When we talk about helping an elderly parent manage their affairs during their golden years, or wrapping them up after they pass, we often talk about certain practical considerations that fall outside of the strict legalities of wills, trusts, and powers of attorney. Clients are often advised to give their children or next of kin a complete picture of their various accounts so that they’ll know where the money is, and where it needs to go, rather than scrambling after the fact to ensure that no assets are left behind and no bills go unpaid. Some clients even choose to proactively provide copies of keys, safe combinations, and the like to their children, so that they’re able to step in and help should the need ever arise. Increasingly, however, our lives are lived partially or fully online, and a simple list of accounts and a set of keys may no longer be enough to allow our loved ones to step in and help.
With the rise of paperless billing, knowing what bills exist and how to pay them isn’t as simple as keeping an eye on the mailbox. Things like utility bills, medical bills, and sundry items like the Netflix account or the Dollar Shave Club membership may only be payable or even cancelable online. Additionally, more and more of our communication takes place online, and our social media accounts often serve as a de facto shrine after our passing. While it may be possible to obtain a court order to access a deceased family member’s Netflix account and cancel it, or go in and delete that off-the-cuff Facebook post that isn’t how they’d want to be remembered, doing so can be expensive and time consuming, especially given that it’s an entirely foreseeable circumstance that you can take steps now to avoid.
While dealing with this may seem as simple as writing out a list of accounts and their passwords, and providing it to your children, the reality of the situation can be more complicated. Websites often require you to change your password, either after a set amount of time or if you forget it, which many people old and young alike regularly find themselves doing. Keeping a written list constantly updated for your next of kin thus becomes a hassle that you may not keep up with and keeping a list on your computer is a major security risk. Additionally, a written list is susceptible to loss, theft, or destruction.
Fortunately, there’s a fairly simple solution to these problems, which is using a quality password manager. A password manager is a piece of software that you access with one “master” password that stores all your other passwords. A quality password manager will support features like auto-filling your passwords when you log in to an account on your computer or phone and automatically generating and storing passwords when you’re prompted to change one, or when you sign up for a new service. While it may seem strange to put all your security eggs in one basket, password managers generally increase security by entrusting the information to a company whose primary concern and expertise is security, and by preventing the use of a single password across multiple sites, a practice that many people find necessary given the sheer number of accounts we’re expected to maintain, but which creates a huge security risk.
By using a password manager and giving your child or next of kin access to the manager via the “master” password, it’s possible to ensure that they always have access to all your accounts should the need arise. This does, however, present its own problems, as many people may not want to needlessly give away access to every transaction and every communication unless absolutely necessary, may not remember to update their child or next of kind when they change the master password, or may feel the need to revoke access at some point (which the other party could prevent by changing the master password first). While there are multiple potential solutions to this problem that can be tailored to a client’s particular needs, I personally choose to use a particularly low cost and straightforward method. My password manager of choice has a feature called “Emergency Access” where you can designate certain individuals, such as close family members, as “People I Trust.” If something happens to you, they can submit a request via the password manager website for access to all of your passwords. You will then be sent an email asking whether to grant access, and if you either grant access or don’t deny it during a waiting period of your choice (from no waiting period at all up to 30 days), they are granted access. This way, if they request access when it isn’t needed, you can deny the request and ask them why they made it. You can also add people (e.g., a child as they grow into adulthood) or remove people (e.g., an estranged family member or divorced spouse) at will. You also won’t need to send out a new master password should you ever change it and want someone to retain access, or change your master password if someone has it who you no longer want to have access.
There are many reasons for ensuring that your loved ones have the keys to your digital kingdom if and when something happens to you, and many ways to go about it. Experience shows, however, that getting a court order for every little thing is an expensive and time-consuming way. On the other hand, using a password manager can provide for a quick, simple, and cheap solution that goes hand in hand with the objectives of your estate plan, while also providing greater security from identity theft, and greater convenience (no more forgotten passwords!) during your lifetime.