Frequently clients and new referrals come to us after the passing of a loved one with a knowledge of assets and additional financial accounts, but without the information to access those accounts.
With cyber security ever evolving, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your information is safe, but not so safe that your loved ones are unable to access what they need.
This is where a ‘Digital Will’ comes in
A ‘Digital Will’ outlines the details of your digital assets and online accounts, and how you want them to be handled after your death or in the event you become incapacitated.
Digital assets can include:
Online Accounts: such as email accounts, social media profiles, online banking, and other subscriptions
Digital Files: like documents, photos, videos etc
Websites or Domain Names
Benefits of a ‘Digital Will’
- Protects Your Assets: Digital assets can have financial or sentimental value. Without clear instructions, it can be difficult for your loved ones to access or manage these assets.
- Provides Privacy and Security: It’s essential to protect your online presence after your death. A digital will can help prevent identity theft or unauthorized access to sensitive information.
- Protects Your Digital Presence: You may want to preserve your online presence or ensure that certain digital content is passed on to your heirs, like photos, videos, or personal writings.
- Reduces Family Disputes: As with anything, having a clear plan in place can prevent family disputes over how to handle your digital assets, as your wishes are explicitly outlined.
Part of your ‘Digital Will’ will include your passwords to access the assets above, and using an online password manager is the most secure way to store and share these.
There are many password managers available, and it isn’t for us to recommend one, but we highly recommend that you find one you’re comfortable with and transfer all the passwords you might have written in various places (or the one place) to this.
Benefits of an online Password Manager
- Store all your passwords in one secure location, making it easy to access and manage them.
- Automatically fill in your login credentials on websites and apps, saving you time and effort.
- Detect phishing websites and protect you from entering your login information on fraudulent sites.
- Grant emergency access to your accounts to trusted individuals in case of unforeseen circumstances.
- Secure your passwords and information even further through use of Multi-Factor Authentication.
You can see how this would compliment your ‘Digital Will’ and hopefully make life a whole lot easier for you now and your loved ones in the future.
To help with the storage of digital files, Treysta Wealth’s new online client portal includes a ‘vault’ with folders such as ‘Tax returns’, ‘Retirement documents’, ‘Estate Planning’ etc that aims to be your digital filing cabinet.
If you would like to discuss this and/or your ‘digital will’, our team would be happy to help.
