[bluGill]

> or perhaps in the event of your death, is something you may also consider.

When my dad died we were glad that he had most of his passwords written down. There are a lot of things like the electric bill that we didn't know if he had paid yet or not, and other bills that are entirely paperless that we have have no idea about. Mom would hate to have something not paid just because we didn't know to pay it. There is a lot of paperwork to get access to accounts after someone dies and that takes time. (dad donated his body to science so that added a couple months before we could even start the paperwork)

Unfortunately there was one account we knew he had (because it showed up in quicken) and an IRA with most of his money, but it took us several months to figure out what bank it was at. Please don't do this to your family: write down all your accounts and their passwords in a safe place that someone trusted will look. (I need to take my own advice)

[ryandrake]

Anyone who acts as the "head of their household" and manages the family's finances, pays the bills, and manages the day to day home ops, do your heirs a favor and write out a Death Book[1] today, that contains all your various accounts, passwords, copies of important documents, and so on. PRINT IT OUT and put it in a safe or other secure place. I recently had two acquaintances who died pretty suddenly and young-ish (in their 40s). One was prepared and had his shit together, and it helped his family more easily pick up the pieces while they grieved. The other one did NOT have his shit together at all, and the result was even more stress and phone calls piled on to his family during an already difficult time.

1: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/to-help-your-heirs-write-a...

[Johnny555]

Good advice - tracking down all of dad's account information was very laborious after he passed away - we found an insurance policy that covered my mom that I assume he didn't know about since he never made a claim.

We have our list printed and locked in a firesafe (which is bolted to the floor and not easy to find for a thief), as well as electronically in a shared 1Password vault shared between my wife and I. My sister (and executor of our will) knows that the paper is in the fire safe, just in case something disastrous happens to both my wife and I. They'll need a locksmith to get in the safe though.