KinNestA will says who gets what. It does not say where anything is.
If you have made a will, you have done something most people never get round to. It answers who owns what. What it cannot answer is where any of it is kept — and that is the question your family will be standing there asking.
KinNest is a record of what you own and where to find it, kept for the people you name. It works alongside a will, without creating one or deciding inheritance.
Why a will cannot do this job, and should not try
A will is a legal document about ownership: who receives what, and who administers it. It is read after you are gone, usually by a solicitor or an executor, often months later.
It does not list your bank accounts, and it should not. You would have to rewrite and re-witness it every time you opened one, closed one, or changed a policy. Wills are deliberately hard to change — that is exactly what makes them worth trusting.
So the will answers who gets it. Nobody has answered where it is. The executor is left doing what the family is left doing: opening drawers, guessing at institutions, and writing letters to banks on the chance there is an account there.
It is a common gap rather than an unusual one: every country that counts dormant assets publishes a figure, and the money is nearly always claimable by someone who knows it exists. The figures, by country, with sources →
The things people actually ask
Does a will list my bank accounts?
No, and it should not. A will is deliberately hard to change — that is what makes it trustworthy. If it named your accounts you would have to rewrite and re-witness it every time you opened one, closed one, or moved a policy. So wills stay general on purpose, and the detail lives somewhere else, or nowhere.
Then what happens to an account nobody knows about?
Usually nothing, for a long time. It sits dormant, and after a set number of years it is transferred to a government or regulator fund, where it waits to be claimed. The money is never forfeited and the family never loses the right to it — they simply have to know it existed, and which institution held it, before they can ask.
If I use KinNest, do I still need a will?
Yes. They do different jobs and one cannot stand in for the other. A will is a legal document that decides who owns what after you are gone, and only a will can do that. KinNest is a private record of what exists and where it is kept. Without a will, your family may know exactly what you had and still face a long legal process to receive it.
Can I create a will in KinNest?
KinNest helps you manage your digital legacy through records, documents and personal wishes. It does not currently create wills, provide legal advice or decide inheritance.
I have registered nominees at my bank. Is that enough?
It is the single most valuable hour you can spend, and it is not enough on its own. A registered nominee turns a claim that can take months into one that often takes weeks — but only for the accounts your family knows to claim. A nominee registered on an account nobody remembers helps nobody.
What about the things that are not accounts at all?
That is usually where the most is lost — the deed, the jewellery, the locker and who holds the second key, the insurance policy bought through someone you knew twenty years ago. None of it is digital, none of it appears on a statement, and no institution will write to your family about it.
Three things, in this order
- Make a will, or check the one you have is current. Nothing here replaces it, and it is the only one of these three that decides who owns anything. Use a solicitor if the estate is at all complicated — this page is not legal advice and cannot be.
- Register a nominee at each bank, insurer and fund. Free, and usually an hour of form-filling. It is the difference between a claim that takes weeks and one that takes months, and most people have done it at one institution and forgotten the other six.
- Write down what exists, and where. We recommend keeping passwords separately. Record what each thing is, which institution holds it, and where the papers are kept. On paper in a drawer your family can find, or in KinNest, which does the same job and makes sure it reaches them.
Where KinNest fits
KinNest supports digital legacy management: records, documents and personal wishes, organised for the people you trust. It works alongside a will without creating one, deciding inheritance or providing legal advice. See how it works →