How to pass on your data when you die

Prepare for the inevitable so that your loved ones can have an easier time figuring out how to move on

A friend of mine just lost her husband recently and suddenly. On top of the unbearable heartbreak of losing her best friend and lover, she’s now faced with the almost impossible challenge of following the digital clues to piece together parts of his life. His laptop is locked and she doesn’t know the password. She knows some of his other passwords, but not all. She can get into his phone, but he has a bunch of additional security that she’s not entirely familiar with. They haven’t been married long so she doesn’t know about all of his various assets. Where were the invoices for his consulting business? Or his tax forms? Is she liable for any of this? On top of all the other real-life stuff that she has to take care of right now, she has to be a sleuth to figure out all of his digital life.

There’s an uncomfortable truth facing us all: we’re going to die. And we’re going to leave behind people we love. We all hate to think about our own mortality, but it’s important to think about what our loved ones will do when we pass on. What are the simple things we can do today to set them up for success? I’m not talking about creating a will and trust, etc. even though that’s a good idea. I’m talking about how to safely pass on the digital controls to your life.

Over the past few years, I’ve ramped up my digital security to a high level and in a previous article, I advised you how to do the same. So hopefully by now, you’ve locked down your digital security like Fort Knox — nobody’s getting your data! Unfortunately, this level of security cuts both ways. Hackers can’t steal your data, but your loved ones can’t get to it either unless they know all your passwords and where it’s all located.

So, how do you keep your data secure and pass it on to somebody else? A small amount of preparation can set you and your loved ones up for success. I’m going to discuss some key things that you can do pretty quickly that will make a huge difference.

First, create a document that outlines all your key assets

The purpose of this document is to tell your loved ones where to find your assets. It’s important to note that this document should not contain any passwords or password hints! I can’t stress this enough. Without passwords, if somebody stumbles upon the document by accident, they may know where your resources are but not how to access them. Obviously, even without passwords, this is still sensitive information so you should keep the document secure, but it’d be fine for you to store it in your DropBox or other cloud storage that has password protection. We’ll talk about secure password storage in a bit.

Even simple notes in this document can be incredibly helpful. Don’t worry about formatting, just get some content down. A single word with the name of a financial institution can be a valuable starting point for somebody trying to unravel your finances so don’t worry about it being complete: just get started.

Once you’ve started it, let your loved ones know that this document exists and roughly where to look for it. Because it doesn’t have passwords in it, you can even print out a copy and store it in a safe at home, but be sure to keep the paper copy up to date or at least mention where they can find the digital copy. Be sure to securely shred old printouts!

What types of things should you consider for this document? Here’re some things to think about:

1. The location of your will (and any trust documents, if you have them!) so that your assets don’t get hung up in probate.
2. A list of the financial institutions where you have resources, roughly in the order of importance.
3. Any life insurance policies you have, or other insurance (car, home, etc).
4. Where do you store your cloud data? Google Drive? Dropbox? A list of services can save a lot of time.
5. Details that you have that you think people will have a difficult time sorting out. Which of your computers has hard drives with useful data on them? What are the passwords to those drives, and where should people look? Where are the backups stored? Each bit of detail you add gives people a place to look.

It’s important to note that this is a living document which means that periodically (say every year, or when you have life changes) you should scan it and make edits. It will take a few passes until it’s covering most of your information, but something is better than nothing.

Second, consolidate all of your secret notes in LastPass (or some other password manager).

Any time I have data that is secret, I store it in LastPass. This includes PINs, social security numbers, 2-factor rescue codes, etc. This is putting a lot of eggs in one basket, but it also means that your security exposure is limited. They’ll need your master password to get to any secure data. This is also why I commit my master password to memory and only write it down in one place (see below).

It may take some time to consolidate all of your secret data here. But keep at it. Slowly but surely you’ll increase your security.

Third, find a really secure place to store your master password

You should be storing all of your key passwords in a password manager like LastPass. That password database is going to be hugely valuable for whoever comes after you and it’s all secured by a single master password that you never write down anywhere, right? But if you don’t write it down then passing it on is tricky. Here are two options you can try:

Option #1: Write it down and put it in a safety deposit box
I have written my master password down in exactly one place: on a piece of paper that’s physically stored in a safety deposit box at my bank. I trust my bank’s security because they require keys, signatures, photo matching, etc. But even so, the piece of paper has no additional markings on it to indicate what the password is for.

If you don’t have access to a safety deposit box — and most people don’t! — start the process to get one now because in many places you may be on a waiting list for quite a while. They can be pretty cheap through a bank where you have a balance. Meanwhile, use option #2.

Option #2: Use a memorable phrase and teach it to your partner
If you read my last post about digital security you know that having a memorable phrase makes for a good password. Change your master password to a phrase that is easy to memorize and teach it to your partner, or somebody else that you deeply trust. Test them from time to time to make sure they still remember it.

That’s it?

Yes. If you just do the above few things, it will greatly increase the chances that your loved ones will be able to make heads and tails out of your life while keeping your data very secure.

There are of course many more things that you can do. Have a will! I can’t stress enough how big a difference a will makes. Most estate planning attorneys are familiar with all of this and can really help. Organize your data so that it’s easier to find. Create a trust and put all of your assets into it. All this stuff takes time (and money!) to set up, but if you chip away at it, you’ll get it done.

Finally, I’ll just highlight that Google has an Inactive Account feature that you can use to pass your account on to somebody else after you die. Facebook has something similar, as does LastPass. They’re easy to set up and use, and I highly recommend it. Google’s was a little heartbreaking because it offers you a chance to write one final letter to your loved ones… but I like to think that they’ll have a final moment of joy when they read it.

I hope this helps. Suggestions or criticisms? Share them in the comments!