What Documents to Keep After a Death, and for How Long

Why there is no single date

The papers a person leaves behind answer to different rules. The IRS ties every recordkeeping period to a particular return and to what the record is used for.^[1] The federal health privacy rule protects a deceased person’s health information for 50 years, and that rule is about who may see the records.^[6] Recorded deeds and filed probate papers sit in official archives that outlast any family filing cabinet.^[9][10] No office issues one shred date for the whole file, and this page does not invent one.

Here is how the page works. Where the captured sources stop, the page stops with them and says so. The register at the end carries each category forward as a row you fill in by hand.

First pass: what to keep and what you can get again

Start by separating papers you must hold from papers the system already holds. Probate courts are the clearest case. Maryland’s Register of Wills maintains and preserves the permanent record of all proceedings. Probate filings there are public record, with a sealed-records exception under Maryland Rules 16-900 et seq. Estate dockets can be viewed free online, records download in PDF format for a fee of $0.50 per page, and every office has public viewing stations anyone may use at no cost. That is one state’s practice, and every state differs, but the pattern is worth knowing: the filed original often lives at the court. Read the guide to probate records for how to request what a court holds.^[9]

Recorded property documents work the same way. The county recorder adds the recorded document to its archive for retention and mails the original back after the process completes, as Los Angeles County states on its recording requirements page. Regular or certified copies can be purchased later, and in San Francisco any record before January 1, 1990 can only be searched in person at City Hall. Fees differ by county, so check the county rather than assuming a price. The short version: the recorder keeps the recorded document and issues copies.^[10][11]

Certificates have their own durable home. Birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates stay obtainable from the state or territory office where the event occurred, and the federal government does not distribute them; the CDC runs the directory that routes each event to its office. If the estate runs short on death certificates, more can be ordered. The guides to death certificates and how many death certificates to order cover the mechanics.^[12]

Many offices that ask for a death certificate accept a copy rather than an original. Maryland’s register says many agencies and private institutions accept copies and suggests asking whenever you transact business that requires one. Treat that as a question to ask each office, since each sets its own rule.^[9]

The first column of the register below records, for every category, what the durable record actually is: your copy, the court file, the recorder’s archive, the IRS return or transcript, or the provider’s own records. Papers with a durable record somewhere else can be re-obtained. Papers without one cannot, and that difference sets what you keep.

Tax records: the periods that actually exist

Tax records carry the periods people most often ask about, and the IRS states the actual ones. The period of limitations for assessing tax generally runs 3 years from the date the return was filed, and it runs per return, not from the date of death. Records that support an item of income, a deduction, or a credit, such as receipts and canceled checks, are kept until the period of limitations for that return expires. A return filed before its due date is generally treated as filed on the due date.^[1]

Three situations stretch or remove the period. There is no period of limitations at all when a return is fraudulent or when no valid return is filed. When income that should have been reported exceeds 25 percent of the gross income shown on the return, the period runs 6 years from filing.^[1]

Property records run on their own clock. Records relating to property are kept until the period of limitations expires for the year the property is disposed of in a taxable disposition, because they figure the basis for gain or loss.^[1] That matters after a death: the basis of inherited property is generally its fair market value at the date of death, or on the alternate valuation date if the personal representative elects one, and the IRS requires accurate records of all items that affect basis.^[5] Date-of-death valuations and appraisals outlive the estate’s closing for exactly this reason. The step-up in basis guide explains the mechanics.

Employment tax records follow a different line: at least 4 years after the tax becomes due or is paid, whichever is later. This applies when the deceased had a business or household employees.^[1]

The final return itself is prepared and filed the same way you would if the person were alive, reporting all income up to the date of death.^[3] Do not attach the death certificate or other proof of death; keep it for your records and provide it if the IRS asks.^[2] Form 4506-T can verify non-filing status and certain income documents of the deceased.^[3] The final return guide walks through the filing.

Refunds bring one more record into play. A court-appointed personal representative attaches a copy of the court certificate that shows the appointment, and the IRS states plainly that a power of attorney or a copy of the decedent’s will is not acceptable evidence of your appointment. Keep that certificate after the estate closes; it is the reusable proof of authority.^[2]

Estates that file Form 706, only those required to file, have a separate evidence trail. Closing letters are issued on request for estate tax returns filed on or after June 1, 2015. An account transcript showing Transaction Code 421, which indicates the return was accepted as filed or the examination is complete, is an acceptable substitute. Wait nine months after filing before requesting a transcript through the transcript delivery system, or six months through Form 4506-T.^[4]

One boundary holds here. No captured IRS statement says how long the IRS keeps estate tax files or how long an executor must keep Form 706 copies. This page applies the period-of-limitations logic to the estate’s own returns and stops there.

