Jimmy, a longtime friend, died unexpectedly after falling down the stairs. Jimmy was divorced, had no children, and lived a mostly paperless life. His laptop was severely damaged in the fall. His phone still turned on, but it was locked behind a passcode.
What began as an unknown passcode quickly became an information problem.
When someone dies and loved ones do not know the phone passcode, it can become extraordinarily difficult to manage End-of-Life paperwork.
The passcode created another problem for Jimmy’s family: two-factor authentication. The email account, which the family knew existed because Jimmy used the same account since college graduation, required a security code sent to Jimmy’s locked phone before anyone could log in.
Modern life often works like a chain of locked doors. In Jimmy’s case, the email unlocked the phone, and the phone unlocked the email.
The family hoped facial recognition might unlock the phone. It didn’t. After death, injuries, medical intervention or phone security settings often render facial recognition useless.
Jimmy’s family assumed the phone company could help. After speaking with the phone company, the family learned an uncomfortable reality: Legally possessing a phone is not the same thing as having legal access to a person’s digital life.
Legal access was the next problem since nobody knew whether Jimmy even had a will or trust.
While Illinois law grants you access once you have the correct legal paperwork, companies often require death certificates, probate paperwork, court orders, or specific account authorizations before releasing information.
Now Jimmy’s family needed his will or trust. It wasn’t in the house, and they did not know if Jimmy had an attorney or a safe deposit box. Clues to the location might exist in his inaccessible email account. They did not know whether probate court was necessary or whether Jimmy had already created a trust designed to avoid the probate process entirely.
The family faced a circular problem. They needed legal authority to gain access to Jimmy’s phone and email. But they could not determine what legal documents existed without first gaining access to Jimmy’s phone and email.
Without the legal documents, the family had little choice but to consult an attorney and begin the probate process. The locked phone had become a legal and administrative puzzle. By the time the estate was settled, nearly a year had passed.
Jimmy’s story is not uncommon. Every year, families discover that the most important information about a loved one’s finances, legal documents, photographs and memories are behind passwords that no one can access.
Fortunately, there are ways to prevent the same thing from happening to your family.
Modern end-of-life planning increasingly requires a digital access plan along with other legal documents. A password manager with emergency access features or clear instructions about where estate planning documents are located can make an enormous difference to a grieving family.
For many families, one organized page of information—securely stored and accessible to trusted people—can save dozens of hours of confusion after a death.
What Jimmy’s family needed most was not really the passcode. They needed the information shielded by the passcode.
We spend our lives protecting access to our digital identities. Taking the time to help our loved ones find the information they will need after we are gone is an act of love.
John Kohlhepp is the owner of A Secure Plan, LLC, an End-of-Life Planning and Death AfterCare company. After the death of his mother, John chose a new career path to help people and families making end-of-life plans and completing the paperwork after a loved one dies. Previously, John worked in progressive politics for labor unions, immigrant rights, and marriage equality.