It’s
not pleasant to think about death or a medical emergency, but one of the
greatest gifts you can give your loved ones is being prepared for those
situations.

You might be familiar with traditional estate planning, but there’s
also what’s called digital estate planning. Consumer Reports has five things to do
right now to make things easier in a crisis.

Having
a will and power of attorney will help your loved ones follow your wishes, but
there’s more to do.

Think about your online accounts and which bills you pay
with a swipe. Are there important documents in your cloud storage? And what
about all those photos on your phone? Create a digital estate plan.

First,
set up an ‘in case of emergency’ document. Jot down the names, phone numbers,
and emails of important people in your life. List the location of important
documents, like birth certificates, passports, and social security cards.

This
document should also have your bank accounts, investments, and recurring bills,
including when they’re due and how you pay them, including autopay.

Two,
share your passwords. To pay your bills and manage other affairs someone needs
your log-in info. If you don’t want to spell out your passwords, give hints or
keep it simple with a password manager.

Consumer Reports recommends using
1Password. The $60 a year family plan covers up to five people who get access
to shared folders.

The
third thing to do is designate a legacy contact for your online accounts. A few
tech companies let you grant control to someone else. For example, Google’s
Inactive Account Manager, Facebook Legacy Contact and Apple’s Legacy Contact,
to name a few.

Next,
add your digital assets to your traditional will so that everything is together
in one place and easy for your family or close friends to find.

Finally, have an emergency planning
meeting.

Tell your loved ones your wishes and where they can find this
information. Providing easy access to online accounts can make a painful time
less stressful. And having things in order will give you peace of mind.

For your social media posts and stories,
you can use the free social media will generator
from Epilogue. It creates a document that has your wishes on what to do with
your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other social media accounts.