Medical records and health information

Federal health privacy law follows a deceased person’s records for a long time, and the rule is about privacy. The HIPAA Privacy Rule protects the individually identifiable health information of a decedent for 50 years following the date of death; after 50 years, that information falls outside the definition of protected health information. The rule says who may see the records. It sets no requirement about how long the paper stays in a drawer.^[6]

During those 50 years, the personal representative, the executor, administrator, or other person with authority under state law to act for the decedent or the estate, can exercise the decedent’s Privacy Rule rights, including access to the records and authorization for their release. Who qualifies as a personal representative varies by state law.^[6]

Family members and others involved in the person’s care or payment for care before death may receive the health information relevant to that involvement, unless the provider knows of a prior expressed preference of the deceased that points the other way. Disclosures outside that lane need written HIPAA authorization from the personal representative.^[6]

How long providers themselves keep medical records varies by provider and by state law, and this page gives no number for it. The register row for medical papers carries the privacy window and the access question instead.

The bills deserve their own row, and Medicare explains why. Medicare’s Summary Notice page tells people with Original Medicare to keep receipts and bills, compare them with the notice to be sure the listed services, supplies, or equipment were actually received, and compare the notice with each bill to confirm the right amount was paid. That guidance is written for living beneficiaries. On this page it explains the working purpose of medical bills and receipts, which is verification. It sets no retention period and creates no right after death.^[14]

Benefits and agency records

Social Security sets the pattern for agency records: what matters most is that certain facts stay reachable. Funeral homes generally report a death to SSA. When no funeral home is involved, or one does not report for some reason, the caller provides the deceased person’s name, Social Security number, date of birth, and date of death.^[7]

The survivor side runs on the same logic. A death cannot be reported, and survivors benefits cannot be applied for, online. Applications should not be delayed for missing documents, because the local office can often verify information with the state office that holds birth and death records, online and at no cost. Any document mailed to SSA must carry the Social Security number so it can be matched to the correct application, and nothing may be written on the original documents. A spouse might receive a one-time payment of $255, and some children may qualify when there is no spouse.^[8][7] The surviving spouse checklist and the Social Security after death guide carry the eligibility detail.

Across these agencies, a copy or a reachable fact often does the job, and the register leaves a place to note, office by office, whether an original was demanded.^[7][8] VA, pension, and life insurance record retention sits outside what the captured sources for this page cover; the VA survivor benefits guide owns the VA lane.

Household papers, titles, and disposal hygiene

The household’s own paperwork follows consumer rules, and the FTC sorted them in a June 10, 2025 alert. Keep for a year: bank statements, pay stubs, undisputed medical bills, credit card and utility bills, and deposited checks. Keep at least three years: income tax returns and tax-related documents, and records related to selling a home. The FTC itself notes the IRS recommends keeping tax returns and tax-related documents for longer than three years in some cases.^[13]

Keep while you own the item: the vehicle title, the home title or deed, mortgage and vehicle loan documents, home improvement receipts, leases, and receipts and warranties for major appliances. Keep indefinitely and lock up: birth and adoption certificates, Social Security cards, passports and citizenship papers, marriage licenses and divorce decrees, military records, wills, living wills, powers of attorney, retirement and pension plan papers, death certificates of family members, and health records.^[13]

The same alert sets the disposal rule: “When it’s time to dispose of documents with your personal or financial information, shred them.” The shred list includes ATM receipts, offers of credit or insurance, cleared checks after 14 days, credit reports, prescriptions no longer taken, expired warranties, and expired cards and IDs.^[13]

Read that alert with its audience in mind. The FTC wrote it for living consumers managing their own papers, and it says nothing about death or estates. This page uses it for the disposal method and the household category labels, and never as timing authority for an estate. Every tax duration above comes from the IRS, never from the FTC’s three-year figure alone.

Once a document serves no estate purpose from any category on this page, an open limitations period, a possible claim, proof of authority, basis, or the privacy window, normal disposal hygiene applies. One neighboring set of household papers has its own guide: what happens to a lease when someone dies.

If you are planning your own papers

Where originals should live during life, and how to tell someone where they are, is a living-person question with its own guide; the document storage section of the estate planning documents page carries it. An executor who cannot find the will after a death has a separate search job; the guide to finding a will after someone dies owns it. This page stops at the papers the death leaves behind.