Social Media Mess: What happens to your accounts when you die
Recently while looking through my “friends” on Facebook, I came to the shocking realization that 7 of my Facebook friends are deceased. Only 2 of those accounts had been converted to a “memorialization” page managed by a family member. The other 5 are still active accounts! My first thought was how awkward that would be if someone posted something on the page like “Hey, haven’t heard from you in a while”, not knowing the individual had passed away.
How many times have you stumbled across the Facebook page of a friend who passed away months, even years ago? Social media has transformed our lives in a significant and positive way – yet added a whole new challenge to our deaths.
Not only do simple things like Facebook pose a challenge, but today our lives are increasingly digital. Everything from where we receive our news to how we shop involves a username and password or an account… all only known by you.
Think about it: The number of your social media and other online accounts is always growing. Your online account inventory may include some of the following.
- Email: Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL
- Social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat
- Career: LinkedIn, Monster, About, Tumblr, WordPress
- Communication: Verizon, AT&T, Viber, Skype
- Media: Pandora, Spotify, iTunes, Dropbox, Google Drive, Netflix, Hulu
- Necessities: Amazon, Walgreens, eBay, Target, Online Grocers
- Bills and Auto payments: Utilities, Mortgage, Auto, Mint, PayPal
- Travel: Airline miles, Hotel bonus points, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Orbitz, Uber
- Dating Life: eHarmony, Plenty of Fish, Match.com
- Entertainment: Groupon, Grubhub, Stubhub, Ticketmaster
How are your loved ones supposed to sort this out after you are gone? Only you can determine how all of this will be handled. Don’t leave your loved ones with a mess to untangle. Hunting and digging for information is no fun and extremely time consuming. Addressing digital assets is an important part of end-of-life planning. The first thing is to maintain a list of your user names, passwords, and PIN numbers for each of your accounts. But where do we place that information safely and without giving away any secured information, until it is needed? A My Life & Wishes account is the perfect solution.
My Life & Wishes is set up to securely store as little or as much information as you want, so that in one click, your family members can access your social media sites, find your auto payments, your online passwords and every account you have online, when it becomes necessary. Instead of months of work, they will have instant access to all of your accounts.
Sound scary? It is not. You bank online now. You buy things online now. You post online now. Your security is our highest priority and My Life and Wishes provides the highest level of security protocols available today.
By getting your digital house in order on your totally private and personalized account, your family will thank you each and every day for leaving this valuable gift behind.
