A solo person's guide to dying in a digital world

8/22/2022

On top of doing FI/RE solo, I'm also a serial migrant. This creates more complexity than a digital nomad, as I move to a country for 2-3 year periods where I become a local taxpayer, open local utilities/bills, and create local assets (like buying a house or pension investments). I'm the only one that knows what I have and how to access it. Though planning for my own death may seem morbid, having organized an up-to-date treasure map for my beneficiaries means that they can spend more time on grieving their loss and less time being buried in hunting down my recurring bills and assets. They'll remember me fondly rather than cursing me and my missing paperwork. Read on for how I set this up.

Not solo?

Check out this ChooseFI podcast episode 125 on the "Emergency Binder" which might be useful when you have a partner involved. Read on to find some useful tidbits anyway.

The complications of dying solo

I might die next week or I might die 20 years from now. But I like to plan like it could be next week. I desire a plan with these outcomes:

keeping my cats alive; fast action to get them food and water (and their new home)
proper knowledge of who to contact on my death; I have friends that aren't on social media so I want them to learn about my passing
access to immediate cash for my relatives to fly to whatever country I'm living in and deal with my body, cats, and apartment
knowledge of recurring bills that need shut off or ongoing payment (and knowing if they are on auto pay or manual payment)
distribution of estate (e.g. inherited investments, cash, pensions, house, etc.)

My death as a solo person in a digital world is complicated by:

Moving around a lot, I am constantly creating new accounts and closing ones I no longer need
Logins / passwords change frequently
Logging into my account after my death could violate the Terms of Service of the bank or other website so the institutions should be contacted directly to handle the correct way
Logins / passwords are so sensitive that I don't trust anyone to have them
Writing everything down on paper and storing in a binder is unsafe in case of theft or if I died in a fire (my house has burned down before)
Bank safety deposit boxes shouldn't be used for something (like documents) that my beneficiaries will need urgently since the banks won't release access to anyone that doesn't have keys or isn't the executor of the estate; I need this information to be accessible quickly before bills start going into collection or otherwise depleting the inheritance value

I'm the only one that knows what I have and how to access it. I needed a way to give knowledge to my family without making it too easy that the information could be accessed while I'm alive.

For the remainder of the discussion, I will use the following trusted individuals in my life for reference but they could be different for you (and maybe even not blood related):

Uncle 1 (lives in US State 1)
Sibling 1 (lives in US State 2)
Sibling 2 (lives in US State 3)

The setup: an unused email address, a spreadsheet, and Swiss data inheritance secure cloud storage

In this blog, I am going to mention tools that I personally use. I am not currently compensated by any of these providers (nor have I been in the past).

My tools:

SecureSafe.com account (for the immediate days following death):
- Free version will be suitable for 1 data inheritance beneficiary
- $18 annual price for the upgraded version and you can add more data inheritance beneficiaries
Notepad (.txt file)
My selected email provider; and a newly created email address that has never been (and will never be) used for any other purpose except what is described in this blog:
- the knowlege of it's existence should be only known to me and not the internet (i.e. don't sign up for blog reminders using this email!)
- all 2-factor authentication or other "logging in from unknown device" security protocols must be disabled
- a very complex password should be used that is longer than it is convoluted, like: badgers funky streets anchor bloble [this is not my password and please don't use it for your own account]
Excel spreadsheet
Google Inactive Account Settings (activates 3 months following my death)

I asked myself "if I went missing tomorrow, who is likely the first person to find out?" and the answer is my neighbors. Someone would call the police, they would send for a welfare check, and my neighbors in my apartment building would be asked about the last time they saw me. My neighbors have a key to my apartment. This kicks off the following chain of events:

