How to find assets of a deceased person, step by step

Denise was sure she'd found everything. Her mother had one checking account, a small savings account, and a pension, and the folder in the hall closet said so. Then, in April, a 1099-INT showed up from a credit union in Ohio that nobody in the family had heard of. Her mother had opened a certificate of deposit there in 1997 and never mentioned it. It held a little over $11,000.

Stories like that are common, and they're the reason it's worth taking a careful, organized pass at finding the assets of a deceased person before an estate is closed. People open accounts and forget about them. They change jobs and leave a 401(k) behind. They buy a life insurance policy at 40 and put the paperwork in a drawer that someone cleans out at 80. This guide covers where to look, in roughly the order that turns things up fastest, plus the free tools that search for money already handed over to the state. If you're the executor, this is a big part of the job, and our overview of executor duties shows where it fits.

Where to start looking for a deceased person's assets

The fastest way to find assets is to follow the paper. Financial institutions are required to send statements and tax forms, so the mail and the files at home usually reveal most accounts within a few weeks.

Start at the house. Go through the desk, the filing cabinet, the kitchen drawer where bills pile up, and the box in the closet that holds "important papers." You're looking for anything with an institution's name on it: bank statements, checkbooks, brokerage statements, insurance premium notices, annuity contracts, pension letters, savings bonds, stock certificates, and old pay stubs that show retirement deductions. Even an envelope with a logo is a lead.

Next, look at the mail as it arrives. As the executor, you can usually forward the deceased person's mail to yourself through the post office once you have documents showing your authority. Plan to keep this going for at least a year. Annual statements and January tax forms only come once, and that's when the forgotten accounts tend to show up.

Then check their email and phone if you can get in. A lot of banks have gone paperless, which means the only trace of an account may be a monthly "your statement is ready" email. Search the inbox for words like statement, account, policy, dividend, and beneficiary. Our guide to what happens to online accounts covers how to approach email and digital accounts legally and what each platform allows.

Use tax returns and the credit report

A person's last tax return is one of the best maps of their finances. Interest from a bank account shows up on a 1099-INT, dividends from investments on a 1099-DIV, and retirement distributions on a 1099-R. Each form names the institution that paid it.

If you can't find the paper return, the executor can request transcripts from the IRS. You'll generally need to file Form 56 to notify the IRS that you're acting for the estate and include a copy of your letters testamentary or similar court document. A wage and income transcript lists the information returns filed under that Social Security number, which is a fairly complete list of who was paying interest or dividends. This also overlaps with filing the final tax return, so it's worth doing both at once.

A credit report shows a different side. It lists open credit cards, loans, mortgages, and lines of credit, which matters because some of those come with assets attached. A car loan points to a car. A mortgage on a property you didn't know about points to a property. Executors and surviving spouses can request a deceased person's report from each of the three credit bureaus by mail, usually with a death certificate and proof of authority. While you're at it, ask each bureau to add a deceased flag to the file, which helps prevent identity theft.

How to find bank accounts of a deceased person

There's no single national database of bank accounts, so finding them means combining the clues above with a few direct calls. The checkbook register and the 1099s are your best leads.

Once you have a list of likely banks, call each one, explain that the account holder has died, and ask whether they hold any accounts in that person's name. Banks will usually only share details with the executor or a joint owner, so have the death certificate and your court papers ready. Ask specifically about certificates of deposit and safe deposit boxes, since those don't always show up on the regular statement.

The safe deposit box deserves its own note. It can hold the will, deeds, bonds, cash, or jewelry. Rules on who can open it vary by state. Some states let a family member look inside to search for a will before probate starts, while others require the executor and court paperwork. If you find a key with no label, the bank's name is sometimes stamped on it, or a small annual rental fee will show up on a statement.

When you find accounts, the next step is getting them retitled or closed. Our guide on closing a bank account after someone dies walks through that part, including what to do if the account had a named POD beneficiary.

