Planning for a Digital Afterlife
Today, the average person has around 100 online accounts to their name and yet somehow this seems like an insignificant part of our lives. Most of us use our phones for absolutely everything from managing our finances to keeping up with friends. This small electronic holds a lot of power while we are living, but how about when we pass on? Will it be helpful for our heirs or a nightmare? We want the former to be true.
The Negative Side of Convenience
Gone are the days of writing down all your passwords on paper. We were told this was a bad idea, but now we have a new problem—our heirs are unable to locate our passwords. Story after story, heirs are struggling to shut down the digital assets of their loved ones, more typically in the case of sudden, pre-mature death. When you really start to think about it, there are many accounts or subscriptions we have aside from simply credit cards and bank accounts. Most online websites do not offer a way to assign a legacy contact, however tech giants like Facebook and Apple do. For Android users, you also can add a legacy contact via your Google account.
One woman who made the news, did not know her husband’s four-digit phone passcode. Much of the information she needed was on his phone. Additionally, all the picture memories he had, she will never have access to again. She tried to guess the passcode until she tried so many times that it locked her out. Apple, AT&T, nor the police were able to help her get access due to legalities. Among all the other stress and grief that goes into losing a loved one, having to locate passwords to contact each website separately after death is a daunting task for anyone.
Where to Start
Turn on legacy contacts for websites that allow, the most crucial being a cell phone and an email account. You can consider picking a digital executor, which is separate from the executor of your estate. Perhaps your spouse is the best choice for the executor of your estate, but maybe your child is the best to designate as a digital executor for their familiarity with technology. Consider protecting yourself by saving passwords not only in your own phone, but in your spouse’s too. You can even add your fingerprint or your face to your spouse’s phone as a quick option to be able to gain access if necessary. While some subscriptions of $20 seem insignificant, after death it is much easier to be able to login as someone and cancel the subscription rather than needing to write to customer service and prove the death.
New Technology to Solve Technology Problems
Becoming increasingly popular are digital legacy services such as Everplans and Trustworthy, which provide a solution for storing all your documents/passwords in one place, accessible to your family anywhere in the world. With advanced security measures in place, the right people can view the right documents, at the right time. You can give your family members and trusted advisors access to upload important documents right to the websites and even select the level of access you want to give that specific person. While both websites offer a free option to get started, the higher security is only available with a paid subscription. The services also offer ways to store details related to funeral wishes, letters to family member, or even family recipes. Aside from being a key component to estate planning, it can help in simplifying life by keeping track of your household all in one place.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/26/tech/digital-legacy-planning-personal-technology
https://www.everplans.com/articles/the-best-ways-to-save-family-recipes-and-why-you-should-do-this-today
https://www.everplans.com
https://www.trustworthy.com
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