by Julia Walker
Do Not Let Your Digital Life Die with You
Today, so much of what once existed in material form now lives entirely online. Our photos, finances, business operations, and even our identities are stored on devices and platforms and in cloud accounts. Without proper planning, these valuable digital assets can easily be lost or become inaccessible after we die.
As a sign of the times and how deeply virtual and physical life have merged, most of us no longer distinguish between assets we can touch and those that exist only online. You cannot put cryptocurrency in your back pocket, but you can move it instantly via the phone that is in your pocket. You cannot walk into your e-commerce store, but it can generate thousands in income each month for you, and that money flows directly into your online accounts where you never physically see a dollar or cent.
Digital assets are every bit as real and valuable as traditional property—sometimes even more so. Yet many people do not treat them that way in their estate plan. Your plan may account for your home and heirlooms, but what about your Venmo balance, web domains, or crypto wallets?
A Day in the (Digital) Life
Think about how many digital assets you interact with on a daily basis. Your smartphone unlocks to reveal years’ worth of photos, messages, authentication codes, and logins. You can go online to check banking and investment apps, pay bills, move money through PayPal or Venmo, and access cloud storage, subscriptions, rewards programs, and digital wallets. By day’s end, you have used dozens of digital accounts, some holding real monetary value, others containing irreplaceable personal history. Yet most people do not recognize that these items are part of their overall estate.
A recent Bryn Mawr Trust survey found that Americans now place an average value of nearly $200,000 on their digital assets, and 79 percent say that protecting those assets is important—almost identical to the 78 percent who feel that way about traditional financial assets.[1] However, only 44 percent of those working with financial advisors say that the topic of digital assets and digital estate planning has ever been raised.[2]
People also underestimate the size of their digital footprint. Respondents to the same survey reported having anywhere from a handful to approximately 250 digital accounts, and many could not even estimate how many files they have.[3]
● Twenty-nine percent say they feel very or somewhat knowledgeable about digital assets.
● Twenty-one percent say they have only “a little knowledge.”
● Twenty-seven percent have heard the term digital assets but know almost nothing about it.
● Fifteen percent have never heard the term.[4]
If any of these findings hit home for you, you may be facing one of the major conundrums of the digital world: We constantly interact with digital assets but often have no idea what they actually are, let alone how to protect them.
So what exactly counts as a digital asset today?
Defining Digital Assets
Digital assets include any electronically stored pieces of information you own, use, control, or derive value from as well as the accounts, platforms, and devices where that information is stored. They generally fall into several categories:
● Personal communications and media: emails, text messages, digital photos and videos, social media profiles
● Creative and intellectual property: blogs, websites, domain names, digital artwork, nonfungible tokens (NFTs)
● Financial and asset-based accounts: online bank and brokerage accounts, crypto wallets, payment apps
● Business and commercial digital assets: e-commerce stores, bookkeeping and payroll platforms, monetized social media
● Subscription and licensed digital property: e-books, digital movies and music, gaming libraries
● Security and authentication tools: password managers, authenticator apps, encrypted drives
● Records, data, and personal identity: online statements, tax and medical portals, biometric identifiers
● Rewards and loyalty programs: airline miles, hotel points, credit card rewards
● Digital memorabilia and archived content: genealogy accounts, cloud-stored archives
● Connected devices: smartphones, tablets, computers, smart home devices tied to cloud accounts
Living in our digital world, differentiating between a digital asset and a traditional asset is not as obvious as it might seem. With so much of our lives now online, it is a bit like asking a fish, “What is water?” We are so immersed in digital assets, we almost do not perceive them for what they are: distinct assets that require a distinct protection plan.
How to Protect Digital Assets in Your Estate Plan
Even if you understand what digital assets are, they can be easy to overlook in your estate plan. Here are some of the most common digital risks and the practical steps you can take to address them.
Not knowing what digital assets you own. Most people do not realize how much of their life runs through digital channels. Creating a complete digital asset inventory is the first step toward securing your digital legacy.
What you can do:
● Walk through a typical day, then a week, then a month.
● Write down every digital touchpoint: apps, accounts, bills, subscriptions, cloud storage, and financial platforms.
● Add these items to your digital asset inventory.
Losing access to your own digital accounts (and leaving loved ones locked out later). Without a clear plan, loved ones may never recover important digital property, from payment app balances to cryptocurrency to unused reward points.
What you can do:
● Go through each account in your digital asset inventory.
● Store access instructions (not passwords) securely.
● Let someone you trust know where your inventory and access instructions are stored.
Losing irreplaceable photos, videos, messages, and personal history. If everything lives on one device or inside a locked cloud account, your priceless memories may disappear forever.
What you can do:
● Designate Apple or Google legacy contacts to allow approved access after death.[5]
● Back up important media to a secure shared folder accessible to a spouse or trusted family member or advisor.
● Periodically review what is stored only on your phones, computers, tablets, or private accounts and move critical items to a protected backup or shared account.
