In Yahoo!’s Finance News, there is an article titled “What to Do After You Die” which discusses preparations for bill payment (and related contact information), insurance information, legal documents and so on.  An excellent article that shows the public is getting more concerned with preparing for someone’s passing.  Now if they can get just as concerned about online information and documentation as well.  Note that this article mentions the safe deposit box and we’ve already noted before about the danger of using such security in California (I wonder how soon other states follow their example).

(Via Consumerist.com)

Deathswitch.com, brought to you by Information Immortality, LLC., is a site to manage your final message to your family and friends.  This website is a specific implementation of the advice mentioned in our post on “Sharing your Obituary after your death“.  From the website:

A deathswitch is an automated system that prompts you for your password on a regular schedule to make sure you are still alive.

This used to be a common practice by employees who sneak code into an application to make it fail when they are no longer employed at the company to prevent the “deathswitch” from executing.   In this situation, the use of this system is put to a positive use.  Please keep in mind that this service charges an annual fee to maintain this list.

In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle titled “Anguished tales of property taken by state“, stories are told including one where a woman’s safety deposit box was declared abandoned though the owner had not been contacted by the bank to determine if it was still active (which it was). The State of California seized ownership of the contents. Considering what we’ve noted before about safe locations to place the documentation of your online life, it would seem that safety deposit boxes are no longer “safe”.

There is a link at the bottom of the article to help you determine if the state is holding any forgotten assets belonging to you.

(via Consumerist.com)

In an article on WikiHow titled “How to Share your Obituary with Your Online Friends“, there is an excellent summary of how to do this by identifying the responsible person to send the obit, the recipients, and what to share along with additional suggestions.

Oh, and please review the list of related WikiHows at the bottom of the article for more material similar to what you’ll find here.

(via Lifehacker.com)