You might say that I live a “paperless” life. I bank and pay my bills online, have four (yes, four!) e-mail addresses, and hold accounts for everything from Facebook to Snapfish to Skype.
I’m not alone! Evan Carroll and John Romano are co-authors of Your Digital Afterlife, and say that more and more people are using the web to manage everything from social networking and photo sharing accounts to e-mail, bank, and investment accounts, but end up taking their passwords to the grave. In fact, only 35% of Americans have a will that covers tangible assets, and experts estimate far fewer have considered their “digital” assets. (Source: http://press-room.lawyers.com/2010-Will-Survey-Press-Release.html)
“If you don’t have access to the person’s actual computer, files, documents, photos, all kinds of things can be lost immediately. If you don’t leave access to things like e-mail accounts, people may be locked out,” says Romano.
Taking just 15 minutes to create a so-called “digital inventory” can prevent hours of frustration for your loved ones, and in some cases, a trip to court to get access to that information.
That’s what happened to John Ellsworth after his son Justin was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. When John tried to access Justin’s Yahoo e-mail account, he was denied due to Yahoo’s policy of not giving passwords to anyone other than the account holder. It took a court order for him to finally read his son’s last words.
John now has his own digital inventory to prevent this from happening again. Experts say it can also help prevent financial chaos.
“There are already instances of these problems coming up. They don’t know what bills are due. They may not know certain accounts, for example, the husband and wife have separate credit cards,” says Barry Jones with the Financial Planning Association.
Now, a slew of digital estate planning sites web sites promise to help keep you organized, including Entrustnet, DataInherit, and LegacyLocker. Think of them as online safe deposit boxes. They allow you to create a backup of your usernames and passwords, and for each “asset” you identify a digital beneficiary, who will receive the info upon your death. Some rely on a death certificate to release your data, others rely on a secure code. But before you sign up, it’s important to do your homework. Carroll and Romano recommend reading security and privacy policies for each site you’re considering. If you’re still not comfortable with leaving a virtual key, you can simply write the info down, but don’t leave it in your will.
“Your will becomes a public record after you’re gone, and if those passwords have not been changed, then anyone could gain access to them,” says Carroll.
Whatever you decide to do, update your list at least once a year, and make sure someone knows where to find it, whether it’s on the web, or hidden in your dresser drawer!
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