Executors facing access barriers during estate settlement. Executors need access to your bills, statements, or important online documents but may be blocked without the right authority.
What you can do:
● Appoint a digital executor (or coexecutor).
● Tell your executor which accounts they may need to access during administration so they know what to look for and where to begin.
● Ensure that your will or trust gives them explicit access rights.
Identity theft or fraud after death. Criminals often target the deceased, taking advantage of dormant accounts or publicly available probate information.
What you can do:
● Maintain an updated digital asset list so your executor knows what to secure or close quickly.
● Consider using a living trust to avoid probate court after your passing and reduce the public exposure that goes with it.
● Ensure that your executor (or digital executor) knows how to notify credit bureaus and freeze the credit file immediately after death.
Weak cybersecurity that puts your estate (and loved ones) at risk. Simple mistakes such as weak passwords, no multifactor authentication (MFA), or storing sensitive details in unprotected files create vulnerabilities now and later.
What you can do:
● Use MFA and a reputable password manager for stronger security.
● Document your MFA methods (backup codes, authenticator apps) in a secure, nonpublic place so a spouse or other trusted contact can use them in an emergency.
● Never write passwords in your will. Instead, ensure that your will or trust names a digital executor or trustee and grants them the necessary access rights.
Bring Your Digital Estate into the 21st Century
We are living in a digital world; an estate plan that is not purposefully designed to protect digital assets is incomplete and out of date.
If your estate plan has not been revisited in the past few years with an eye toward safeguarding your digital legacy, it needs attention. For help bringing your estate plan into the 21st century, schedule a time to talk with us.
[1] Jamie Hopkins, Bryn Mawr Trust Survey Reveals Americans Value Digital Assets at $191,516 on Average, but Gaps Exist in Digital Asset Awareness and Estate Planning, Bryn Mawr Tr. (Dec. 5, 2024), https://www.bmt.com/news-insights-events/bryn-mawr-trust-survey.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Roger Fingas, Who Handles Your Death Better? Google, Facebook, and Apple Compared, Android Auth. (Jan. 16, 2022), https://www.androidauthority.com/data-after-death-google-facebook-apple-3088700.
2025-01-13 by Sue Hunt
Although we may not always recognize it, financial decisions and tasks are a part of our everyday lives. They range from daily spending habits to more complex retirement planning.
You may take for granted that you are able to manage your finances. However, what if you become incapacitated (meaning that you lack the ability to handle your own affairs due to illness, injury, cognitive decline, or some other cause)? Someone else will have to manage your finances for you if you cannot.
If you have an updated estate plan that names a substitute decision-maker to act in your stead, you have control over who that someone is. Otherwise, the court will appoint a financial decision-maker, and it may not be who you would want—or who has your best interests in mind.
Guardianship or Conservatorship versus an Estate Plan
Two-thirds of US adults do not have an estate plan,[1] which effectively means that they lack an incapacity plan (a plan for how their affairs will be managed if they cannot do it for themselves).
You may have created a will and completed other estate planning tasks, such as purchasing life insurance and making beneficiary designations. However, you still need a documented, legally enforceable process and plan for determining who will manage your affairs if you become incapacitated.
To proactively grant the necessary powers to a financial decision-maker, consider a revocable living trust and a financial power of attorney.
One of the main purposes and benefits of a revocable living trust is to avoid the court-supervised probate process, but it can also be used to help avoid a different form of court intervention: the appointment of a legal guardian or conservator (the term may vary by state), which is the person appointed by the court to make financial and other decisions for you.
A financial power of attorney is highly flexible. It can include a statement describing how incapacity will be determined and who determines it; it can come into effect only when the principal's incapacitation is confirmed (in some states); it can specify the powers granted to the agent; and it can be limited or long-lasting in duration. Like a revocable living trust, a financial power of attorney helps eliminate the need for court-appointed guardianship or conservatorship.
Factors When Choosing a Financial Decision-Maker
When choosing a financial decision-maker, you should consider factors such as trustworthiness, financial knowledge, and the ability to handle responsibilities under pressure. The person selected should have a strong understanding of your values and priorities, be organized, and communicate effectively with other key parties, such as family members or advisors. Additionally, they should be available and willing to serve in this role, as it may require significant time and effort, particularly during complex situations.
If nobody in your immediate circle of friends and family seems like a good candidate, a professional, such as an attorney or financial advisor, can be chosen. However, many professionals are hesitant about serving in the role of an agent under a durable power of attorney, so you may want to consider other professionals, such as professional caregivers or fiduciaries. A professional trustee or agent is different from a professional guardian or conservator because it is a person of your choosing rather than the court's.
The bottom line is that estate planning lets you manage incapacity in advance, in the manner that is best for you, your finances, and your family. You are free to name whomever you want to serve as a successor trustee or an agent under your financial power of attorney and to provide whatever instructions you want for them in your estate plan.