Once inside of my apartment, there is a piece of paper taped next to the door which says "In case of emergency". This paper gives my neighbors 3 phone numbers to call to reach my Uncle 1, Sibling 1, Sibling 2, and a local friend to come pickup the cats.
Uncle 1, Sibling 1, and Sibling 2 all have been given access to a Google Sheet which tells them the next steps to take. All 3 individuals are reminded on an annual basis about this Google Sheet and that they should favorite it inside their own Google Drive. One tab reminds my Uncle 1 to activate the SecureSafe "Activation Code" and if he can't remember what that is then it reminds him to search his email for the same phrase. A second tab gives a list of individuals to contact and inform of my death, it is just names, email addresses, and phone numbers. This is important to specifically itemize people that will not find out about my death via social media because they don't use it. A third tab gives directives about my personal wishes (none of which are legally enforceable but my relatives may wish to use as a guideline).
- Important: there are no assets, websites, logins, passwords or other sensitive details in this Google Sheet. It's just a phone tree really.
Uncle 1 finds the SecureSafe Activation Code and visits www.securesafe.com/activate to begin the data inheritance process. A screenshot of the instruction sheet he was given is at the end of this blog as Annex 1 and is generated by SecureSafe when I setup Data Inheritance.
A blocking (waiting) period of 3 days is set (which I can adjust shorter or longer) in which time I will be contacted to confirm my death. If no response is received from me, then after the 3rd day the distribution to Data Beneficiaries is initiated. If I login to my account during the 3 days window then I can cancel the process.
Sibling 1 and Sibling 2, both identified as Data Beneficiaries in my SecureSafe account, will receive emails or phone contact to inform them that my data is eligible to be downloaded.
Once my data is downloaded, my SecureSafe account is closed.

The below screenshot shows my account with Data Inheritance activated, and 1 data beneficiary setup. This is my view, my beneficiary will only see files assigned to them once they have access. We will discuss the .txt file next.

The below is the Data Inheritance settings page after I filled in my details and those of my beneficiary. I did not have to provide any details of the "activator" -> I just received the code in a downloaded PDF (see Annex 1) which I can provide to whomever I like. If I later decide that I don't want that person to be the activator anymore, then I come back to the activator settings and generate a new code. Generating a new code (and PDF instruction) automatically invalidates any previous codes.

The unique feature that sold me on SecureSafe is the activation code keeps a segregation between the person receiving the information and the person informing of my death. So if Uncle 1 and I have a falling out, he can only activate my death but he won't receive any information because I did not set him up as a beneficary. And if Sibling 1 and I have a falling out, they cannot activate my death because I never gave them the code. It is of course always possible that Uncle 1 and Sibling 1 conspire together while I am still alive, which is an unlikely risk but also mitigated by the blocking period.

I only added 1 beneficary in my example for screenshot purposes but I recommend upgrading your free subscription to the paid version to add a 2nd beneficiary just to be safe.

So what data does the beneficary receive from SecureSafe? The one file I assigned to them -> a note pad file titled "Open This - On Death.txt"

This .txt file contains the email address and password I setup specifically for my death.

Now my relatives can access the email account to download the Excel sheet found inside. The Excel spreadsheet provides the treasure map to everything my relatives would need to know about my financial picture. The sheet has 2 tabs:

Summary: this is a high level balance sheet of my assets and liabilities (i.e. total net worth). It is simply summarized by asset or liability types like "Bank 1 - Cash, Bank 2 - Cash, Brokerage 1 - ETFs, Brokerage 2 - 401K" etc. but I use the actual institution names and not "Bank 1".
Details: this is a 100+ row sheet giving the details of all of my accounts someone may need to settle such as phone, utilities, mortgage, taxes, gym recurring debits, social media, internet, Spotify recurring debits, and so on. The columns contain a category, the institution name (e.g. Spotify, T-Mobile, Fidelity, AIG, Chase Credit Card, etc), account number (if any), website, customer service phone number, and email address used to register the account. There is a last column which identifies if there is a recurring bill payment setup and which account it pulls from (e.g. Chase CC, Schwab Direct Debit, etc). This same column identifies any manual payments that are non-automatic (very few but actually my credit cards are not setup for auto-pay). There are no passwords listed on this sheet, the relatives will have to contact customer service at each institution directly to take any desired actions.

