Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too.
Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
*****
Who cares about that shit?
"What did your Grandma leave you?"
"Um, 538 selfies, 68 pictures of a dog that died 20 years ago and I never knew, and the password to her OnlyFans account."
Yeah I don't care about my online accounts, truthfully I don't have any, they don't have any value to anyone but me...
ReplyDeleteJD
My wife and her mother went to an attorney to get all in order. Her mother was dying and wanted to die at home. My wife saw that this happened. Still it was a nightmare after she died. My wife ended up needing eight copies of the death certificate to cancel accounts. One I recall was the satellite dish. Not only did the bastards want the death certificate but continued billing the estate until they received and processed it. I know few have dishes anymore but that obviously wasn't the point.
ReplyDeleteXM satellite in the car. AOL account fall into similar categories. Basically anything and everything with a reoccurring charge.
DeleteAOL was the worst.
DeleteJust stop paying the bills. Move all finances over to a different account so the autopay stuff stops, then let them figure it out on their own. They wanna come out and re-po the dish, more power to them.
DeleteWe changed credit cards and AOL followed onto the new card. They were evil. We only signed up to pay grandma's bill. Took forever to get them to stop charging us after she died.
DeleteEveryone should have a designated digital heir, charged with cleaning out any lingering accounts, trashing files, etc. Same person should be responsible for cleaning out the nightstand next to the bed. Just good manners. There's probably a business in that.
ReplyDeleteThe ex fancies herself a professional digital photgrapher. She's never sold anything. But is unbelievably protective of her digital photos (won't even show them to our son because he "misused" one by making a present for his wife). When she kicks the bucket, her entire collection is going to the landfill. No one is going to waste time going through her digital garbage dump.
ReplyDeleteMy digital garbage dump contains the family history. My niece has already said she's going to read some of my writings (family dirt) at my wake.
When they find mine .. "That's A LOT of porn".
ReplyDeleteThat's why you need a porn buddy. If you die, he gets to your house before the relatives and removes the porn magazines (remember them?), videos, DVDs, the inflatable rubber sheep, rubber suits, whips, French ticklers, assorted sex toys etc.
DeleteLikewise he gets the account name and password to WWW.RedHotLesbianDonkeyPorn.com and other more - Ahem! - specialist websites and can either continue with the subscription and enjoyment or cancel them.
OK, it's a sad time that you have died but on the bright side, he gets a load of porn he's never seen before and a lot of kinky kit so there is a silver lining.
Phil B
Hey, I resemble that!
DeleteTo hell with that.....just erase my browser history!!!!
ReplyDeleteAdam Carolla covered that in The Man Show
ReplyDelete"Rest Assured "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_QA7M2vQBw
That include your hookers' phone numbers and video porn site subscriptions' passwords?
ReplyDeleteBefore I Go is a very good book about things that need to be done prior to a person dying. From an estate planner who spent 20 years helping people deal with the death of a partner.
ReplyDeleteBecause death is something that most people prefer not to think about, those left behind too often are left to discover key pieces of information needed to go on. This book and the accompanying workbook are designed to provide the basic information about the wishes of the deceased - before they go - and the financial issues that the widows, widowers or children need to know.
I'm trying to think of why I'd ever give a shit about a bunch of online stuff. I don't use FB or X, and of the forums I frequent, none will give a shit whether I'm dead, nor would I care if they know. I'll bet I have other things to worry about when I'm croaked, like getting back together with my dogs.
ReplyDeleteEd
Oh. You expect to go to heaven and see your dogs again. I'm expecting to see the cats. Just hoping for a spot near the fan.
DeleteOf course, a lot of computer files are the modern equivalent of a box of old family photos. Problem is, people take millions of pix and who wants to wade through them to find any worth keeping?
ReplyDeleteI try keeping a list of all my accounts - 3 different banks, auto insurance, health insurance, medical accounts, phone, cable, internet, power company, etc. Probably 40 or more different accounts listed. With passwords. After I die, the wife will probably have to get one of the kids to wade thru that crap just to pay monthly bills. It'd be better for her if we went back to mailing checks for everything. And of course if anyone else gets that cheatsheet we're screwed. They'll have access to everything.
ReplyDeleteWe've just gone thru that drill. Everything is in a binder, in the safe. Both of the daughters has the combo.
DeleteThere are detailed instructions, accounts, phone numbers, passwords, wills, etc etc etc
Their biggest challenge will be liquidation of all the tools and whatnot on our backyard shop.
I thought about leaving pre-filled forms and instructions on how to shut down my LLC, but since I learned about FinCEN I'm shutting it down myself. I have a master book of logins and passwords if they ever need to get into anything, it also has 2FA backup codes, and I need to add the QR codes too. Phone password is included.
DeleteIf anyone ever got their hands on the book then I'm totally fucked. My degenerate materials are kept on drives with full disk encryption, and only I know the passwords to them.
- Arc
My instructions are to line up every piece of digital equipment on a fence, and go at it.
ReplyDeleteI use a password manager, KeePass, but there are many others. It has every account I've ever made in 15 years. No two passwords are the same. My wife knows the master password. I trust her.
ReplyDeleteOr, keep the master password with your will. Nobody will look at it until you're dead, anyway.
My sister and brother in-law bought the farm recently. The executor of their estate needed to make sure bills were still being paid, even before the will was read. Have at least the emergency fund account available to your executor, just in case.
DeleteI think my executioner will walk away with my emergency funds too.
DeleteHow long is the Only Fans Account paid up?
ReplyDeleteWrite down your usernames and passwords in a small spiral notebook. I've taken care of two estates. Thank God, my sister wrote everything down. Hubby on the other hand...I still have stuff that turns up after 10 years.
ReplyDeleteWife and I set up a Living Trust. We're not rich but that gives us our final wills, living wills, HIPPA POA's, Health Care POA's, Financial POA's, DNR's etc already set up for the Trustee/s. All of this allows our Trustee/s to set up digital access to any online accounts they might need to utilize. The best part is that our estate bypasses probate entirely and remains completely private. Since it's a "Living Trust", retirement accounts can be maintained in tax protected status and distributed in annual amounts to minimize tax consequences for heirs. It also protects the estate should one or both of us require Medicaid. The only digital issue I've encountered has to do with owning some crypto. The private keys are essential for access to those funds. I've recently been researching how to pass on the crypto keys securely. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDelete