Where everything is: the one document your family needs if you could not tell them

Who to call, and who is already named on a legal document you have made. Name and city only; this binder records who is named in your will, it does not choose anyone.

• Spouse or partner: name and how to reach them
• The executor named in your will: name and city only
• Your power of attorney for property, if you have one: who is named, and where the document is
• The person named for your personal care, if you have named one: who, and where the document is
• Children, and who has their care day to day
• Family doctor: name and clinic
• Employer or HR contact
• Landlord or property manager, if you rent
• One close friend who knows the house

Contact any workplace or private pension plan administrators. Survivor benefits may be available. Also verify group benefits (extended health, life insurance) through any former employer.

What your province calls the two attorneys

The binder asks for the person named on each document, using your province's own term.

Quebec's protection mandate is one document for both, in quebec.ca's words: "a document in which a person expresses their wishes and names one or more trusted people to look after their person and their property in case of incapacity."

Notify all banks, investment accounts, and credit card issuers. Most will freeze the account and require a certified Death Certificate and (often) probate documents before releasing funds to the estate.

Tick what applies from this list, then for each: institution, whose name it is in, roughly where (city, branch or online). No balances and no numbers.

• Chequing account
• Savings account
• TFSA
• RRSP
• RRIF
• RESP
• FHSA
• LIRA (locked-in RRSP)
• LIF
• Workplace pension, defined benefit
• Workplace pension, defined contribution
• Group benefits through work (life, health, disability)
• CPP in payment
• OAS in payment
• Credit card
• Mortgage
• HELOC
• Line of credit
• Car loan (auto loan/lease)
• Life insurance
• Home insurance
• Tenant insurance (renter's insurance)
• Car insurance
• Safety deposit box
• Crypto-assets

What CDIC insures: chequing/savings deposits, RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, RDSP, RESP and FHSA held as deposits, each category insured separately up to $100,000. CDIC's words: "Each category is insured separately up to $100,000, including principal and interest." CDIC does not insure crypto.

Where a named beneficiary matters, and why the binder asks

For these, the binder asks one more thing: whether a beneficiary or successor is named on the institution's own form. That is a fact about a form that already exists, not a wish; a wish is a will's job.

• TFSA: A successor holder becomes the new owner; a beneficiary receives the funds without becoming the account owner; both bypass the estate; with neither, it falls into the estate. source
• RRSP: The pass-outside-estate effect is a matter of who is named, which is why the to-find question matters. source
• RRIF: The pass-outside-estate effect is a matter of who is named, which is why the to-find question matters. source
• RESP: RESP ownership is the one registered plan in this checklist that routes through the estate by default. source
• FHSA: Only a survivor (spouse/common-law partner) can be a successor holder; anyone else can only be a designated beneficiary; with neither, it goes to the estate. source
• Life insurance: Passes outside the estate when a beneficiary is named, as a matter of provincial insurance law, not just tax law. source

Two that stay on the to-find list

Workplace pension, defined benefit: This depends on which pension standards law covers the plan (a different Pension Benefits Act per province, or the federal one for federally regulated employers) and on the plan's own terms, so it cannot be stated as one Canada-wide rule. The binder asks: "Does your workplace pension exist? Ask your plan administrator or HR: is there a death benefit before retirement, and who is it paid to?"

Group benefits through work (life, health, disability): The wizard should ask the same beneficiary question for group life as for personal life insurance rather than assume the two behave identically. The binder asks: "Does your life insurance name a person as beneficiary, or your estate? Where is the policy?"

The sitting ends with where the last tax return is and who prepared it. Notify the CRA of the death. File a final (terminal) T1 return on behalf of the deceased.

Real property (home, condo, land) must be transferred to the estate or beneficiaries by a lawyer or notary. Cancel or transfer utilities (hydro/electricity, gas, internet, phone) and recurring subscriptions (streaming, memberships). Contact each provider directly.

