Free printable
Bank Account Inventory: Free Printable
By Jason Su · Updated October 9, 2026
Money in a bank account does not follow a will. It follows the name on the account and the beneficiary designation — the small line most people set up once and never look at again.
This sheet records what exists, who is named on each account, and what each one is for. Two of the columns are the ones that decide everything: ownership, and who is named as the beneficiary.
The line that decides who gets it
- Joint accounts pass to the other owner, generally outside the court process.
- A beneficiary designation on the account — banks label these POD, ITF, or TOD — pays directly to the person named. The FDIC calls them informal revocable trusts, because the account passes to a named beneficiary without a written trust (FDIC).
- An account in one name with no beneficiary is the one that usually has to wait for the estate process. See what probate is.
- A joint or POD account is not a favor you can hand out later. Whoever is named is who gets it, and changing it takes one form at the bank.
If two siblings are both named on an account for convenience, that is worth knowing now rather than later. On paper, it usually means both of them own it.
What the FDIC covers, in one line
Coverage on POD and trust accounts is number of owners × number of eligible beneficiaries × $250,000, capped at $1,250,000 per owner at one bank. Deposits in POD accounts and trust accounts at the same bank are added together before the limit applies.
There is one detail that matters to a family in the first months: after an account owner passes, the FDIC rules give a six-month grace period during which the accounts stay insured as if the owner were still alive. That is deliberate — it exists so nobody has to restructure accounts in the week of a funeral.
The sheet
The accounts
| Bank | Account type | Rough balance | Ownership (mine / joint with) | POD or TOD beneficiary | Where statements go |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
What runs through them
| Item | Which account | Amount and date | Can someone else stop it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social Security or pension deposit | |||
| Paycheck or automatic deposit | |||
| Mortgage or rent | |||
| Utilities | |||
| Insurance premiums | |||
| Subscriptions |
Who to tell, and where things are kept
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Which accounts have a named beneficiary | |
| Which accounts have nobody named | |
| Where the account numbers are written down | |
| Whether the bank has a branch someone can walk into | |
| Who can sign if I cannot | |
| Where the checkbook, cards, and statements are |
How to use it
- List every bank, including the credit union and the account you opened for one purpose. Two years of statements will find them faster than memory will.
- Fill in the beneficiary column for all of them. An empty cell there is the single most expensive blank on this sheet.
- Check the total against the coverage formula above. If everything sits at one bank and there are no named beneficiaries, the excess is uninsured.
- Note the automatic deposits and payments, because those are what create urgent problems in the first month.
- Keep this sheet with your other records, and record where it lives in the free Document Inventory.
Frequently asked
Does a joint account avoid the estate process entirely?
Usually yes for the surviving owner, and it is one reason joint accounts are common. The trade-off is that a joint owner can withdraw everything, and the account often ends up outside whatever the will says.
Should I add a child’s name to my account for convenience?
That is a decision to make with advice, because it can change who owns the money and can expose the account to that person’s creditors or divorce. Ask the bank what the form actually does before signing it.
What happens to the account after someone passes?
Often the bank freezes withdrawals until it sees authority or a beneficiary claim. See how to close the account after a passing for the sequence, and what to do with someone’s belongings for the paperwork side.
Next step
Open your banking app and write down every account in the first table today. Then fill in the beneficiary column for each one — that is a ten-minute job that decides more than any paragraph in a will.
This is a record sheet, not financial or legal advice. Deposit insurance rules and state account rules differ and change — confirm the details with your bank and with the FDIC source linked above.