The Emergency Binder Checklist: Every Document to Find Before the Emergency

Also called a "death folder" or caregiver document checklist — whatever you call it, it's the same five sections. Work through it over a few weekends, not one afternoon.

Prefer not to read the whole guide? Just start photographing your documents instead →

When a parent lands in the hospital, the questions come fast: What medications does she take? Where's the insurance card? Is there a power of attorney?

Most families discover what's missing during the emergency. This checklist is how you find out before — while your parent can still tell you where things are and what they want.

1 · Identity & Legal Documents

These prove who your parent is and who is allowed to act for them.

• Government ID or passport
• Social Security card
• Birth certificate
• Marriage or divorce certificates
• Financial power of attorney — the single most important document on this list. Without it, you may need a court order to pay their bills.
• Healthcare proxy / medical power of attorney — who decides when they can't?
• Advance directive or living will
• Will or trust — you only need to know where it is, not what's in it
• Property deed or lease · vehicle title

Ask this week: "Do you have a power of attorney? Who has copies?" If the answer is no, this comes before everything else on the list — it requires your parent's signature while they have capacity.

2 · Medical Records

• Current medication list — names, doses, schedule, prescribing doctor
• Allergy list (drugs, foods, materials)
• Diagnoses and conditions summary
• Every doctor and specialist: name, specialty, phone
• Upcoming appointment letters
• Recent discharge summaries and test results
• Vaccination records
• Prescriptions for glasses, hearing aids, dentures

Shortcut: photograph the actual pill bottles. The label carries the drug, dose, prescriber, and pharmacy in one shot.

3 · Insurance

• Health insurance card and policy (Medicare = US govt insurance for 65+, Medicaid = for low-income, or private)
• Supplemental and long-term care policies (insurance that pays for a nursing home or in-home care)
• Life insurance policy and beneficiary designations
• Home or renters insurance
• The agent's contact for every policy

Insurance papers are where under-documentation costs real money: unclaimed life insurance and forgotten long-term-care policies are common precisely because adult children didn't know they existed.

4 · Financial

• Which banks hold accounts (a list — you don't need passwords or balances)
• Pension and retirement account statements
• Recurring bills: utilities, phone, subscriptions
• Outstanding debts and mortgage statements
• Safe deposit box: which bank, and where's the key?
• Accountant or financial advisor contact
• Most recent tax return — it's a map of every account that pays interest

5 · The Emergency One-Pager

The single sheet you hand to an ER doctor. It answers the first ten questions a hospital asks, when you're too stressed to remember any of them:

• Full name, date of birth, primary language
• Medications and doses
• Allergies
• Conditions (diabetes, pacemaker, dementia stage)
• Insurance plan and member ID
• Emergency contacts — you, plus one backup
• Who holds the healthcare proxy, and their phone number

Write it today, tape a copy inside a kitchen cabinet, keep one photo of it on your phone. See the full emergency information sheet template for a fill-in version.

The pile of papers is the easy part now. If you'd rather photograph the pile and have it organize itself into these five sections — that's what Care Binder is building. Photos never leave your phone. One-time price, no subscription. Checklist subscribers get early access.