The tricky thing is that if no one from family knows you have $$$ in Bank Foo, this money can just lie there unclaimed forever (until taken by the government after N years).
Even if theoretically those institutions should proactively search for deceased owners' heirs in some jurisdictions, I wouldn't trust this to happen.
At least listing all banks, stocks accounts & insurances you have might be really useful. Just set a yearly reminder to self in calendar to send such an email to your closest family member.
A colleague of mine has some inheritance in a European country; he's been taking trips out there every few years to try and get hold of it; every time he does, the new guy who runs the place needs _some other_ document, some dozens of _other_ documents later, still no money.
This is in part because said country's process requires a document that literally doesn't exist for the home country of either party in this inheritance; they won't give him the money, and they won't take the money, so it just sits there indefinitely.
> Even if theoretically those institutions should proactively search for deceased owners' heirs in some jurisdictions, I wouldn't trust this to happen.
It took them years to find distant relatives; none knew about the guy or his money. Why didn't the state workers just do nothing and keep the money? Because they actually do their job, that's why.
Even if theoretically those institutions should proactively search for deceased owners' heirs in some jurisdictions, I wouldn't trust this to happen.
At least listing all banks, stocks accounts & insurances you have might be really useful. Just set a yearly reminder to self in calendar to send such an email to your closest family member.