clifp
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2006
- Messages
- 7,733
The recent thread on converting savings bonds to electronic bonds got me thinking about legacy/estate issues.
I have a will/trust it is old but not horribly out of date. I've got a cheap document box, which has the saving bonds and some other important paper, plus the will. My sister knows about the box, and may even remember where I told her the key is. So when they open the box they'd find the savings bonds.
At some point I even made a list of accounts and passwords and stuck it in the box, but that has been many years ago and god knows how many password changes ago. Especially, since now days sites push you to change passwords for them every 6 months or so.
The thought occurred to me if I move my saving bonds to electronic bonds, how the hell would anybody even know to look for them on the treasury direct site? I'd least with my brokerage accounts which send electronic statements to my email eventually my executor/heirs would figure out how to get to my email and from there learn. Things like savings bonds don't even get an annual statement.
Now obviously for those of you who are married your spouse would know a lot, but you could be together when the bus hits.
In addition to worrying about financial assets being lost in virtual space after I pass there are other issues. I probably have more virtual friends (including former real life friends who realistically I doubt I'll see more than couple of times for the rest of my life) than real life ones. Who announces that ClifP got hit by a bus last week.
There are websites that promise to protect your digital legacy. This one seems like it does what I want and for $300 for a lifetime access money probably well spent. However, since I really have no plans on departing for the next 30 years, my confidence that this little internet startup is around in 30 years is very low.
Does anybody have good suggestions on handle this problem? are there any large banks, brokerage companies that are doing a good job?
I have a will/trust it is old but not horribly out of date. I've got a cheap document box, which has the saving bonds and some other important paper, plus the will. My sister knows about the box, and may even remember where I told her the key is. So when they open the box they'd find the savings bonds.
At some point I even made a list of accounts and passwords and stuck it in the box, but that has been many years ago and god knows how many password changes ago. Especially, since now days sites push you to change passwords for them every 6 months or so.
The thought occurred to me if I move my saving bonds to electronic bonds, how the hell would anybody even know to look for them on the treasury direct site? I'd least with my brokerage accounts which send electronic statements to my email eventually my executor/heirs would figure out how to get to my email and from there learn. Things like savings bonds don't even get an annual statement.
Now obviously for those of you who are married your spouse would know a lot, but you could be together when the bus hits.
In addition to worrying about financial assets being lost in virtual space after I pass there are other issues. I probably have more virtual friends (including former real life friends who realistically I doubt I'll see more than couple of times for the rest of my life) than real life ones. Who announces that ClifP got hit by a bus last week.
There are websites that promise to protect your digital legacy. This one seems like it does what I want and for $300 for a lifetime access money probably well spent. However, since I really have no plans on departing for the next 30 years, my confidence that this little internet startup is around in 30 years is very low.
Does anybody have good suggestions on handle this problem? are there any large banks, brokerage companies that are doing a good job?