Do Your Loved Ones Have Your Passwords?

I’ll bet you never even thought to ask that question. I have a lot of my life on my computer right now – financial statements, bank statements, online bills, photos, email boxes (several of those), and membership on social networking sites. For each of these different places, I need a separate user name and password. On some of these sites, I need to keep changing my password for security purposes.

If I got hit by a bus tomorrow, would my family know how to access my computer life? Yes, for the most part. I have a list (that I need to check to make sure that it’s up-to-date) of what my user names and passwords are. If you got hit by a bus tomorrow, would your family know how to get to your online accounts?

Are you aware that Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo and other sites that create accounts for you will make it very difficult for your loved ones to access your account after you die if they do not have your user name and password? One family had to go to court to get Yahoo to release the emails in their son’s mailbox.

The more we use cyberspace to store information, conduct our financial lives, and interact with our friends, the more we need to make sure that our family can gain access to that information in the event of our untimely death. Don’t make your family have to go to court to get something to which you can easily gain access. When you create your list of persons to contact when you die, add in the information for your online accounts. Save your loved ones that headache.

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