Do you store critical financial information on your emails ? what if you die ?

POSTED BY Jagoinvestor ON November 23, 2010 10:42 am COMMENTS (5)

I recently came across an article which talks about digital WILL . If you are storing all your critical financial data like account numbers , password , financial statements or whatever which is very important for your family members and suddenly you die ! . It would be pain in the ass for them to claim that email account unless you take appropriate measures .

 

How can this be done? The first step is to create a digital inventory – an index of your “soft” assets. Second, get your digital signature authenticated. “Then, it won’t take more than a day and a couple of thousands (of rupees ) to have your digital will ready,” says Supreme Court advocate Pavan Duggal , who specializes in cyber law.

Duggal says a digital will is important because there have been many disputes about digitized data in recent times. “Most of us never think about making arrangements to name an heir for our digital assets, and it becomes a Herculean task for legal representatives to get a succession certificate for such data. It could take years in court.”

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/Who-gets-your-email-account-when-you-die/articleshow/6962832.cms

5 replies on this article “Do you store critical financial information on your emails ? what if you die ?”

  1. Vidhya says:

    Hi Manish,

    My husband and I use a software called keypass and it is very useful for noting down passwords of different accounts.

  2. Ramesh Mangal says:

    I have a suggestion.

    Either share your such an important password with your spouse, or save it with your will in a printed form.

    1. Ramesh

      Yes , I agree with this suggestions , One should be sharing important passwords with spouse or anyone who is close enough for the trust , Also make a black box which has all these details like important documents , passwords etc .

      Manish

  3. shashank kashettiwar says:

    A very relevant and important topic for today’s way of living and storing very important personal data/information.
    A year and half ago I read an article on the FPA website’s newsletter. The author was a financial planner and he was sharing his experiences regarding storing of important information about self and personal wealth. He had cited a case of a US soldier who had kept all such data in his mail account on yahoo! He died in Iraq and the family had a really tough time getting access to the mail account which yahoo! was denying them citing the terms of ‘acceptance’ of their service by the account holder and the laws regarding secrecy and privacy of such information(ever met anyone who even reads such terms?). The family had to run from pillar to post and knock the doors of the higher courts to get permission for the access.
    The author had brought forth the importance of maintaining physical and electronic records and information in a organised way with many similar examples. He said it is not a unusual experience for him to go to a widow for for advising and seeing (a shopping bag full of) documents which have to be sorted out first .
    If we just start counting the passwards/ pin numbers etc we have for various accounts/cards and how ,where we have stored them, it would be a good starting point to take stock of the situation .
    Bet on Manish for always finding a new and important topics for discussion!!!!!!

    1. Shashank

      Thanks for that example , thats what I was talking about , not sure if that kind of thing has happened in India or not , but we definately need this awareness !

      Manish

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