in peak season; expedited services exist in most countries at a premium.
• Who issues it: Your country's passport authority

- United Kingdom: HM Passport Office - United States: U.S. Department of State - Pakistan: Directorate General of Immigration and Passports - India: Passport Seva, Ministry of External Affairs - United Arab Emirates: Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICP)

National identity card

Each adult · Expires — worth a reminder · Keep the paper original

In most countries this, not the passport, is the document daily life is built on - a SIM card, a bank account, a tenancy and a hospital admission all key off it.

• What it unlocks: Banking, telecoms, property, government services and, in several countries, voting.
• If you do not have it: Almost every routine transaction stops until it is replaced, and the replacement itself usually asks for the number you no longer have.
• Replacing it: Weeks — Faster where biometric enrolment is already on file.
• Who issues it: Your national registration authority

- United Kingdom: The United Kingdom has no national identity card — A driving licence or passport does this job here. If you hold neither, a PASS-accredited proof-of-age card is the usual stand-in, and the birth certificate becomes more important rather than less. - United States: Social Security Administration, and your state DMV for a state ID - Pakistan: NADRA (CNIC / NICOP) - India: UIDAI (Aadhaar) - United Arab Emirates: Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (Emirates ID)

Birth certificate

Everyone in the household · Does not expire · Keep the paper original

The root document. It is what a passport office, a school and a probate registry fall back to when every other proof of identity has been lost or was never issued.

• What it unlocks: First passports, school enrolment, national identity registration, inheritance claims, and proof of parentage.
• If you do not have it: Replaceable, but only from the register office for the district of birth - which is a problem precisely when the family has moved country since.
• Replacing it: Weeks — Certified copies are issued indefinitely; ordering from abroad adds weeks.
• Who issues it: The civil registry for the district of birth

- United Kingdom: General Register Office - United States: The vital records office of the state of birth - Pakistan: NADRA, via the local union council - India: The municipal registrar of births and deaths for the place of birth - United Arab Emirates: Ministry of Health and Prevention, or the issuing emirate's health authority

Driving licence

If anyone drives · Expires — worth a reminder · Keep the paper original

A licence and a photocard that expire on different dates is the most common way people end up driving uninsured without knowing it.

• What it unlocks: Driving, car hire, and in several countries the everyday proof of age and address.
• If you do not have it: Driving on an expired licence invalidates insurance in most jurisdictions, which turns a small administrative lapse into an uninsured claim.
• Replacing it: Weeks — Renewal is often days online; a replacement after loss takes longer.
• Who issues it: Your national or state licensing authority

- United Kingdom: DVLA - United States: Your state Department of Motor Vehicles - Pakistan: The provincial traffic police licensing authority - India: The state Regional Transport Office (Parivahan Sarathi) - United Arab Emirates: The emirate's roads and transport authority

Visa, residence permit or naturalisation certificate

If anyone moved countries · Expires — worth a reminder · Keep the paper original

Immigration status is proved by paper long after the decision was made, and the decision letter is often the only copy that exists.

• What it unlocks: The right to live, work, rent and be treated - and, for a citizenship application, the evidence of continuous residence.
• If you do not have it: Reconstructing a residence history from memory is a common cause of a refused naturalisation application. Keep the entry stamps and the old passports with it.
• Replacing it: Months — Some decisions cannot be reissued at all; a subject access request may be the only route.
• Who issues it: The immigration authority that issued it

- United Kingdom: UK Visas and Immigration - United States: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - United Arab Emirates: Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICP)

Home and property

Where you live, on what terms, and who insures it. The section people assume their landlord, lender or insurer will always be able to re-send them.

Title deed or property registration

If you own your home · Does not expire · Original helps, a scan usually does

Proof of ownership, and in unregistered or informally registered land the only proof there is.

• What it unlocks: Selling, remortgaging, inheritance, and defending a boundary dispute.
• If you do not have it: Where a land registry holds the record, a copy is routine. Where it does not, the deed is the record, and losing it is a legal problem rather than an administrative one.
• Replacing it: Weeks — Registered land: an official copy takes days. Unregistered land: instruct a solicitor.
• Who issues it: Your national or state land registry

- United Kingdom: HM Land Registry - United States: The county recorder or clerk for the property - Pakistan: The provincial board of revenue or land record authority - India: The state sub-registrar of assurances - United Arab Emirates: The emirate's land department

Tenancy or lease agreement

If you rent · Expires — worth a reminder · Original helps, a scan usually does

It sets the notice period, the deposit terms and what counts as fair wear - all three of which are argued about at the end, not the beginning.

• What it unlocks: Deposit recovery, proof of address, and any dispute over repairs or rent increases.
• If you do not have it: The landlord's copy becomes the only copy, which is a poor position from which to disagree with it. Keep the inventory and the deposit protection certificate alongside it.
• Replacing it: Days — Ask the letting agent - but ask before you need it.
• Who issues it: Your landlord or letting agent

Mortgage or home loan agreement

If you own your home · Expires — worth a reminder · A scan is enough

The rate, the fixed-term end date and the early-repayment charge live in this document, and the end date is the one that costs money when it is missed.

