Estate Planning: The Small Things You May Be Missing

If you’ve followed the Abacus blog for some time, you’ve likely read article after article about the importance of Estate Planning. So, what does it really mean? Logistically, we mean having the following documents in place: 

• Trust
• Power of Attorney
• Wills
• Guardianship (if you have children). 

It also means ensuring your current account beneficiaries are in line with your wishes. 

Estate planning is typically one of the first action items we partner with clients on to complete in the first year of the Abacus Client Journey. Once that is done, we often assist you in organizing all of your important documents, like the Financial Life in a Binder. 

It’s no easy task, but it’s highly important to leave an organized, intentional, and tax-efficient estate after you have passed away. This will help your heirs avoid conflict, confusion, and wasted time during a difficult period and can act as your last act of love towards them. 

What Else Should Go In My Estate Plan?

The above items are essential, however they are not fully inclusive of our modern lives. The more life I live the more things I notice that should be included in our estate plans. Thankfully many of them are quick, easy, and inexpensive tasks and don’t entail hiring an attorney.

Two books have greatly inspired me are: 

1. In Case You Get Hit By a Bus by Abby Schneiderman 
2. A Beginner’s Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death by Dr. BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger

I recommend these for further, more detailed reading. What I appreciated about these books is that they do not shy away from discussing the difficult details regarding incapacity and death and how they pertain to finances. They give practical and tangible action items to help you get your ducks in a row. 

5 Ways to Back Up Your Digital Life

Much of our lives are managed through our email inboxes and various apps on our phones. You likely have e-statements for investment accounts, insurance policies, and bank transactions living out there on the cloud. Notices are not necessarily coming in the mail to alert you of an account statement or bill. Instead, you get an email or an app notification. It’s important for your loved ones to be aware of all of these things.

Tip #1: Share the password to your cell phone, computer, tablet, and email with a trusted contact

Access to your devices will save much time and headaches for your loved one. Your executor (the person named in your Will to carry out your wishes and tie up loose ends) will likely need to cancel subscriptions, pay bills, access your contacts, etc, and it’s easier on them if they have direct access to your personal devices instead. Otherwise they may be forced to present a death certificate to each institution for access. 

Tip #2: If you’re an Apple user, create a Legacy Contact. This can help your loved ones  access your photos (and messages and notes if you choose).

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Settings, then click Apple ID.
2. Click Sign-In & Security, then click Legacy Contact.
3. Click Add Legacy Contact. You might be asked to authenticate with Touch ID or your Mac login password.

Apple Legacy Contacts WILL NOT have access to your passwords. More on passwords below. 

Tip #3: Select a Legacy Contact on Facebook. 

You can opt for your Facebook account to be memorialized by a trusted contact or be deleted upon your death. Instagram also offers a Legacy Contact option, but to permanently delete an account, someone will need to provide a Death Certificate. 

Tip #4 Choose a Digital Legacy Contact in Google. 

If you are a Google user (i.e; if you have a Gmail account), your Legacy Contact will be notified if your account is inactive for a selected period of time, and you can choose which information they may be able to access (mail, photos, calendar, etc). 

You can also opt to have your email permanently deleted if it is inactive for a period of time (there are reminders). I seriously doubt someone wants my email inbox but I definitely want my Google Photos to be preserved.

1. Sign in to your Google account.
2. Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner of the screen.
3. Click on “Manage your Google Account.”
4. Click on “Data & privacy” from the menu.
5. Scroll down (quite far) to “More options”.
6. Click “Make a plan for your digital legacy.”
7. Click on “Start” under “Inactive Account Manager.”
8. Follow the prompts to choose your legacy contact and set your preferences.

Tip #5: Get a Password Manager

We recommend this to everyone! According to a survey conducted by NordPass in 2024, the average number of personal passwords a person has is 168! It will help you now and help your loved one in the future. Like all the other tips we’ve covered, it saves a big hassle and will help them to close accounts, cancel subscriptions, or transfer expenses. 

And once you do it, share this master password and/or keep a printed version with your Estate Documents. You’ll be so grateful you did.

1Password, NordPass, and LastPass are all secure password managers you can look into. 

For Apple Passwords users, you can choose to share your saved passwords with a trusted contact. Read more about Apple Password sharing here.

Other Codes and Passwords to Share 

You’ve checked the boxes on the important Estate Planning documents, and hopefully you’re well on your way to organizing your digital life. What about the other odds and ends? Don’t forget about:

• Garage code
• WiFi password 
• Safe deposit box location
• Bike lock code
• ATM pin

I recommend keeping a GoogleDoc of these passwords and sharing the document with a trusted contact. From there, print it out every time you update it and store the document with  your estate documents. 

Legacy Letters

I’ve read about this concept a few times and each time it makes me a bit emotional. Imagine when someone you loved dies, they left behind a letter addressed to you describing how much they loved you and how much you meant to them. Now flip that around. Imagine your spouse or kids have a letter from you telling them how much you loved and were proud of them. 

For my birthday this year, I’m asking for a few hours at a coffee shop alone so that I can write letters to my husband, kids, and siblings. Yes, securely sharing a list of my passwords and codes is important. But leaving behind lasting words to my most treasured people. That feels monumental. 

Now It’s Your Turn

There you have it, folks. The modern extras for your Estate Plan. 

• Finish your official estate documents: Trust, Power of Attorney, Wills and Guardianship (if you have children or/and pets)
• Check off your Financial Life in a Binder 
• Organize your digital footprint and especially your passwords
• Write down all the random codes
• Write Legacy Letters
• Keep the above printed in a folder/file/box
• Store digital copies in a shared cloud (We maintain client estate documents in our secure folders for you)

The feedback we hear from clients after their Estate Plan is complete tends to include the word peace. I recently completed our updated Estate Plan, and I feel the same way! It is peaceful and reassuring to know that the documents are finalized and stored. Recently we helped a client schedule an introductory meeting with an Estate Attorney, and I joined the call. She needed that extra step to start the process, and as an advisor, I was honored to help her get there. Talk to your advisor today about starting the process. We’re here to help.

Source: 

Kamile Viezelyte. “Juggling security: How many passwords does the average person have in 2024?” NordPass. 24 April, 2024.