In case of my death...

I am sure others have made provisions for what happens to their various on-line assets if anything happens to them, but I am only just making proper provision for this. I will jot down some thoughts and maybe people can chip in with their thoughts. We each have different circumstances, but there are likely to be some common aspects.

We all have lots of on-line accounts, some of which have a financial aspect. With things like bank accounts there are standard procedures to access funds by presenting a death certificate. We have had to do this with some family members. Things are less clear when it comes to cryptocurrency where there may be no central authority who can grant access, and that is really how it should be working. We have our own keys that we need to keep very safe and these may involve hardware devices too. I do not have any hardware wallets, so I welcome thoughts on those.

I use LastPass as my main password manager. With all these things you have to decide who you trust and I have heard enough good things about them to place some trust in them. They have a premium family option that lets you share selected passwords with others. I have not tried this, but there is a free trial, so I ought to assess if it fits my needs.

I am thinking I would share some of the details with a couple of trusted relatives with instructions on how they can access my accounts as it is not as simple as just logging in and making a bank transfer. There is still a risk that we might all be together and something happens, but I rate that as a much lower risk.

LastPass has Emergency Access for this specific purpose. It allows a chosen person to access the passwords after you are given some opportunity to stop this.

In any case I am writing a document I will share with these relatives that details the important stuff they need to know. It will not include any passwords as those will be passed over in person, perhaps with details split so that anyone else finding them would not be able to easily use them.

My biggest cryptocurrency holding is in Steem. I will write up some basic instructions on how they could power this down and transfer it out. Ideally they need to have their own Steem account to transfer it to, but I have not got them on board yet. I can convert crypto to fiat through my Wirex card, but they do not have that either. I will have to point them at that and other options.

It will also be useful for relatives to access my email accounts. I have my own domain that uses basic password access, but also have Gmail that I use a lot. I use two-factor authentication on any services that provide it. That can complicate matters if they do not have access to my phone. I have to check what fall-back options are available in each case.

I see Facebook lets you choose someone who can 'memorialise' or shut down your account. There must be millions of dead people on Facebook already. I wonder how many set this up.

I was just checking my Google contact settings and found there was an incorrect recovery email address, which I have fixed. People often lose access to email accounts when they change jobs or internet provider. Make sure you have at least one that will be permanent. I will also be reviewing my LastPass vault as there are a lot of redundant accounts in there. I know some have been compromised as I get phishing emails related to them. None of those are essential to me, but we rely on service providers to keep our personal information safe. You should always give them the minimum necessary information. Very few need your real date of birth.

Security is a minefield and even I struggle with it after decades of using computers. The more I look into this the deeper it goes.

I do not expect to die any time soon, but you never know what will happen. I may be past my prime and my current cold/flu got me thinking.