The keeper of passwords

Every six months or so, my husband gently reminds me of something I would rather not think about. If I were to die or become incapacitated, he would have no idea how to access much of our banking information.

He's right, of course. Our lives are largely digital these days, and I am the family banker and keeper of passwords. He doesn't know the password to my phone or computers. He doesn't know which bills are automatically paid through our accounts. The email reminding us to renew our house insurance comes to me. He has no idea how to access the financial management app on my computer.

The list is endless. And every time he reminds me, I think, I really should do something about that.

This week I am getting a partial knee replacement. It is a relatively simple procedure these days, performed by an excellent orthopaedic surgeon, and I am not particularly worried about it. But there is always a degree of risk with surgery. And suddenly, the thing I had been putting off for years felt less like an item on my someday list and more like something I should do now. I hate to think of the predicament my husband would be in if I can no longer manage our finances. So this past week, I finally sat down and compiled all our financial information.

I won't go into all the details here. There are plenty of excellent estate-planning resources that will take you through all the necessary pieces far more thoroughly than I can.

What I want to share are some practical things I learned, most when mother died, things that aren’t necessarily obvious.

Don’t forget the automatic payments

These payments,  both bills and subscriptions, continue until each one is cancelled individually. These payments will continue being withdrawn until someone stops them.

Keep the cell phone connected

Don’t cancel; keep this line active. These days, every account seems to request a secondary verification, usually sent via text to a cell phone. No verification, no access to the account.

Don’t let the house insurance lapse

Keep the insurance going even if the house is sitting empty. All it takes is a burst pipe in an uninsured house, and the bills will pile up.

Don’t forget the mailbox

If the house is going to be sitting empty, redirect the mail. I would have missed some important notifications after my mother died if I had not done so. Some estate matters take a long time to settle, especially when dealing with overseas pensions.

Consider a joint account

Who will cover the bills when your accounts are frozen? My mother set up a joint account with me years before she died just for that purpose. I had easy access to funds to cover bills until her estate was settled.

Do you know who to call?

No, I don’t mean pensions and government services. Which friends and family need to be told? My mother had a bulky address book, held together with an elastic so it was easy for me to contact people. But if I were to die? I only have an online address book filled with hundreds of names, many still from my working days, and usually only emails. I have addresses stored on old envelopes and scraps of paper. I am no longer as organized as I used to be. A nightmare for anyone wanting to reach out to my friends!

And finally, a story. One I remembered when I realized we have one bank account that we opened online, with no mailed statements. Our executor would have no idea it exists.

Several years ago I was enjoying a latte at a local coffee shop when the woman sitting next to me struck up a conversation. She taught nursing at a university overseas, and was in Canada for a few months packing up her father’s house. He had moved into assisted living. Her mother had died a few years earlier, and her father had handled her estate. However, he had never gone through the piles of correspondence and paper in her mother’s office. When she went through all these papers, the daughter found bank statements for an account in her mother’s name, holding a significant amount of money. This was a pleasant surprise, as the family faced the unexpected costs of her father’s care.

Did you know that in Canada you can search a database of dormant accounts? I expect there must be something similar in other countries. Bank accounts with no owner activity for 10 years are transferred to the Bank of Canada. You can search these accounts through the Unclaimed Properties Office. I had a quick look while writing this blog post. There are thousands of unclaimed accounts! Over $1.6 billion sits in inactive accounts at the Bank of Canada. Provincial unclaimed-property systems are separate; they hold another $900 million in unclaimed accounts.

I know many of you are much more organized than I am. And some of you have already learned these lessons the hard way, as I did when my mother died.

I'm curious, what have you put in place that made things easier for the people left behind? And what do you wish you had known sooner?