Prepare Digital Assets for When You Die

Death isn’t something most of us want to spend any time thinking about, but it is inevitable for all of us. It will be a big help to your loved ones if you start now and plan on how you pass on your digital assets as well as your physical and financial ones.

Most of us know we should have a will and have beneficiaries designated on life insurance and investment accounts so that our assets are distributed to the individual(s) we want. Unfortunately, many people don’t even take this first basic step. However, those of us who live and work online really need to go further and think about how our loved ones should have access to our digital assets, accounts, and information.

Here are a few things you should consider:

Password access

Come up with some way for your family to find your login credentials so they will be able to access certain critical accounts or computers. I know one person who has an encrypted database with all of his passwords and the access information is in a sealed envelope in a safe. Other people use a password management system. Just make sure a trusted family member can access your login information so they can access this database.

How you choose to do this depends on how you manage your passwords and how often you change them. I think most of us could find some creative way to make it easy for our family to get access to at least a few key accounts.

Technical documentation

Make sure you keep a record of passwords and other technology you use where someone you trust can easily access it without having to access one of your online portals. This is especially important if you have systems tied together in a complicated manner. If you don’t have another tech-savvy family member, make sure this documentation includes the names and phone numbers of a couple of trusted friends who can help out.

Client or work contacts

If you are an independent contractor or small business owner, it will be important for someone to notify your clients of your death. Keep a file or some kind of documentation about your clients in a place where other people can access it.

At a minimum, you might want to include the name, email address, and phone number of each current client, or your manager or owner at the agency, so they can be contacted. I tend to keep everything on my password-protected computer, and it would be very difficult for my family to contact my clients if anything happened to me.

Digital assets

Most of us have family photographs and other digital assets that our family will want to access later. Where are these files physically located? On a laptop? On a portable hard drive? In a cloud storage service?

Make sure someone knows how to find those important photographs and other documents, and don’t rely on online photo storage services, which might be deleted at some point. If you keep most of your data on your own server (hosted or onsite), leave instructions for how to access and download anything that someone might want to save.

What else can we do to make this easier for our families? What steps have you taken to prepare? _________________________________________________________________________________
Steve Anderson is the leading authority on insurance agency technology. He is a prolific writer known for his knack for translating “geek speak” into easily understood concepts. Check out his free weekly newsletter “TechTips” and other resources on his website.