I wonder how long (if ever) it will be until we have really good mechanisms for handling digital affairs after death. 1Password has the emergency kit [0] which I really should fill out and store alongside a will but I would need to write one of those first. It's just something that seems so.... antiquated? That's not the right word but writing a will feels like it will involve talking to a lawyer and not be cheap/easy. Does anyone have any good resources for setting up a will (also a living will if possible) through some software/service? I don't really want to trust my will to some startup but I'd use a product that put all the legalese together and I could just hand a binder to a lawyer or shove it in a security deposit box or something like that.
I've been diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. While I hope to be around for awhile yet, I'm getting things ready for my wife to take over our digital life. Setting things up for easy backup and retrieval, ect. One of the things I've started is a
Word document with instructions on how to backup, what to do if the computer crashes, how to handle 1Password, what subscriptions are important ect. It'll be printed out and put in the safe.
My opinion is modern generations are woefully unprepared for how to handle our digital stuff when we pass. Whereas before we had physical photos, video cassettes, ect. that were easily handled, now everything is digital, sometimes just on phones.
Having the physical photos still didn't mean we saved the context and relevance surrounding those images.
I've got boxes of photos from my Mom and Dad and Grandparents. For the most part, they don't have dates or captions. If I don't recognize a face, it's just random imagery that are, for the most part, just noise to my generation. If we knew why something was relevant, that'd be a different story.
If you can record your voice and retell the story behind an image, that could be golden to the people in your life. I only captured a couple of these recordings (just using my cell phone to record), and they're wonderful to listen to.
In the 1990s my cousins and I did a series of interviews with my grandfather about his experiences in WWII. Last year my cousin found the cassette tape of her interview and we all listened to it at Christmas. That was the first time I had heard my grandfather's voice in a decade.
In the 90s the stories themselves were interesting but now just having his thoughts in his voice is invaluable. I'd be equally happy with a recording of him describing his weekly coffee with his buddies, or what he had for lunch.
My parents picked up a couple of recordable storybooks for my 2 year old nephew. Right now those mean nothing to him but in 30 years they will be priceless.
I did record a special episode of my podcast just one year before he died. He was 86 at that time and my last living grand parent, so it was quite obvious, now or never. I'm really happy to have done 1.5 hours him remembering his childhood and youth as a German teenager during and after WWII https://jeena.net/pods/6 (it's in Polish/Silesian)
My other grand dad wrote a long letter just two days before he died. His whole life he was haunted by what he saw and did as a German soldier during WWII, and this is also what he wrote about in that letter which I later translated and published on my website http://paradies.jeena.net/artikel/zweiter-weltkrieg (in German) (need to fix the char set there too).
That is very precious material. As the world slides closer and closer to the last of those who saw these things with their own eyes dropping off the chances of repetition are increasing and their real life memories may be just what will stop the next round of madness. Thank you very much for doing this.
There is a startling statistic that shows colon cancer for older people is dropping, due to routine colonoscopies recommended for those 50+, but is increasing in those that are in their 20's and 30's. It's a more aggressive type too.
All I can recommend is that if one has previously unexplained constipation, thinning stools and/or blood in the stool, get checked right away and insist on a referral for a colonoscopy. My doctor initially thought it was constipation or IBS and it was two months before a referral to gastro.
In 5-10 years I think medicine will start to recommend a colonoscopy at age 30.
I use the 1Password emergency kit and put it in an "In Case of Emergency" envelope I left in our family safe for my wife. Has lists of accounts, insurance policies, etc, along with advice for my wife in a time of emotional turmoil. I wouldn't mind some kind of reliable service that could serve a similar purpose, but more proactively. My wife knows about the envelope, of course, but it would be nice to have someone on retainer that could step in and be a helping hand (with a fiduciary responsibility, too).
Probably exists, and I haven't tried too hard to find it.
In theory I like the idea of LastPass's better "inheritence system" better.
You set an account heir in the profile. They submit an access request after death, which the deceased has X amount of time to reject (in case of abuse/heir being hacked). If the request isn't denied, the heir gains full access to the account, including logins and passwords for all online accounts.
If you choose someone you trust and set the window to an appropriate period for rejecting false requests, i.e. not 3 days when I know I'll be off the grid for 2 weeks, it seems very secure.
Google has Inactive Account Manager[1], which lets you specify a user who can get access to your account after a specified time of inactivity has been determined. It also lets you specify if you want the account deleted after so much time.
I set it up a few years ago and get periodic reminders saying that it's setup. Lastpass offers something similar.
> writing a will feels like it will involve talking to a lawyer and not be cheap/easy
(Assuming you live in a jurisdiction that recognises them) a holographic will[0] is going to cost you nothing more than the time involve to write it out, assuming you have a piece of paper and a pen handy. You probably won't even need to have it witnessed.
Assuming you’re in the US, Nolo Press has been my go-to for this sort of thing for decades. Simple wills and living wills are, in most states, very simple.
[0] https://support.1password.com/emergency-kit/