Foward Planning

[niord]

DAK if there is a safe and secure website I can put general details of my accounts, and which will send that information to my next of kin, executors etc when I shuffle of this mortal coil ? I would like it to send me a mail every month or so and a non-response sends whatever info I wish out to specified people

With having no children and my next of kin scattered all over it seems like a good way of keeping people informed, I have found this site http://ifidie.org/home which seems to do everything I want, but I get security warnings on it which is concerning

[didds]

You'd have to be happy and secure that the company you are handing anything vulnerable eg online bank account credentials, can be trusted not only to abuse that info, but wont ever be hacked etc.

Maybe the answer is to write everything down in a letter which is stored <somewhere>, and the automagic death notification thing merely sends an email etc to people explainig where the letter is ?

[csearle]

I once stayed in a friend's flat where he had stuck a sealed brown envelope on a mirror in a moderately prominent place labelled "In the event of my death".

I imagine there was much crucial information within. Hardly on-line though; more on-mirror.

Chris

[UncleEbenezer]

You can put it somewhere totally public, or email it to recipients and/or executors, provided it is encrypted. You can then also update it without hassle if you ever feel the need.

The problem then becomes one of managing the encryption key. It could, for example, be appended to a traditional will.

[Midsmartin]

Google, amongst other providers, have a procedure you can configure to give someone else access to uour account if you don't log in for a period of time that you can define.

You could do something like storing your passwords on Google drive, for example in an encrypted database for a free password manager like Keepass.

You could give recipients the password for the Keepass database now, while alive. They can't use it because they don't know your Google drive password, and presumably you trust them anyway.

So when you become incapacitated, they automatically receive an email from Google giving them access to your account, and they can then unlock the password database.

[torata]

I have found this site http://ifidie.org/home which seems to do everything I want, but I get security warnings on it which is concerning

niord

what kind of security warnings do you get?

torata

[Midsmartin]

The security warning is purely because you are accessing the unencrypted http version of their website. Switch to https instead and it's fine.

It's just because they haven't disabled http yet. This used to be normal, but is now becoming obsolete. They just need to do a little housework on their web hosting to redirect http requests to https

[niord]

I have found this site http://ifidie.org/home which seems to do everything I want, but I get security warnings on it which is concerning

niord

what kind of security warnings do you get?

torata

Site is not secure warning but Midsmartin has explained that

[Midsmartin]

Actually there is aproblem with http://ifidie.org/home

If you click 'sign in' my browser tells me that the web site's SSL certificate expired 580 days ago. This tells me that the site is not being actively maintained by anybody at the moment, or they would have taken half an hour to update the certificate. Maybe the owner died

[tjh290633]

I have told my kids what they should do and specified my funeral arrangements. It puit the wind up them at the time, but at least they don't have to find an envelope some weeks too late.

TJH

[88V8]

It is becoming a problem, now that so much is totally online.

I have told my kids what they should do and specified my funeral arrangements.

My mother, some years before she died, sent all the children an Expression of Wishes. In addition to the funeral arrangements and the version of the Lords Prayer... trespasses... there were other things.
That could be a means of passing the necessary information... about where to find the account and password detail.
If you trust the children not to leave it lying around.

On the whole, I rather think this is what one's solicitor is for.
I would never entrust the information to a website. Any website. The web is an ephemeral thing.

V8

[Nocton]

"On the whole, I rather think this is what one's solicitor is for. "

Totally agree. We have deposited the names of our financial accounts and log-in details with our solicitor when we last made our wills.

[AleisterCrowley]

...We have deposited the names of our financial accounts and log-in details with our solicitor when we last made our wills.

hopefully not passwords though...

[CliffEdge]

I have a fireproof/waterproof safe (which contains an envelope containing written details of relevant arrangements and passwords) and have given its combination/opening instructions to the relevant party (kept securely at their property) - who is a regular visitor to my house.

The combination/opening instructions have no link to my address.

[DrFfybes]

...We have deposited the names of our financial accounts and log-in details with our solicitor when we last made our wills.

hopefully not passwords though...

I can't see why you need log in details. Once deceased the accounts should be frozen. The only legitimate thing you could do is to log in to get a valuation, which can be done with the death cert anyway, and if a solicitor is the executor they want the valuation direct from the provider.

So, surely a simple list with the names and contact details of the companies involved is all that is required.

Or am I missing something?

I do lke the idea of a treasure map though

Paul

[swill453]

I can't see why you need log in details. Once deceased the accounts should be frozen. The only legitimate thing you could do is to log in to get a valuation, which can be done with the death cert anyway, and if a solicitor is the executor they want the valuation direct from the provider.

So, surely a simple list with the names and contact details of the companies involved is all that is required.

Or am I missing something?

Yes it would be breaking the banks' rules for anyone else to log on with the deceased's details, so it's the last thing a solicitor is likely to do.

Scott.

[Lootman]

I can't see why you need log in details. Once deceased the accounts should be frozen. The only legitimate thing you could do is to log in to get a valuation, which can be done with the death cert anyway, and if a solicitor is the executor they want the valuation direct from the provider.

Yes it would be breaking the banks' rules for anyone else to log on with the deceased's details, so it's the last thing a solicitor is likely to do.

The executor of the estate has the legal power to seize and hold assets from the point of death (or even before then if he/she also has a POA). So if he/she has access to accounts, I see nothing wrong with doing that if done in good faith.

I agree that a solicitor would probably not do that, as they hold themselves to impeccable standards and of course bill hourly for the extra work thereby implied. But usually the executor is the next of kin, and I see no harm in so doing if done in accordance with the will. But only the executor.