The deceased's mailbox

Email is often the place where policies, invoices and messages from bodies come in. Even so, an executor may not automatically read all the deceased's post. The will and the provider's policy determine what is allowed. Ask the notary what room you have before you open a mailbox or use a password you have found. Ask the provider which procedure they have after a death. Logging in yourself with a password you have found is not a neutral administrative act, not even if you are only looking for invoices. Follow the route the provider and the notary indicate.

In the file you put the accounts that are known: the address, the provider, and whether paper invoices came out of that box. Do not put a password in an open note and do not put a recovery code in a portal for heirs. If the office has a place for keeping secrets, such a particular belongs there only when the notary covers that use. A list of addresses is enough to be able to write to organisations whose post you recognise. The contents of old emails are not an inventory you print and send to all the heirs. Keep only what the winding-up needs.

Paper post and digital post stand on the same task list, with a different label. An invoice that comes in only by email you keep as a file with the creditor. Cut it loose from a conversation with a doctor or a family member. Medical messages do not belong in the estate-inventory folder. If you come across them while looking for a policy, you stop and you ask the notary how to deal with them. The task is the winding-up, not the archive of a life, and curiosity is no reason to read further.

A newsletter or a webshop you cancel through the route of the subscriptions, with the death certificate if the provider asks for it. You do not have to keep the whole mailbox for that. Ask the provider whether a limited forwarding address is possible, if their policy allows that. A forward that sends all private mail to an heir is usually too wide. Prefer a targeted request to organisations you already know. Social media and a cloud with photos are separate providers with procedures of their own; put them on the list and do not open them on the day you call the bank.

If an heir knows the password because they looked along during life, the same restraint applies. The informally shared access ends at death, just like a power of attorney. Ask that person not to delete messages and not to send anything in the name of the deceased. Deleting makes the administration poorer and raises distrust. A short written agreement that no one uses the account until the provider or the notary has indicated the route belongs in the file. Ervazo keeps that agreement and the list of known addresses; the program logs in nowhere and does not empty a mailbox.

This is an administrative checklist, not legal advice. The notary, the bank or the body concerned decides what this file needs and in which order. Ervazo keeps the tasks, the letters and the recorded values. The program does not send the letters, does not pay any debts and does not file a return. For each step, note the date, the person and the document you have received. What is still missing stays an open task. A ticked line means only that the administration has been updated. A password you have found is not permission to read the mailbox.