What belongs on a location card—and what must never appear

A useful location card answers five questions: which wallet nickname, what medium holds the phrase, where that medium sits, who may open that place, and under what conditions. That is enough for an heir to start. Adding the twelve or twenty-four words themselves turns the binder into a second phrase copy—the opposite of what most households want.

Fields that earn their place

Nickname — “Travel ledger” beats “Wallet 3” when heirs heard the nickname at home.
Medium — paper, stamped steel, engraved plate, or sealed envelope. Medium tells them what to look for inside a box.
Place — building, room, vault reference, or solicitor file label. Be specific enough that a stranger-to-the-apartment can still follow.
Custodian — the person or institution that controls access.
Conditions — “open only with death certificate” or “joint attendance of both children.”

Fields that stay out

Seed words, checksum notes that reveal words, photographs of plates, exchange passwords, and PIN patterns for the containers that hold phrases. If an heir needs a PIN to a lockbox, record who holds the PIN envelope, not the digits.

A quick self-check

Hand the card to someone who has never seen your home. Ask them what they would do first. If they say “I would still need you to whisper the words,” the card is doing its job. If they could reconstruct the phrase from the card alone, rewrite it before the card enters the binder.