Helping Your Heirs To Access Your Digital Assets
by Peter Clarke of PC PAL
We are all told to password protect our computers and every digital account we set up, but what happens when a person dies? Do you know the password to all your loved ones' computers and accounts - do they know yours? Below are 3 ways to be proactive in addressing this issue:
- Some paralegals suggest that when you write a will you also draw up a list of your online presence including all your passwords for all your digital accounts. This list should be stored with your will to be passed on to your heirs on your death
- You can use online secure services such as PasswordBox. This service securely keeps the passwords to all of your accounts in a virtual box in the cloud which only you can access. However, PasswordBox has a legacy locker which means you can appoint someone to have access to your box of passwords after you die - a death certificate is needed to do this
- Google has an inactive account manager which you can set up to include all sorts of cloud based storage such as photos etc. If you don't use the account for a designated time you get a text to say your account has been inactive. If you don't reply to the text within a month Google will email your nominated heirs to say that your account is inactive and, if one of them provides a death certificate, they have 3 months to download all of the contents of your accounts
Whilst using one of the above methods is by far the easiest way to deal with the situation it is not the only option, so if you have a computer that you need to access and don't know the password don't despair, give me a call to discuss your options.
If you want to discuss this topic further please don’t hesitate to call me.
