How to open a safe deposit box after someone dies

General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Last reviewed Oct 31, 2026.

Quick answerA co-renter with survivorship access can usually keep using the box. Otherwise, in California, Texas and Florida certain family members or the named executor can open the box with a bank officer before probate, but generally only to look for and remove a will, burial papers or (in Texas and Florida) a life insurance policy. Everything else stays until an executor or other authorized person is appointed. New Hampshire and Ohio work differently, so check the steps below.

Step by step

Find the key and the bank’s rental agreement. See who else is listed on the box.
Bring a certified death certificate and your photo ID.
Ask the bank which route applies: co-renter access, a pre-probate search for the will, or access by an executor with court papers.
Open it with a bank officer present and make a list of everything inside.
Deliver any will to the probate court as your state requires.
Leave other valuables until someone has legal authority to collect them. See when you need probate.

Pilot statesState law

New Hampshire

If the box was rented to two or more people with a separate right of access for each or for the survivor, the surviving renter has access for any purpose.
If the renter named a representative in a written power of attorney filed with the bank that expressly continues access after death, that person keeps access.

Joint renters and continuing power of attorney. Source: RSA 383-B:5-501(f)–(g), checked Oct 31, 2026.

Not yet verified: how heirs or an executor in New Hampshire get into a box rented in the deceased’s sole name without those arrangements. Ask the bank and the probate court.

California

Applies to a box in the deceased’s sole name (or where all renters have died).
Before letters are issued, anyone with a key can get access by giving the bank proof of death and reasonable proof of identity.
Under bank supervision, they may inventory the box, remove instructions for disposition of the remains, and remove wills and trust documents after the bank photocopies them.
Wills must go to the clerk of the superior court, with a copy to the named executor or beneficiary. Nothing else may be removed.

Pre-letters access, inventory, photocopies, delivery of wills. Source: Cal. Prob. Code § 331, checked Oct 31, 2026.

Texas

Without a court order: the bank may let the spouse, a parent, a descendant 18 or older, or a person named executor in a copy of a will examine the box in the presence of a bank officer.
On request and with a receipt, the bank may hand over a will (to the probate court clerk in the county where the person lived, or to the named executor), a burial plot deed or burial instructions (to the person examining), and a life insurance policy (to the beneficiary). The bank keeps a copy of a delivered will for 4 years.
With a court order: a probate judge can order a court representative to examine the box for those documents.
No other contents may be removed except as the law provides.

Examination and delivery with and without a court order; removal restricted. Source: Tex. Estates Code ch. 151, checked Oct 31, 2026.

Florida

With satisfactory proof of death, the bank must let a person named in a court order, or if there’s no order the spouse, a parent, an adult descendant, or a person named personal representative in a copy of a purported will, open and examine the box with a bank officer present.
On request the bank removes and delivers only a will (to the probate court in that county), a burial plot deed or burial instructions (to the person searching), and a life insurance policy (to the named beneficiary), keeping copies in the box.
The bank may charge reasonable fees.

Search procedure on death of lessee. Source: Fla. Stat. § 655.935, checked Oct 31, 2026.

Ohio

Ohio’s old rule requiring the tax commissioner to inventory a deceased person’s box doesn’t apply to deaths on or after Jan. 1, 2013.
Some Ohio probate courts have a form to appoint a commissioner who opens the box with the bank, inventories it, and brings any will to the court. Lake County’s is one example.

Tax commissioner consent rule doesn’t apply to deaths on or after Jan. 1, 2013. Source: Ohio Rev. Code § 5731.39, checked Oct 31, 2026.
Application to appoint a commissioner to report on a safe deposit box. Source: Lake County (Ohio) Probate Court, checked Oct 31, 2026.

Not yet verified: a statewide Ohio rule letting family open a box to look for a will. Ask the probate court in the county where the person lived.

Next steps: filing the will and finding other assets.

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