What to find before anything is thrown out

Why the search comes first

A clearance is quick, and it can’t be undone. Once the lorry has left, there’s no going back for the envelope at the back of a drawer or the bank book inside a biscuit tin.

The search also protects whoever is handling the estate. The executor or administrator has to account for what the person owned, and “it went out with the furniture” is a hard thing to explain to the rest of the family.

If you can, do it with two people. It goes faster, it’s easier to bear, and nobody is left having to vouch alone for what was or wasn’t found.

The will

Start with the will, because it names the executor, the person who will have authority over the estate, including what’s in the home. Check desk drawers, filing boxes, safes, and anywhere the person kept important papers. If you know who their lawyer was, ask them: lawyers often keep the original.

If you can’t find one, search the Wills Registry, which the Singapore Academy of Law runs. It doesn’t hold wills, but if the person registered theirs, it records who drew it up and where it’s kept. Next of kin search online, logging in with Singpass, and need the death certificate and proof of their relationship. Each search costs S$10, and the result comes by email in three to five working days.

The paper trail for money and property

You don’t need to understand every document yet. You need to keep it. These are the papers that tell the executor what the estate owns and owes:

• Bank statements, passbooks, cheque books and cards, including for accounts you didn’t know about.
• CPF statements. CPF savings aren’t covered by the will: they’re paid to the people named in a CPF nomination, or through the Public Trustee’s Office if there’s none. Property bought with CPF money and CPF investments are treated differently, which is one more reason to keep the papers.
• Insurance policies, premium notices and letters from insurers.
• Investment statements: shares, unit trusts, bonds and brokerage accounts.
• Property papers: HDB letters, the lease or title, loan statements and property tax bills.
• Tax letters, and letters from anyone the person owed money to or who owed them money.
• Keys you can’t match to a door. They may open a safe deposit box, a locker or a storage unit.

Valuables, and where people keep them

It’s common to find cash, gold and jewellery in unexpected places: red packets tucked into books and cupboards, tins at the back of the kitchen cabinet, the pockets of clothes in the wardrobe, and the household shelter. Check before anything is bagged, and check again before the clearing crew arrives.

Photograph valuables where you find them, then list them. The executor will need the list, and a record made at the time heads off later arguments about who took what.

Photos, letters and the things only the family can judge

Photographs, letters, diaries, school report books, a recipe notebook with notes in the margin: these are worth nothing to anyone outside the family, and they’re the things people most regret losing. Box them separately and decide later, when there’s more time and less pressure.

If the family is spread out, photograph or scan them and share the album before anything is divided, so that people abroad get the same chance to ask for something as people who can come to the flat.

Religious items

Altars, deity statues, ancestral tablets, prayer items and holy books usually shouldn’t go out with the rubbish. Ask the family’s temple, church or mosque how they would like them handled. Many have a way of receiving or respectfully disposing of them, and some families prefer to hold a short prayer before they are moved.

Phones, computers and accounts

Don’t reset or throw away the person’s phone, tablet or computer yet. They may hold photos the family wants, contacts who need to be told, and the only record of online banking, investment or insurance accounts. Keep them charged and set aside with any passwords you find.

Look through recent emails and bank statements for subscriptions and bills that are still being paid, so they can be stopped.

Then decide what goes where

When the search is done and the family has taken what it wants, what’s left usually falls into three groups: things someone else can use, things that need a particular disposal route, like electronics and large appliances, and everything else. The free routes for the first two, including town council bulky-item removal and free collection of large appliances, are set out in clearing a late parent’s HDB flat.