Recently I posted a cheery blog post called Going Paperless And Your Digital Afterlife. At the risk of being obnoxious and quoting myself:
Have you ever thought about what will happen to your digital accounts and assets if you get hit by a bus tomorrow? Will someone be able to get to your email? What will happen to your online presence?
Most importantly from a going paperless perspective, does someone know how to get at your files and do they have the rights to do so?
This post resonated with a lot of people, and I received one story from awesome DocumentSnap reader Jay Hinkens, a financial planner from Middleton Wisconsin. Here’s Jay’s story in italics below:
The subject of the digital afterlife has been brought to the forefront for me with the passing of one of my cousins recently. He was a small business owner that was rather technologically savvy and was a heavy user of paperless processes. He had all of his client files encrypted with what I presume to be strong passwords. Unfortunately, no one knew his passwords. Not his business partner, not his wife or children. No one. All of his records and files—personal and business—are as good as gone since no one has access to them.
The valuation placed on his business was lower than it could have been because we weren’t able to provide the buyer with any client data beyond the contact information synchronized to his smartphone.
After this tragic event I have shared all of my 1Password and computer access passwords with my family and keep copies in my firebox. Like my cousin, I am a financial planner. I now include a section on digital password security and sharing with my clients as part of the planning process. The 1Password Emergency Kit will simplify this even more.
While I am very sorry to hear about Jay’s cousin, I am thankful that Jay decided to share his story to help others. We all focus a lot on keeping our electronic documents as secure as possible, but remember: at least someone needs to be able to get at this stuff if we can’t.
(Photo by binaryCoco)