Sibling 1 is also listed as a co-owner of a checking account at a US bank where I store my USD $5,000 emergency savings. They can immediately withdraw this cash on my death as a co-owner. The account does not go to estate probate. Probate is a fancy word which means all assets of an individual are frozen on their death while courts decide how to distribute them, which can take months or years. Some assets by-pass probate which means they don't get caught up in the red tape of the courts.

Because I don't give out any of my login/password details, my relatives are losing the benefit of direct access to all of my financial records (e.g. copies of tax returns) which are stored on Google Drive. So I enabled the Google Inactive Account Settings at https://myaccount.google.com/u/2/inactive. You can follow the prompts on the page which informs you that if your account is inactive for 3 months, Google will make multiple attempts to contact you and if unsuccessful then will distribute access to the beneficiares that you assign. I added Uncle 1, Sibling 1, and Sibling 2 as beneficiaries. You can also choose which specific areas of your Google Account to grant access. So maybe I want them to access my Google Drive but not my Google Mail then I can toggle Drive on and Mail off. This feature on my account is not my primary way of distributing information because it only activates after a minimum of 3 months. Additionally, I have the SecureSafe Activation Code PDF saved on this drive in case anything goes wrong with Uncle 1 activating the data inheritance process but the 3 month waiting process with Google adds an extra layer of protection.

The keys to the treasure map are complete. My relatives will have to go through estate probate to actually access any probate assets that I own (e.g. sole named brokerage accounts, 401K, etc). but at least they know where and how to find it, and won't miss lost assets or unpaid bills/creditors.

A few other notes

I do not currently have any trusts or a will. All of my relatives are financially comfortable and I honestly don't care what happens to my money when I die. If in the future I have specific wishes for my assets then I can draft one. I could store a copy of any will in PDF form in the SecureSafe account to distribute to a specific data beneficiary (e.g. my lawyer and Sibling 1).
Why not just store the Excel spreadsheet in SecureSafe and skip the secret email? I could do that, but I like the extra layer of protection. In case something happened to SecureSafe or someone otherwise got access to the Activation Code, and I couldn't stop the data inheritance process before the 3 day blocking window expired, then I could still intercept the process by changing the password to the secret email address. For those with less paranoia, you could simply store the Excel spreadsheet directly in SecureSafe. It comes with 50MB of storage in the free version.
What about a physical bank lock box? Well, this was literally my existing solution up until yesterday. Years ago, I wrote down the anonymous email address and password on a sheet of paper and put it inside of a bank lock box in the United States. That bank told me that on my death, someone would simply need to show up with my death certificate and their own ID and they would be given access to the box even without a key. I found out yesterday that this is not true and documents should not be stored in a lock box that are urgently needed (like this piece of paper). The bank will only grant access to the executor of my estate which would take time to identify and get proof/documentation.
Regarding the USD $5,000 in a joint checking account with Sibling 1: distributions of assets in estate probate can take months or years and this account grants Sibling 1 direct access to cash but also while I am alive. For those that don't have a person that they can trust to setup a joint account, you can also setup an account in only your name but list a beneficiary as a "Payable on Death" or "Transfer on Death" setup. This prevents that individual from accessing the funds while you are alive but by-passes estate probate on your death (i.e. quick access to the cash).
I have a quarterly reminder to login to SecureSafe and to Google Inactive Account Settings and check the email address and phone numbers of all beneficiaries and even myself (since I move countries and change phone numbers often). I have an annual reminder to my Uncle 1, Sibling 1, and Sibling 2 to remind them of the setup.
I have a quarterly reminder to update the Excel spreadsheet with new accounts and to remove old accounts. I only do this at home and never on a public, unknown, or unsecure WiFi.

TLDR: why make a death spreadsheet

Making my death a low-burden treasure map means that my loved ones can spend more time on grieving (or celebrating my life I hope) and less time on hunting down all of my bills and assets. I recommend using a combination of:

A SecureSafe.com account with Data Inheritance activated (available on the Free account)
Anonymous email address storing an Excel spreadsheet of all of your assets, liabilities, bills, and social media accounts
An enabled Google Inactive Account Settings