• What it unlocks: Remortgaging on time, overpaying without penalty, and proving the debt against the estate.
• If you do not have it: Rolling onto a lender's standard variable rate because nobody knew the fixed term had ended is the most expensive avoidable mistake on this list.
• Replacing it: Days — The lender will resend it; the date you needed it was six months before the term ended.
• Who issues it: Your mortgage lender

Home insurance policy

One per household · Expires — worth a reminder · A scan is enough

A policy you cannot produce is a policy you will struggle to claim on quickly, and claims happen on the day the house is least accessible.

• What it unlocks: Emergency repairs, alternative accommodation, and replacement of contents.
• If you do not have it: Insurers can find you by name, but the policy number, the excess and the schedule of covered items are what turn a phone call into a payment.
• Replacing it: Days — Keep the schedule, not just the certificate - the schedule is the part that lists what is actually covered.
• Who issues it: Your insurer or broker

Utility and council accounts

One per household · Does not expire · A scan is enough

Account numbers for energy, water, council or municipal tax and broadband are what somebody else needs in order to act for you - and a recent bill is still the most widely accepted proof of address.

• What it unlocks: Proof of address, switching supplier, and letting a family member deal with a supplier during illness or absence.
• If you do not have it: Every supplier has a different recovery route and most of them start by asking for the account number.
• Replacing it: Days — One recent bill per supplier is enough; there is no need to keep years of them.
• Who issues it: Each supplier, and your local authority

Money and work

What comes in, what is owed, and where it is held. This is the section an executor spends the longest reconstructing when it was never written down.

Bank and savings account list

Each adult · Does not expire · A scan is enough

Not the balance - the list. Which institutions, which accounts, which currencies. Nobody else can reconstruct it, and dormant accounts are never volunteered.

• What it unlocks: Executor and power-of-attorney access, tracing dormant money, and closing an estate without a bank-by-bank search.
• If you do not have it: Unclaimed-asset schemes exist in most countries, and they exist because this list usually does not.
• Replacing it: Months — There is nothing to replace; there is only a search. Write the list instead. Account numbers belong in a vault, never a password.
• Who issues it: You - this is a list you write, not a document anyone issues

Tax returns and reference numbers

Each adult · Does not expire · A scan is enough

Your taxpayer reference is asked for by lenders, by benefits offices and by an executor, and past returns are the evidence behind every income figure you will ever be asked to prove.

• What it unlocks: Mortgage applications for the self-employed, benefit claims, and settling an estate's final return.
• If you do not have it: Tax authorities keep records for longer than most people assume, but retrieving them takes correspondence and time you will not have.
• Replacing it: Weeks — Retention periods differ by country; keeping the last six years covers nearly all of them.
• Who issues it: Your national tax authority

- United Kingdom: HM Revenue and Customs - United States: Internal Revenue Service - Pakistan: Federal Board of Revenue - India: Income Tax Department

Employment contract and recent payslips

If anyone is employed or self-employed · Does not expire · A scan is enough

Notice period, severance terms and death-in-service cover are all in the contract, and the third is a benefit families routinely never claim because nobody knew it existed.

• What it unlocks: Renting, borrowing, redundancy negotiation, and death-in-service or group life claims.
• If you do not have it: An employer will reissue payslips; a company that has been wound up will not.
• Replacing it: Days — Three recent payslips satisfy most checks. Keep the contract for as long as the job lasts, and after.
• Who issues it: Your employer, or your own invoices if you are self-employed

Pension and retirement accounts

Each adult · Does not expire · A scan is enough

A working life produces a pension per employer, and the paperwork for the ones from twenty years ago is exactly the paperwork nobody kept.

• What it unlocks: Consolidation, retirement planning, and the death benefit - which is often paid at the trustees' discretion to whoever the nomination form names.
• If you do not have it: Pension-tracing services exist in several countries and recover a fraction of what is lost. Check the beneficiary nomination while you are here; it is the form most likely to be decades out of date.
• Replacing it: Months — Tracing an old scheme through employer mergers is slow, and sometimes fails.
• Who issues it: Each scheme provider, or your employer

- United Kingdom: Pension Tracing Service

Investment and brokerage accounts

If you hold investments · Does not expire · A scan is enough

Share certificates, fund platforms and self-custodied assets all fail differently, and only one of them can be recovered by writing to a registrar.

• What it unlocks: Valuation for probate, capital gains calculation, and actually inheriting what was left.
• If you do not have it: Self-custodied assets with no recorded access instructions are not recoverable by anyone, ever. Record where they are - never the key itself somewhere the record could be read alongside it.
• Replacing it: Months — Registrars can trace holdings; unrecorded self-custody cannot be traced.
• Who issues it: Each platform, registrar or custodian

Health

What a doctor who has never met you would need to know in the first ten minutes.

