An estate inventory spreadsheet lists everything the person who died owned, with its value on the date of death. Bank statements supply most of it: each account and its balance on that date, plus the recurring payments that point to other accounts, policies and bills you need to stop. One row per item, one tab for bills.
What goes in an estate inventory spreadsheet?
An estate inventory spreadsheet needs one row per asset and a handful of columns that a probate court, a lawyer or a family member can read without asking you. The core columns are the item, where it is held, how it is owned, its value on the date of death, and the document that proves that value.
A practical layout uses three tabs.
Tab 1, Assets. One row each for bank accounts, investment accounts, real estate, vehicles, valuables and money owed to the person. Columns:
- Item, such as "Checking ending 3301"
- Institution or location
- Ownership: sole name, joint, payable on death, or trust
- Value on the date of death
- Source of the value: statement, letter, appraisal
- Notes, such as "bank notified" or "claim form sent"
Tab 2, Recurring bills. Every automatic payment and deposit found on the statements, with what you decided to do about it.
Tab 3, Debts. Credit cards, loans, medical bills and anything else the estate may owe.
Why value on the date of death? Courts that require an inventory commonly ask for it, and the IRS works from the same date for tax purposes. IRS Publication 559, Survivors, Executors, and Administrators, says the basis of property inherited from a decedent is generally its fair market value on the date of death. For a bank account, that is simply the balance that day.
Keep the inventory separate from the running record of money the estate receives and spends after death. That second record is a different sheet with a different job, covered in the executor accounting spreadsheet post.
Finding every estate account in the bank statements
Bank statements are the best map of an estate's accounts, because money moves between accounts and the statements record each move. Start with the main checking account and read twelve months of statements line by line. Transfers, payments and deposits each point somewhere, and every place they point is a possible row in the inventory.
What to look for, and what each one suggests:
- "Transfer to savings ending 8812" suggests a savings account you may not have known about.
- A monthly payment to a card issuer suggests a credit card, which goes on the debts tab.
- A payment to an insurance company suggests a life, home or car policy. Life policies may pay out to a named beneficiary.
- A regular deposit from a brokerage suggests an investment account that pays dividends.
- A deposit from a pension or annuity suggests a plan that may have a survivor benefit.
- A payment to a safe deposit box rental suggests a box with contents to list.
- Interest credited on a savings statement confirms that account is still open.
A year matters because some payments are annual: an insurance premium, a box rental, a membership. Six months can miss them. If the bank only offers a year as twelve separate PDFs, reading them one at a time is slow, and the post on converting a year of bank statements compares ways to get them into one sheet without overpaying.
Last year's tax return is a useful check. Forms reporting interest and dividends name each institution that paid them, so any name there that is missing from your list needs a row.
Which date-of-death balance goes in the estate inventory?
The balance that goes in the estate inventory is the account's balance at the end of the date of death. That figure rarely appears on its own in a statement. Monthly statements give a balance at the start and end of the period, and the date of death usually falls somewhere in between.
There are two ways to get it.
Ask the bank for a date-of-death balance letter. Banks commonly provide one to the executor once they have the death certificate and the court papers. It states the balance on that date, sometimes with interest earned up to it. This is the strongest proof and the one a court will most readily accept.
Work it out from the statement. If the statement prints a running balance after each line, read the balance on the last line dated on or before the date of death. If it does not, take the opening balance and add or subtract each transaction up to that date. Write the method in the notes column.
Watch for transactions that cleared after death but were made before it, such as a check written on the 10th that cleared on the 14th when the person died on the 12th. Ask the court clerk or the estate's lawyer how your court wants that shown, and note the outstanding check separately so the executor's accounts can explain it later.
Some deposits arriving after death belong to the person, such as a final pension payment, and some must be returned. A benefit paid for a month after death is a common example of one the payer may take back. List such deposits in the notes rather than adding them to the date-of-death value.
Recurring bills on the estate inventory to stop or keep
Recurring bills on the statements fall into two groups: payments that protect estate property, which you usually keep, and payments for services the person no longer uses, which you stop. Sort every automatic payment into one group or the other in the second tab, and note the date you acted.
Usually keep, at least for now:
- Home insurance and car insurance, until the property is sold or transferred
- Property taxes and mortgage payments, to avoid penalties and default
- Utilities at a house that stands empty, to prevent frozen pipes or damage
Usually stop:
- Streaming, phone, gym and magazine subscriptions
- Meal or pharmacy deliveries
- Charitable pledges and membership dues
- Any service in the person's name alone that the family does not need
Stopping a payment means contacting the company, not only the bank. If you only cancel the card or close the account, the company may keep billing and send the debt to the estate. Ask each company to close the account and confirm in writing.
The duties described in IRS Publication 559 include collecting the decedent's assets, paying the decedent's creditors and distributing what is left to the beneficiaries. The bills tab supports all three. It shows which costs the estate is still carrying and why.
A worked estate inventory spreadsheet for one estate
The estate below is an example with made-up names and values. The person died on 2026-06-12.
Assets tab
| Item | Institution | Ownership | Value on 2026-06-12 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checking ending 3301 | Example Savings Bank | Sole name | $4,218.60 | Bank date-of-death letter |
| Savings ending 8812 | Example Savings Bank | Sole name | $22,940.05 | Bank date-of-death letter |
| CD ending 0057 | Example Savings Bank | Payable on death to daughter | $15,000.00 | CD statement |
| Brokerage account | Example Brokerage | Sole name | $31,775.40 | Brokerage valuation letter |
| 2017 sedan | At home | Sole name | $9,500.00 | Used car guide printout |
Recurring bills tab
| Payee on statement | Amount | Frequency | Decision | Date acted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example Home Insurance | $96.40 | Monthly | Keep until sale | |
| City Water | $41.10 | Monthly | Keep, house empty | |
| StreamFlix | $15.99 | Monthly | Cancelled | 2026-06-20 |
| Gym Club | $29.00 | Monthly | Cancelled, refund asked | 2026-06-21 |
| Example Life Insurance | $310.00 | Yearly | Claim filed, payment stopped | 2026-06-25 |
Three things in this example are worth copying. Every value has a source, so nobody has to take your word for it. The CD is listed even though it passes to the daughter, with its ownership marked. And the bills tab records dates, so the executor can show when each cost ended.
The life insurance row came from one yearly payment in the statements. A six-month read would have missed it, and the claim with it.
Joint and payable-on-death accounts in an estate inventory
Joint and payable-on-death accounts usually pass straight to the surviving owner or the named beneficiary, outside the will. Whether they belong on a court inventory depends on your state's rules, so list them on your working spreadsheet either way, clearly marked, and ask the court clerk or the estate's lawyer whether to include them in the filed version.
Listing them still matters. They can matter for estate tax, they explain why some money never reaches the estate's account, and family members often ask about them. A row marked "payable on death to daughter, not a probate asset" answers the question before it is asked.
A few other edge cases:
- A joint account with a spouse. The survivor often keeps using it. Note the date-of-death balance anyway, because it may matter for tax.
- An account with an authorized signer only. A signer is not an owner. The money usually belongs to the estate.
- A trust account. It belongs to the trust, not the estate, but note it.
Keep your own finances out of all of this. If you are the executor and also need your personal statements for something else, such as a home study when relatives take in a child after a death, those records stay separate. The post on bank statements for adoption covers what a home study asks to see.
If the statements are PDFs and you want the transaction lines in the sheet rather than retyping them, CheapBankConvert, once it opens, will convert each statement for a one-time price and preview the first two pages free, so you can check the rows before paying.