Find life insurance, pensions, and old retirement accounts

These are the assets most often missed, because they can sit quietly for decades without generating any mail. A whole life policy that's paid up, or a 401(k) from a job in the 1990s, may never send a statement anyone notices.

For life insurance, check bank statements for recurring premium payments and look for employer benefits paperwork, since many people had group life coverage through work. Some credit cards, mortgages, and professional associations also carried small accidental death policies. Then use the free NAIC Life Insurance Policy Locator, run by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. You submit the person's information once, participating insurers search their records, and they contact you if they find a policy where you're the beneficiary or are authorized to receive the information. It can take a few months to hear back, so submit early. If a policy turns up, our post on how to file a life insurance claim explains what happens next.

For pensions and workplace retirement plans, make a list of every place the person worked for more than a few years. Call each former employer's HR or benefits office and ask whether they had a vested pension or a 401(k) balance. If a company went out of business or its pension plan ended, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation may have taken it over. The PBGC has a free unclaimed pension search where you can look up the person's name.

Savings bonds and old investments

Paper savings bonds were a classic birthday and graduation gift for decades, and many families still have a few in a drawer, or don't know about the ones that were registered to a parent. TreasuryDirect's Treasury Hunt tool lets you search by Social Security number for some older bonds that have matured and haven't been cashed. For old stock certificates, the company's transfer agent can tell you whether the shares are still held, sold, or turned over to a state.

Search for unclaimed money and property

If an account sits untouched long enough, usually three to five years depending on the state and the type of account, the institution is required to turn the money over to the state's unclaimed property program. The money isn't lost. The state holds it until the owner or their heirs claim it, often with no deadline.

Every state runs its own database, and MissingMoney.com, operated by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, searches most of them at once. Search the person's full name, along with maiden names, nicknames, and common misspellings. Search every state they lived or worked in, not only the last one. Uncashed final paychecks, utility deposits, insurance refunds, and dividend checks often show up here.

Searching is free, and so is claiming. You'll typically submit a claim form with a death certificate and proof that you're the executor or an heir. Small claims can sometimes be paid to heirs without probate, especially if the estate qualifies for a small estate affidavit.

One warning. After a death, families sometimes get letters from "asset recovery" companies offering to find unclaimed money for a percentage of whatever they recover. Many are legal, and a few states cap their fees, but in most cases they're charging you for a search you can do yourself in five minutes. Check the state database first.

Keep a running inventory as you go

Write down everything you find in one place as you find it. A simple spreadsheet works: the institution, the type of asset, the approximate value on the date of death, the account number (just the last four digits if you're sharing it), whether there's a named beneficiary, and what you've done about it.

It sounds tedious, and it is, but it pays off in a few ways. Probate courts in many states require the executor to file an inventory of the estate. The values on the date of death also matter for taxes, especially for anything that gets a stepped-up basis. And when your brother asks in June what happened to Dad's brokerage account, you'll have the answer written down instead of trying to remember which phone call that was.

Expect the list to keep growing for a while. Denise found two more things after the Ohio credit union: a $600 utility deposit on MissingMoney and a small whole life policy through the NAIC locator. Neither was life changing. She said what bothered her more was wondering what else she hadn't found.

Making it easier for the people who'll look for yours

Nearly everything in this guide is detective work that only exists because nobody wrote the information down. Most of us carry our financial lives around in our heads, along with a few logins and a vague memory of where the old 401(k) went. It feels organized from the inside. From the outside, to an executor sitting at your desk, it's a scavenger hunt.

You can shorten that hunt a lot with one list. Write down every bank, brokerage, retirement plan, and insurance policy you have, roughly what's in each, and who to call. Note where the safe deposit box key is. A letter of instruction is a good home for this, and it doesn't have to be fancy. Update it when you open or close something, maybe once a year at tax time.

If you'd like a place to keep that list, When I Die Files lets you store your accounts and policies alongside a letter or two for the people you love, so whoever ends up sorting things out has the map and also hears from you while they do it.