One often overlooked item is usernames and passwords for all of your accounts, including accounts that automatically debit your other accounts.

tasselhoff76

I recommend keeping a printed list out in a safe deposit box that a member of the family has access to. File cabinets are susceptible to fire if your house burns.

Lazarus

my biggest concern is "how do i protect this document?"
it has to be accessible to the lowest tech savvy denominator of relatives, and yet secure enough to not send me to an early grave worrying about putting my 'information life' on one piece of paper.
i feel like i would have to entrust it to an attorney with strict instructions to distribute it on my death or incapacitation.

guess it would just be best to go live off the grid without any of these worries.

fatalbush

I can't believe people don't already do this!

abhiroop

I have one started, its several different documents that I'm slowly deciding what is important and what is not to gather into the final copy. I'm thinking of just keeping one copy of the source and makeing a few pdf copies to distribute and password protect those. While there are pdf password cracking utilities out there its still a fairly safe way to secure them, plus I can drop a portable pdf reader and the document on a cd-rom or flash drive easily enough so it can be read without needing any software instaled on the machine.

enine

Steganos has a neat little freeware utility called Locknote. I think it is at locknote.steganos.com. It's a password protected (encrypted)text document.exe

I have all my account info in there and a few trusted relatives have an email with the password to access the file. I have the file and they know the name and password so if I go, they can open it.

thetap

This is an excellent tip. We just went through a family loss and thankfully all the required documents were gathered in one place, but if they hadn't been, we would still be dealing with the ordeal. This helps me so I can do the same and be prepared just in case.

earthboundtiger

I use and highly recommend 1password.

[1password.com]

It stores passwords, credit card info, website logins, and secure notes.

Imaginary_Friend

A corollary to this is the "I lost my wallet" sheet, which includes all the credit cards, store cards, medical insurance cards, etc that you store in your wallet or purse. The simplest way to make this sheet is to lay your cards down on the face of a photocopier, make a copy, then flip them all over and make another to get the backs.

This way, in the event you lose your wallet, you have all your account numbers and the company phone numbers you need to report them lost.

Pastabagel

I see a couple of programs recommended for this...but ideally I think paper :D

edythemighty

I found this template when I started working on this for myself earlier this year. It's a good jumping off point.

[www.agis.com]

jaxun

If you make this document a piece of paper that you put in a safe deposit box and/or distribute to relatives the odds are very good that you will not maintain it on a regular basis (once a year is too long; it really needs to be reviewed and updated every 3 months to be useful). And if you don't update it regularly its going to be worse than useless when something happens to you. Best case it will be out of date and people will have to go on a scavenger hunt anyways. Worst case people will assume it is complete and not bother to go on a scavenger hunt and miss something important.

I recommend keeping the list at home and electronically, put it on your calendar to review/update it every 3 months, and make sure its automatically included in your regular offsite backup. Then write up instructions on how to access the electronic file and the offsite backup and print that and put it in your safe deposit box and mail it to your relatives.

Also, I wouldn't include in the document the usernames and passwords needed to electronically access your accounts. If something happens to you then your survivors are supposed to go through the appropriate process to get access to your accounts as your survivor/representative, not just grab your credentials and start doing transactions pretending to be you.

AndyFromTucson

AndyFromTucson- excellant point about keeping it current. Did this for my Mom and havn't updated it in 2 years. I do have it on my calender on a 6 month sch. In her situation that is fine, but I wonder if each person needs to decide on their own sch for update based on how often thing change.

TravelingMan

Although I don't currently do this it is a great idea. As previous posters have mentioned security it paramount. Another option is to create an excel document and password protect. Then place it in an online file storage platform like skydrive (unshared of course) and share both excel and skydrive password with the trusted person.

informationcenter

@Pastabagel: You hit this way before I could - my boss introduced me to this idea a little while ago; he has a file like this with photocopied versions of all of his cards and such. That way he can cancel his credit cards and things easily, but still have photocopies of his prescription plan card for example if he needs a refill while waiting for a replacement card. Now a bad idea.

For the folks who are curious how you protect a document like this or keep it alive in case of changes, might I suggest something that everyone should have in their home: a fireproof lockbox? It doesn't have to be a safe or anything huge - I keep a briefcase-sized one next to my desk, and when I get important documents like that I make a copy and keep one in the fireproof box. It's easy to get to in case I need to update the document, and it's well protected from fire or flood, and it's locked, of course.

phoenix

@jaxun: Nice, thanks! This is one of those things we keep talking about doing, you guys sure are making it hard to procrastinate.

FubarGuy

@FubarGuy: I second the thanks to jaxun for the agis.com link and bookmarked that site for more in-depth reading. After all, procrastination is human. ;)

On a more somber note, we truly don't have the luxury of procrastinating, especially when there are loved ones to consider (spouse, kids, etc.). My mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's before the age of 55 and by the time of dx, it was too late to reason with her re: power of attorney, finances, or anything. It made her short time remaining (gone by age 59) a source of pain, anger and frustration that couldn't all have been avoided, no, but some of it could have been.

We never have as much time as we think we do, do we?

(signed, Little Mary Sunshine :)

Karyn

@Karyn: You are so right about procrastination and time we have. Sorry your family had to go through that, must have been quite difficult.

freezejeans

One project that I've been working on involves having an encrypted file containing all my passwords that will be available to my family members in case something happens to me. I encrypted the file using TrueCrypt and made it so two keyfiles are needed to decrypt it. One keyfile was given to my next-of-kin and the other to my attorney. I keep the encrypted file itself on box.net so I can keep it updated and accessible to the other parties. The keyfiles themselves are on two burned disks along with the TrueCrypt program and a How-to file.

Solarusdude

An electronic system would be pretty neat if accessing it with the "dead man" password(s) also triggered a wipe of any information you prefer to take to your grave. :)

Johnay

@Johnay: Sounds like a job for Adam and his Super Awesome AutoHotKey Powers!

jaxun