Password, Please

My "Pay the Bill" post addressed the problem of unpaid insurance premiums. Let's take it one step further:

Suppose you develop a life-threatening illness or suffer a serious injury that renders you comatose for a while. What happens to your loved ones if nobody knows the passwords to your computer?

Especially if you do all your banking online and keep all your address book information in your Outlook, it can create horrific hardship for others.

So I ask: Who knows the passwords for your computer?

Comments

[Lisa]

Very important mini-series, Wendy. Thank you for posting them. We've been dealing with these issues with my aunt for two years now, and we keep finding surprises and wasting untold hours chasing bits that she easily could have organized long before. And even if no one else has to attend to such matters for you, the organization should allow you to live more fully!

[Finn]

I thought I was well-prepared for my sisters to handle my affairs--until now. I've signed health care proxies, asked my docs to file them in my medical records, and made a summary of my health history that I update as needed. But neither of them even knows what banks I keep my money in, where I keep my checkbooks--in fact, because I have a new(ish) cell phone, I don't even have all my contacts' phone numbers in it yet.

Thanks for the series, Wendy; beginning of the year is a good time to take care of all this stuff.