Planning for Your Digital Death
Before using the cremation services offered in Tallahassee, FL, you need to make sure all your affairs are in order. This includes having a will or trust in place that protects your physical assets, including your property, your finances, and other tangible and intangible items of value for your family.
However, while many people don’t think about it, there are other things that you need to protect and make sure your loved ones have access to after you die. These are your digital assets.
Digital assets are all the things that you have that give you access to things on online. You’ve probably added your digital assets in such a piecemeal fashion that you are not aware of just how many you’ve accumulated over the years. However, when you’re gone, your family will need to access every single one of those digital assets for one reason or another.
One of the digital assets that your family will need after you are gone are your usernames and passwords for all your online accounts (including the website for the account). These can include bank and PayPal accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, credit card company accounts, airline rewards accounts, shopping accounts, email accounts, social media accounts, online subscriptions, and streaming services accounts.
You may think you’ve got this covered because you’re using password management software, which stores all of these. However, if your family doesn’t have the administrative username and password to your password management program or if your computer crashes, having the password manager does your family absolutely no good.
However, most password management programs let you create export this information and save it in a file. If your password management software gives you this option, you should export your information at least once a month and store it on a flash drive (labeled “Usernames & Passwords”) that you keep with your important papers.
If you don’t have a password manager, then you should have a file that you keep updated that contains all this information. Save it on the flash drive labeled “Usernames & Passwords.”
Online subscriptions, streaming services and social media are three digital assets that require special consideration. It’s important to remember that all of these have credit cards or a PayPal account attached to them to pay for the service (in the case of Spotify, basic service is free, but premium and other services have a monthly fee).
Therefore, you need to be sure that you include that credit card information in the file you create with usernames and passwords for each service. After you die, many of your credit cards will be canceled.
It’s a good idea to consider devoting one, small maximum limit credit card as the form of payment for all your online subscriptions and services. Then, change all your accounts so they are charged to that credit card. Make sure you designate this as the credit card that needs to remain active after you die so that your family doesn’t lose access to subscription and streaming services.
Streaming services includes video and music services like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and Sling.
Online subscription services include software subscriptions like Microsoft Office 365 and Adobe Suite.
Social media includes services like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. These will remain active until they are physically deactivated, so it’s prudent for your family to deactivate or delete these accounts after you die.
For information about the cremation services offered in Tallahassee, FL, including grief resources, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Lifesong Funerals & Cremations is here to assist you. You can visit our funeral home at 20 S. Duval St., Quincy, FL 32351, or you can call us today at (850) 627-1111.