• Do you own or rent your home?
• Mortgage lender, if any
• Property tax: which municipality, and where the bills are kept
• Home or tenant insurer
• Where the lease is, if you rent
• Where the receipt for the rent deposit is, if you rent
• Electricity: provider
• Gas or heating: provider
• Water: provider
• Internet: provider
• Phone: provider
• The car: owned outright, or is there a lender or lease?
• Car lender or leasing company, if any
• Car insurer
• Where the vehicle ownership (registration) is kept
• Pets: the vet
• Pets: who would take them

Where the physical documents are, and whether a lawyer or notary holds the original will. Where a document is, never what is on it.

• The will: where the original is
• Does a lawyer or notary hold the original will?
• Powers of attorney (or the protection mandate): where the documents are
• Marriage certificate
• Birth certificates
• Passports
• SIN card
• Health card
• Deed or lease
• Insurance policies
• Safety deposit box: which branch, and where its key is
• Where this binder will be kept

Cancel the Social Insurance Number (SIN): notify Service Canada. The SIN card should be destroyed. Cancel the Canadian passport with Passport Canada. The passport should be returned or destroyed.

Executor guide, by province →

These are wishes, not instructions with legal force; the will and powers of attorney are the legal documents.

• Are you registered as an organ and tissue donor?
• Funeral preferences
• Who should be told
• Who should not be told
• Online accounts to close or memorialise (which services, not how to get in)
• Anything else

Organ and tissue donor registration, by province

All ten provinces have a working registration path; none is a flat "no such process," but three (NB, NL, and effectively AB via the card-signature option) rely on a health-card/Medicare form rather than a dedicated online-only registry, worth stating plainly to the reader rather than assuming "there's a website" everywhere.

• Ontario: Registry operated by Trillium Gift of Life Network, now part of Ontario Health; register through ServiceOntario, age 16+. Register →
• British Columbia: "Organ Donor Registry," run by BC Transplant (Provincial Health Services Authority); register at register.transplant.bc.ca. Register →
• Alberta: "Alberta Organ and Tissue Donation Registry"; register online, at a Registry Agent office, or by signing the back of a healthcare card. Register →
• Saskatchewan: "Saskatchewan Organ and Tissue Donor Registry"; register online with health services card number, name and date of birth, age 16+. Register →
• Manitoba: Registration is through signupforlife.ca, run by Transplant Manitoba. Register →
• Quebec: "Registre des consentements au don d'organes et de tissus" (Register of consents to organ and tissue donation), run through RAMQ; alternative is signing the sticker on the back of the health insurance card at each renewal. Register →
• Nova Scotia: Under the Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act, which switched Nova Scotia to deemed consent (opt-out): "every Nova Scotian will have the opportunity to be an organ and tissue donor unless they opt out". How to record a decision is not verified, so no registration step is printed here. Nova Scotia Health →
• New Brunswick: There is no separate online donor registry; intent is registered by checking a box on the Medicare Updates and Changes Form or by calling SNB Teleservices. Register →
• Prince Edward Island: "PEI Donor Registry"; register online or via the Intent to Donate and Language Information form; will also appear on the health card. Register →
• Newfoundland and Labrador: No separately named registry brand; register online via MyGovNL linked to an MCP account, or indicate intent on the MCP application/renewal form (the MCP card then reads "Organ Donor"). Register →

This is not a will and cannot name an executor, a guardian, or who receives your estate, only a will does that. Informational guide only, not legal advice.

What a will does, in the BC government's words: "A legal document that explains a person's wishes after they die. These wishes usually include what to do with their money and what they own." "A will is the best way to ensure that the people, charities and organizations you cherish most receive the benefit of your estate" "Having a will helps ensure that important questions for parents – like who will raise your young children if both you and your spouse die – are answered."

This binder does none of that. It records where the will is and who is named in it; it cannot name anyone. It records whether an account already names a beneficiary; it cannot name one. These are wishes, not instructions with legal force; the will and powers of attorney are the legal documents.

No account numbers, no passwords, no PINs, no SIN. The fields do not exist, and the guide says why.

Wills and power of attorney, by province → What to do when someone dies →