Digital Estate Plan

If you are using older estate planning tools, there could be a section missing. Does anyone know about items you have in “cloud” storage? Would they know how to close your Facebook or Twitter accounts? Would they know to contact a business to stop automatic withdrawals for subscriptions or utility payments?

Here’s a list to get you thinking about items to include in your personal inventory under the category: Electronic

• Your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media accounts.
• Blogs and websites you own.
• Bank, brokerage, retirement plan, credit card, loan, and insurance accounts that you access online.
• Your email accounts.
• Online retail accounts and apps from stores: eBay, Amazon, iTunes etc..
• Photo- or video-sharing sites like Flickr or YouTube.
• PayPal or other online payment accounts.
• Utility bills you pay online.
• Any other online accounts such as ones from airline sites with your frequent flier miles and document and data storage accounts like Google Docs.

Keep the list in a secure location with the passwords in a different spot, perhaps use a secure password app. Find someone you trust and share the location of the information, then update the list when you make changes. It’s also a good idea to visit the sites when you have time to review their inactivity policies. Some companies are catching up to this reality of a deceased client and are asking you to set up steps they should follow if your account is not used for a set period of time.

Click here to view original web page at Digital Estate Plan

If you are using older estate planning tools, there could be a section missing. Does anyone know about items you have in “cloud” storage? Would they know how to close your Facebook or Twitter accounts? Would they know to contact a business to stop automatic withdrawals for subscriptions or utility payments?

Here’s a list to get you thinking about items to include in your personal inventory under the category: Electronic

• Your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media accounts.
• Blogs and websites you own.
• Bank, brokerage, retirement plan, credit card, loan, and insurance accounts that you access online.
• Your email accounts.
• Online retail accounts and apps from stores: eBay, Amazon, iTunes etc..
• Photo- or video-sharing sites like Flickr or YouTube.
• PayPal or other online payment accounts.
• Utility bills you pay online.
• Any other online accounts such as ones from airline sites with your frequent flier miles and document and data storage accounts like Google Docs.

Keep the list in a secure location with the passwords in a different spot, perhaps use a secure password app. Find someone you trust and share the location of the information, then update the list when you make changes. It’s also a good idea to visit the sites when you have time to review their inactivity policies. Some companies are catching up to this reality of a deceased client and are asking you to set up steps they should follow if your account is not used for a set period of time.