{"id":1258,"date":"2011-05-23T11:13:29","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T16:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patellawoffices.com\/blog\/?p=626"},"modified":"2011-05-23T11:13:29","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T16:13:29","slug":"estate-planning-in-the-electronic-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/general-estate-planning-and-probate\/estate-planning-in-the-electronic-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Estate Planning in the Electronic Age"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the ever-growing\u00a0 presence of online and electronic documents, records and accounts, it is becoming\u00a0 essential to keep track of your passwords.\u00a0\u00a0 Consumers have had access to military grade cryptography for decades,\u00a0 and while it offers an amazing level of protection during life, it can have\u00a0 unintended consequences upon your death, possibly preventing your heirs from carrying\u00a0 out your final wishes.<\/p>\n<p>If you pass away unexpectedly, your family may\u00a0 be precluded altogether from accessing important electronic records such as\u00a0 emails and bank accounts.\u00a0 Accordingly,\u00a0 you need to establish a way to keep track of important logins, passwords,\u00a0 access keys and personal identification numbers (PINs) to ensure that your\u00a0 family and loved ones can access important online and electronic records.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Create a Plan for Storing Your Passwords Securely<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is shockingly no\u00a0 standardized way to keep track of important account information to ensure that\u00a0 your spouse, kids or lawyer can access them when you pass away.\u00a0 Even worse, the method most people might\u00a0 consider, putting them in a safe-deposit box will often backfire (see\u00a0 below).\u00a0 Here are some possible options when\u00a0 considering how to keep track of your passwords and other sensitive\u00a0 information:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Do Not Use Safe-Deposit Boxes<\/strong>:\u00a0 Ironically,\u00a0 most people might think the best option is the safe-deposit box.\u00a0 After all, it&#8217;s been used for generations to\u00a0 safely store important items and information.\u00a0\u00a0 The problem is, <strong>many banks will\u00a0 not allow access to the box until the will is probated<\/strong>.\u00a0 This means if important information needed to\u00a0 probate the will in the first place is in the box, you&#8217;re caught in a classic\u00a0 catch-22.\u00a0 Safe-deposit boxes should\u00a0 generally only be used to store items that won&#8217;t be needed until long after you&#8217;ve\u00a0 passed away.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Using a Safe at Home<\/strong>:\u00a0 This is probably the easiest method\u00a0 to understand and follow.\u00a0 After you&#8217;ve\u00a0 compiled a list of important access information (see below for a general list),\u00a0 store it in a secure safe in your home.\u00a0\u00a0 This provides two basic benefits: first, it&#8217;s relatively easy, and second,\u00a0 you can tell if your security information has been compromised.\u00a0 Combinations for the safe can be stored with\u00a0 an attorney.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Using Password Storing Services<\/strong>:\u00a0 There are an\u00a0 increasing amount of online services that offer safe, secure storage for all of\u00a0 your information and passwords.\u00a0 Given\u00a0 the relatively new status of these services and the fact that all online\u00a0 information is inherently at risk, however, this is probably not the most\u00a0 secure option.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Master Passwords and Password Splitting<\/strong>:\u00a0 Some people\u00a0 favor a password splitting scheme, where half of a master-password (that gives\u00a0 access to all of your passwords) is given to one party (e.g., a spouse), and\u00a0 the other half is given to your lawyer.\u00a0\u00a0 To account for the possibility that you and your spouse die at the same\u00a0 time, the spouse&#8217;s half also goes to a second lawyer with instructions on\u00a0 contacting the first lawyer.\u00a0 The benefit\u00a0 here is that no one, not your lawyer and not even your spouse, has access to\u00a0 your information.\u00a0 The only real pitfall\u00a0 to this approach is that some may find it too complex.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don&#8217;t Get Too Creative<\/strong>:\u00a0 Finally,\u00a0 consider coming up with a scheme that works for you and your family.\u00a0 Do not, however, get too creative.\u00a0 Any plan has to deal with all possibilities,\u00a0 and if you miss even one, the entire scheme may fail (e.g., if you and your\u00a0 spouse die in the above example and no contingency is built into the system).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Make a List of Each Service and Its Access Information<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Finally, once you have come\u00a0 up with your strategy for storing important passwords and access information,\u00a0 compile a list of important services and corresponding access information\u00a0 (logins, passwords, access keys, PINs, etc).\u00a0\u00a0 Common things to consider putting on your list are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Computers<\/li>\n<li>Email accounts<\/li>\n<li>Bank and\u00a0 financial accounts<\/li>\n<li>Cell phones, PDAs,\u00a0 other electronic devices<\/li>\n<li>Online services\u00a0 (online storage, records, pictures, etc)<\/li>\n<li>Important contact\u00a0 information<\/li>\n<li>Locations and\u00a0 access information to safes, safe-deposit boxes, alarms, etc<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is also recommended that\u00a0 you include a description next to each item.\u00a0\u00a0 For instance, a description of the assets held in an account, or the\u00a0 types of documents found in an online storage location.\u00a0 Lastly, remember to periodically update this\u00a0 information as the means of access and your passwords may change over time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the ever-growing\u00a0 presence of online and electronic documents, records and accounts, it is becoming\u00a0 essential to keep track of your passwords.\u00a0\u00a0 Consumers have had access to military grade cryptography for decades,\u00a0 and while it offers an amazing level of protection during life, it can have\u00a0 unintended consequences upon your death, possibly preventing your heirs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-estate-planning-and-probate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}