Pat Foran shares three tips to ensure you’re covered when it comes to digital estate planning. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not pleasant to think about death or a medical emergency, but one of the greatest gifts you can give your family is being prepared for those situations. <\/p>\n
While most people are familiar with traditional estate planning, there is also a digital component most people might not think about.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s digital age, photos, banking passwords and other important information gets locked away on phones and computers, and a \u201cdigital estate plan\u201d can help family members access important documents to settle loved one\u2019s affairs.<\/p>\n
Steps to set up a digital estate plan<\/p>\n
To create a digital estate plan, first set up an \u2018in case of emergency\u2019 document. Jot down the names, phone numbers, and e-mails of important people in your life.<\/p>\n
Also list the location of important documents like birth certificates, passports, and your social insurance number. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis document should also have your bank accounts, investments, and recurring bills,\u201d said Brian Vines with Consumer Reports. \u201cPut down when they\u2019re due and how you pay them and be sure to mention if anything is set up as autopay\u201d <\/p>\n
Secondly, passwords and log-in information should be shared. If you don\u2019t want to spell out your passwords, give hints or keep it simple with a password manager. <\/p>\n
Consumer Reports recommends using 1password. It has annual family plans that cover up to five people who get access to shared folders. <\/p>\n
The third thing that\u2019s recommended to do is to designate a legacy contact for your online accounts. <\/p>\n
\u201cA few tech companies let you grant control to someone else,\u201d explained Vine. \u201cThere\u2019s Google\u2019s inactive account manager, Facebook legacy contact, and Apple\u2019s legacy contact to name a few.\u201d <\/p>\n
Next, add your digital assets to your traditional will that way everything is tied together in one place and easy for your family or close friends to find. <\/p>\n
Finally, it\u2019s advised to have an emergency planning meeting and tell your loved ones your wishes and where they can find the information you collected. <\/p>\n
Providing easy access to online accounts can make a painful time less stressful and having things in order will give you, and your family members, peace of mind. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pat Foran shares three tips to ensure you’re covered when it comes to digital estate planning. It\u2019s not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[16159,64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-222713","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}