With the explosion of online services, all of us have a digital footprint that needs to be managed. This includes considering and preparing for what happens after we pass away or can no longer actively manage our online activities. Social media accounts, in particular, can present real challenges. There may be embarrassing or painful content that you don’t want as your legacy. Even with the most benign accounts, you may not want automated messages to your connections generated forever (birthday or anniversary reminders, friend suggestions, etc.).
In addition to the awkwardness of a social media presence that outlives us, lingering accounts are an invitation to identity theft. Identity thieves regularly scan obituaries and look up social media accounts for information they can use to apply for credit cards, cell phones, loans and more. Each year thieves steal the identities of more than 2.5 million deceased Americans.
In the next few posts, I’ll outline some best practices for advance planning of your digital footprint as well as how to manage the situation for loved ones or clients.
How to set up your own social media accounts in advance of your death or incapacity
Most of us will leave a social media footprint. What will happen to that presence in the event of our passing or incapacity? Ideally, we should take the following steps in advance:
Leave explicit instructions:
- Identify a trusted person to go into your accounts and manage appropriately. This can be a relative, a close friend, an attorney or a fiduciary. Make sure they are aware of their responsibility and any instructions and have explicitly agreed to do this.
- Think through all of your social media accounts. This can be tricky, since you may have accounts that you no longer use or that you don’t immediately consider to be social media. The truth is that many platforms have a social media component, even if it’s not obvious. Here’s a list of platforms to get you started (not comprehensive):
- YouTube
- Glassdoor
- Spotify
- Pandora
- Snapchat
- Goodreads
- Nextdoor
- Yelp
- Provide a list of the accounts and log in information for those accounts. Save this information in a secure place with your will, trust documents and other critical information.
- Clearly outline what you would like done. Options include:
- Shut down accounts immediately. This is the simplest and lowest-effort option.
- Post a farewell message on accounts so that extended friends and family are aware of the situation and then shut down after a period of time.
- In either of the above scenarios, download content (images, videos, etc.) that remaining loved ones might want.
- Create a memorialized account that is private to just a few people. This is available on Facebook and Instagram. The accounts will stay up and available to existing connections, but cannot add new connections and will no longer show up in automated feeds for suggested connections, birthday wishes, etc.
Next post: How to manage social media accounts after the death or incapacity of a loved one, if no explicit arrangements were made.
