Emergency Binder Checklist: What Your Family Could Find Tomorrow
Check off what your family could actually find tomorrow — not what exists, what's findable. Get an overall readiness score, a score per section, and the exact gaps left.
Free · no signup · runs in your browser — nothing you type leaves your device.
The checklist
Check a box when a specific person in your family could find that thing tomorrow, on their own — not when it merely exists.
Never write passwords, Social Security numbers, or full account numbers here — record WHERE they're kept instead.
Key people & contacts
Accounts & assets
Record where each account is — never the login, PIN, or full account number.
Bills & autopays
Documents & where the originals are
Medical
Wishes & letters
Digital life
Name where secrets are kept — never the secrets themselves.
Readiness
- Overall readiness
- 0%
- Checked
- 0 of 38
By section
What's missing
Keep it, don't recalculate it
Track this all year with Legacy Binder OS
This checklist tells you what's missing. Legacy Binder OS holds the actual information — key people, accounts, bills, documents, wishes — with the same readiness score and a one-click handoff summary for your family, in one offline file. One offline file, no subscription, yours forever — one-time $26.
How the score works
Every checkbox you tick counts toward two numbers: your overall readiness and the readiness of that one section. With 38 items total, checking 30 of them gives an overall readiness of 30 ÷ 38 = 78.9%, rounded to 79%. A section with 6 items where only 2 are checked scores 33% for that section alone — even if your overall score looks fine, that section is where your family would get stuck.
The "what's missing" list does the opposite of the score: instead of a percentage, it names every unchecked item, grouped under the section it belongs to, so you have an actual to-do list instead of just a number. Work through one section at a time rather than all seven at once — most people finish "Key people & contacts" in a few minutes and stall on "Documents & where the originals are," since that one usually means physically locating paper.
What it deliberately leaves out
This tool never asks for the sensitive information itself — no password fields, no field for a Social Security number, no field for a full account number. It only tracks whether you've located each thing and made it findable. It also doesn't store or back up your binder; it's a readiness check, not the binder. If your browser allows it, your checked boxes are saved locally so you can come back and keep going — but that's the only place they live.
Why "findable," not "exists"
Most families lose time after an emergency not because records don't exist, but because nobody but one person knows where they are. A will sitting in a drawer nobody else has opened doesn't help on the day it's needed. Check a box only when someone else — a specific person — would know where to look without you. That bar is deliberately stricter than "I have a will" or "I have life insurance" — plenty of people would check those boxes honestly and still leave their family searching.
Questions
- What exactly counts as "ready" for an item?
- Not whether the thing exists — whether someone else in your family could find it tomorrow without calling you. A will that exists but that nobody knows the location of is not ready. Check the box when a specific person would know where to look.
- Should I write passwords, PINs, or full account numbers into this checklist?
- No — not here, and not in any binder, physical or digital. Record where those things are kept instead: "in the password manager," "in the safe deposit box at the Main St branch," "in the fireproof box in the closet." The binder should point to where the secrets live, not hold the secrets themselves.
- Will my checked boxes be saved if I close the tab?
- Only in this browser, and only if your browser allows local storage. Nothing is uploaded or sent anywhere — it is a note to yourself, stored on this device. Clearing your browser’s site data erases it, and it will not show up on a different device or browser.
- Does this replace an actual physical or digital binder?
- No. This checklist tells you what is missing and where the gaps are. It does not store your documents, contacts, or wishes — it is the readiness check that tells you what still needs to go into a real binder.
- What if my family's situation doesn't match these sections?
- These seven sections cover what comes up most often, but every family is different — no kids to notify, a business to hand off, a blended family with more people to update. Use the sections that apply and skip or adapt the rest; the readiness score is a guide, not a requirement.
What to include in an emergency binder (and what to leave out) · Legacy Binder OS · All free tools