Years ago, a neighbor learned that once a person dies, the state prohibits access to a safe deposit box before the contents can be inventoried, except for a will, or burial plot deed. She very quickly put a safe in the wall at home and cancelled the safe deposit box. In this case the FIB just couldn’t wait until someone died to inventory the safe deposit boxes. The concept has just progressed, but the contempt for individual rights and privacy is openly manifest by our ruling class elites. It’s what they do.
Your neighbor is correct. The IRS wants to know what is in the safe deposit box in order to count it in the deceased estate so they can tax the total value of the estate. My mother died suddenly and one of the first things I did was go to the bank and empty the box and put some old newspapers in it.