Today many of us have valuable assets stored with various services in the cloud. Everyone should have password protected their computers and all mobile devices. But we are all mortal and while we want bulletproof security of digital assets while alive, we would also not want it to be very difficult or impossible for heirs to access these assets after our deaths.

How to Prepare Your Digital Life for Your Death is a very interesting piece in PC Mag that was suggested to me by my colleague Catherine Reach. Some of the most well-known online services have their own internal “estate plan” tool, like Facebook Legacy Contact or Google’s Inactive Account Manager. And what about two factor authenticated accounts? This article covers all of those points.

This is also the type of article a lawyer can share with clients, whether through an email newsletter or creating a sentence that you insert in emails when the client might need the information.

Bonus password manager plug: If you put all your passwords into your password manager, then most password managers have been estate planning feature that allows a close friend or relative access to your account after a period of no activity. See the video at my May 26^th tip: Take the Pain Out of Selecting a Password Manager with Tips from Tom Mighell.