Survivor Checklist with Lastpass

One big danger in the life of the person who takes care of the finances is death. Ok, sure we could all die, but if I died right now my wife would struggle to know how to access our insurance policies, bank accounts and other financial information. I run a lot of the day to day stuff in our home. While my wife is well informed of our current financial situation there are a lot of accounts out there. It would be a struggle for her to find them all. For years we have talked about a survivor checklist, but have never gotten around to creating a manual one, and I would never update it for each password. Then I thought about a tool I have used for years; Lastpass.

What is LastPass?

If you don’t know about Lastpass it is an amazing password management tool. It securely holds all of your internet account passwords and can autofill them for you. It also generates passwords for you, runs security scans and helps to keep your online account information safe. It can be used as a browser plugin or a phone application (premium service only) It also allows you to keep secure notes, a feature I never thought very much about until I was thinking about this survivor checklist. This is a way for me to communicate all of my passwords to my wife and help her remember all of the things that will need done. (hopefully someone else will be doing it for her).

I created a folder called “In the event of my death” with a note of the same name. It lists emails for our attorney and insurance agents so she won’t need to search. It also has a last goodbye and a few other personal items. These accounts are always up to date because they are what I use every day to access everything.

No one wants to think about death, especially their own. But, we will all die. If you are the person in your family who does most of the book keeping and money management and you don’t prepare something for your spouse to help them in the transition it will only make this time harder for them.

What to include in your Survivor Checklist

Bank names, accounts and usernames and passwords
Lawyer’s name and information for your will. (You do have a will, right?)
Name and Number for Insurance agent for life insurance. (You do have insurance, right?)
People to be notified of your passing with contact information.
Any wishes not included in your will
Perhaps, write your own obituary, that was really hard for us when my dad died.
You may want to include something like this checklist from the Dennett, Craig and Pate funeral home.
Copies of your social security, passport, birth certificate, all encrypted with Lastpass

Honestly, this is a lot of work. I would rather not do it, but I love my wife and want to make her life as easy as possible in the event of my passing. That thought helped me get through the process.

Resources:

Big book of everything

Life hacker Master information kit.

Lastpass

Considering Stewardship is a site dedicated to managing your time, money, and talent in light of the Gospel.

Edited for broken link.

Survivor Checklist with Lastpass