Protecting Your Digital Footprint After Death

As you go through the estate planning process, you'll do a fair amount of thinking about your physical assets: Who should get them? How will your life's work live on?

But what about your digital assets? You should consider making a plan for your online presence after you die, too.

A digital estate plan not only prevents post-mortem identity theft, it also keeps your loved ones from untold frustration resulting from attempts to access your online accounts if you haven't left instructions.

To help you shore-up your estate planning and secure your digital identity after death, consider the following actions, and how they'll benefit your loved ones.

Create a master list of online accounts

While it might seem a tedious task, creating a master list of all your online accounts will help lighten the burden on your loved ones and speed the process of securing your identity.

If you're wondering which online accounts you should add to the list, the answer is all of them. From photo-sharing websites you used for vacation pictures to your bank and retirement accounts, your loved ones need to know where you lived online so they can manage those presences appropriately after you die.

As you create the list of accounts, you might find it useful to divide the list into sections to help your executor and loved ones prioritize. Sections for financial and retirement accounts, utilities, subscriptions (like streaming services and online publications), and social media accounts are top priorities for your estate.

While building the account list, be sure to note the username and password for each and create a plan to make sure you keep the login information up-to-date. You can do this through a twice-a-year review or update the list when you update a password. A list isn't much help if your login information is out of date.

Consider a password manager

If maintaining your account list and login information feels like a daunting task, you can use a password manager to keep your login information up-to-date.

Think of a password manager like the keys to your digital kingdom. They store the login information for all your sites in a digital vault, and in some cases, even bank account numbers and credit card numbers, and make passing this information on to your loved ones a simple task.

Most popular password managers have emergency access capabilities.1 These features can include a "master password" that gives your chosen family members access to your account if you die or become incapacitated, time locks that send your loved ones access instructions if you haven't logged in for a certain time period, and more. When comparing password managers, be sure to review the emergency access procedures of each and see which software has the features that best fit your access needs.

Enroll in Credit and Identity Protection Services

As a Synovus Plus, Synovus Inspire, or Synovus Private Wealth customer, you can enroll in complimentary Credit and Identity Protection services. With this service, Synovus will monitor your credit reports and notify you any time any changes are made. Synovus will also scan the web to make sure your personal information hasn't been compromised by checking websites, blogs and peer-to-peer networks. Synovus also offers full-service identity restoration if you become a victim of identity theft.

Want to know more about how you can achieve peace of mind as a Synovus customer? Learn more.