In today’s digital world, we create an enormous amount of personal, financial and electronic information over the course of our lives, and the relevance of this information does not end at death. When the person nominated as your personal representative (formally known as an “executor”) begins the process of administering your estate, he or she will need to access information regarding your financial affairs, including bank and brokerage accounts, digital asset holdings and the value of your assets.

With so much information stored electronically, how will your nominated Personal Representative have access to that information if everything requires a log-in?

Once the person nominated as your Personal Representative is officially appointed by the probate court, he or she will have the authority to contact your financial institutions to gain access to your accounts. Practically, it is important for your Personal Representative to have that information prior to appointment as it provides guidance on (i) what form of probate of your estate is necessary or recommended, (ii) what, if any, estate tax may be due, and (iii) which financial institutions he/she will need to contact.

The following is a list of commonly needed information when someone passes away:

• Access to the decedent’s email account
• Bank accounts
• Brokerage and investment accounts
• Insurance policies
• Social networking accounts
• Crypto currency wallets and other digital asset accounts
• Subscription services
• Online payment apps

To help ensure that your Personal Representative has access to this information, clients will often maintain an asset list with financial institutions/account numbers, names of advisors and other contacts at the institutions where accounts are located, and login information for these accounts. Keeping a physical or digital log of all usernames, passwords and personal identification numbers in a secure place and providing access to your nominated Personal Representative will allow him/her to easily access the information needed to help administer your estate.

Given how important this information is and the potential harm that can be created if the wrong person has access to it, the choice of who serves as a nominated Personal Representative can be as important as where this list is kept.

As both the type of information we create and the ways we are able to store and maintain that information are constantly evolving, we recommend that clients review this issue from time to time to make sure their stored information is accurate and accessible by the appropriate parties.

If you have questions about how to share sensitive information or with whom it should be entrusted, please contact an estate administration attorney in our Private Client Services practice at Wilchins Cosentino & Novins LLP. We welcome the opportunity to assist you in planning and organizing.

Hannah Sweet is a member of our Private Client Services practice with a focus on trust and estate planning and trust and estate administration. Learn more about Hannah.