Don’t Lock Out Your Executor!

Although most estate planning continues to be performed on paper, make no mistake that we are living in a paperless world. This simple fact makes it exceedingly easy to lock-out your executor at the very moment when you need them most. Therefore, this article in Forbes serves as a reminder that one of the most important things to leave your executor is something you probably overlooked: your passwords.

It is important to make your passwords not only available to your executor, but to anyone that you have authorized to make decisions for you. For example, consider that you had the forethought to name a power-of-attorney for your finances but neglected to provide this person with your passwords. If you subscribe to paperless billing services, your power-of-attorney for your finances would find it difficult to pay your bills and otherwise manage your finances while you are incapacitated.

There are several, simple steps you can take to make sure that you and your loved ones do not encounter these problems. First and foremost, you must develop a workable solution for storing login names and passwords. This could be as simple as creating a spreadsheet on your home computer, or using an online password storage service. No matter how you decide to store your passwords, you must update them. Often, people change their passwords for a number of reasons. It is important that your storage system reflects these changes.