Vaccination records

Everyone in the household · Does not expire · Original helps, a scan usually does

Schools, employers, travel authorities and any new doctor will ask, and childhood records are held by whichever health system the child was in at the time.

• What it unlocks: School enrolment, some visas and work placements, and avoiding a repeat course nobody needed.
• If you do not have it: A record that crossed a border with the family rarely crossed it inside the health system too.
• Replacing it: Weeks — Ask the practice that gave the vaccination - before you change practice, not after.
• Who issues it: Your doctor, clinic or national immunisation register

Medical summary and medication list

Everyone in the household · Does not expire · A scan is enough

Conditions, allergies, current medications with doses, and the treating doctor's name. One page. It is the first thing an emergency department asks for and the thing a frightened relative cannot recite.

• What it unlocks: Safe emergency treatment, treatment abroad, and continuity when you change doctor or country.
• If you do not have it: A drug allergy nobody can confirm is treated as a drug allergy that might not exist.
• Replacing it: Days — Most health systems will print a summary on request; keeping it current is the part only you can do.
• Who issues it: Your doctor, or your health service record

Health insurance policy

One per household · Expires — worth a reminder · A scan is enough

Membership number, the pre-authorisation phone number, and what the policy excludes - needed in that order, usually at three in the morning.

• What it unlocks: Admission without a deposit in many countries, and reimbursement of treatment abroad.
• If you do not have it: Private hospitals in much of the world admit against a policy number or a card; without either, against a payment.
• Replacing it: Days — Keep the exclusions page. The certificate proves cover exists; the exclusions decide whether it applies.
• Who issues it: Your insurer, or your employer's scheme administrator

Family and the future

The documents that speak for you when you cannot. They are worth nothing at all if nobody can find them.

Marriage or civil partnership certificate

If you are married · Does not expire · Keep the paper original

It proves a name change, a spousal entitlement and a next-of-kin relationship, and all three are questioned at the worst possible moment.

• What it unlocks: Spousal visas, survivor pensions, inheritance without dispute, and hospital next-of-kin status.
• If you do not have it: Replaceable from the register where the marriage took place - which, for a marriage abroad, can be a genuinely hard document to obtain.
• Replacing it: Weeks — A marriage registered in another country may also need legalisation or an apostille.
• Who issues it: The civil registry where the marriage was registered

- United Kingdom: General Register Office

Will

Each adult · Does not expire · Keep the paper original

A will that cannot be found is, in many jurisdictions, treated as a will that was revoked. Where the original is held matters as much as what it says.

• What it unlocks: Your estate going where you intended, guardianship of children, and sparing the family an intestacy.
• If you do not have it: Intestacy rules decide instead, and they do not know about the stepchild, the unmarried partner or the promise you made.
• Replacing it: Months — It cannot be replaced. Record where the signed original is held and who the executors are - a scan of a will is evidence, not usually a substitute.
• Who issues it: You, usually through a solicitor or notary; some countries operate a central wills register

Power of attorney

Each adult · Does not expire · Keep the paper original

The one document on this list that must exist before it is needed: it cannot be made by somebody who has already lost capacity.

• What it unlocks: A trusted person paying your bills, speaking to your bank and making health decisions, without a court application.
• If you do not have it: The alternative is a court-appointed deputy or guardian - months, legal costs, and a stranger's judgement in place of the person you would have chosen.
• Replacing it: Months — Registration takes weeks to months in most jurisdictions, and cannot be started after capacity is lost.
• Who issues it: You, registered with the relevant court or public guardian

- United Kingdom: Office of the Public Guardian

Life insurance and death-in-service cover

One per household · Expires — worth a reminder · A scan is enough

Nobody claims on a policy they do not know about, and unclaimed life cover is a documented category of lost money in every market that measures it.

• What it unlocks: The payment the policy was bought to make.
• If you do not have it: Insurers do not know a policyholder has died until somebody tells them. Tell the family the policy exists while you can.
• Replacing it: Days — Check whether the policy is written in trust - it changes both the tax and how fast it pays.
• Who issues it: Your insurer, and your employer for death-in-service cover

What to do once you have them

Holding the documents is half the job; the other half is somebody being able to find them without you. Whatever you use — a fireproof box, a folder in the cloud, Keepsake — three things decide whether that works:

1. One place, not five. A list split across a drawer, an inbox and a laptop is a list that gets searched three times and given up on.
2. Someone else knows where it is. A perfect archive nobody can reach is indistinguishable from no archive at all. See the Legacy Access Kit.
3. The expiring ones are watched. Passports, licences and policies all expire quietly. See renewal reminders.

In Keepsake, the checklist is built in: the app scores your vault against the rows that apply to your household and shows what is still missing. It never ticks a row for you — a checklist that guesses from a filename is worse than an empty one — and it never sends the list anywhere, because it cannot read your documents in the first place. See Family Vault and the encrypted vault.

---