You may never need to rely on an incapacity plan. However, having the right people and provisions in place gives you added protection and peace of mind just in case something happens and you lose financial capacity. For guidance on this front, call us today at 336-373-9877 to set up an appointment.
[1] Rachel Lustbader, 2024 Wills and Estate Planning Study, Caring.com (July 30, 2024), https://www.caring.com/caregivers/estate-planning/wills-survey.
2025-04-02 by Sue Hunt
Approximately three-fourths of Americans do not have a basic will.[1] Many of the same people also have children under the age of 18, which underscores a major misunderstanding about estate plans: They can accomplish much more than just handling financial assets (money, accounts, and property).
One of the most important estate plan functions for parents of minor children is the ability to provide specific guidance about how their children will be cared for and who will care for them in case something happens to the parents.
To account for all emergency contingencies concerning you and your children, your estate plan should form a comprehensive safety net that addresses your children's care needs and protects them from the unthinkable.
Three Tools You Need If You Have Minor Children
As parents, we instinctively strive to shield our children from harm and set them up for success, now and in the future.
While we cannot predict the future, we can prepare for it. Estate planning is a crucial step in this preparation, especially when minor children are involved. It is not only about distributing your money and property after your death; it is also about establishing ways to care for your children if you no longer can.
Your death or incapacity (inability to manage your affairs) from a sudden illness or accident is a situation that you would likely rather not think about but must consider in preparing for worst-case scenarios that could lead to a court deciding who cares for your child.
Data on parental mortality is sobering: More than 4 percent of minor children have lost at least one parent.[2] If you wait too long to create your estate plan, it could be too late. More than any other reason, Americans cite procrastination as the reason they do not have an estate plan.[3] Procrastinating on creating your estate plan could mean it will not be there when you—and your children—need it.
To safeguard your children's future, three estate planning tools are particularly important: a will, a power of attorney for minors, and a standalone nomination of guardian.
Last Will and Testament
A last will and testament (also known as a will) is a cornerstone of any estate plan, but it takes on added importance when you have minor children. Your will outlines your wishes regarding the distribution of your money and property after your death. It also allows you to do the following:
Power of Attorney for Minors
A power of attorney for minors, sometimes called a designation of standby guardian or something similar depending on the state, is a legal document that empowers a chosen individual (your agent or attorney-in-fact) to act for your minor child on your behalf. This person steps in to make decisions regarding your child's care if you become incapacitated or unavailable.
The power of attorney can grant the agent broad authority to handle various aspects of your child's life, including the following:
Although the power of attorney grants the agent significant authority, there are limits to what it permits. The agent cannot consent to the child's marriage or adoption. In addition, many state laws impose expiration dates on these documents (e.g., six months, one year), so it is important to review and update them regularly to ensure that they remain valid.
Revocable Living Trust
In addition to a power of attorney, nomination of guardian, and will, the parents of minor children might consider a revocable living trust that holds their accounts and property during their lifetime and distributes them after their death.
You (the parent) maintain control of the accounts and property in the trust while you are alive as the current trustee. You can change the trust's terms as needed because you are the trustmaker, and this type of trust is revocable. A revocable living trust can help avoid probate and give your children faster access to the resources they need. You can also specify how and when your children receive their inheritance, name a successor trustee to continue management of the trust if you suffer incapacity, and provide financial support for the guardian, further synergizing your estate plan.
How These Tools Work Together—and What Can Happen If You Do Not Plan
These three estate planning tools are not interchangeable; they are complementary and designed to work together to address immediate and long-term needs in a range of potential scenarios.
Imagine a scenario where both parents are in a car accident. One parent dies, and the other is severely injured and temporarily incapacitated. The agent named in the temporary power of attorney or delegation of standby guardian immediately steps in to temporarily care for the children.
If the injured parent passes away, the designated guardian (who may be the same person as the agent under the temporary power of attorney) named in the will or standalone document can provide the children with a stable permanent home. The will can be structured so that the children's inheritance is managed through a trust that specifies how and when their inheritances should be spent and distributed.
Failure to have any one of these estate planning tools can lead to complications and unintended consequences for your minor children. For example:
Other Planning Tools and Tips for Parents
Parents should understand that they can only nominate a guardian for their child, not legally appoint one; the court has the final authority to decide, though it gives significant weight to the parents' nomination.
If there is evidence that your chosen guardian is unfit or unable to provide proper care, the court may appoint a different guardian in the child's best interest, even if it goes against your wishes. There is also the chance that a family member could contest your guardianship choice or your first choice of guardian is unavailable.
These outcomes are unlikely, but since they could undermine your wishes, there are additional steps you can take to minimize the risk and strengthen your case.
Fitting Together the Pieces of Your Estate Plan
Each part of an estate plan has a role to play, but they work best when considered as parts of a larger plan that addresses big issues such as the well-being of your minor children.
A will, temporary power of attorney, and standalone guardian document are not interchangeable; they are complementary. Incorporating all three into your plan, alongside other strategies such as a revocable living trust and a letter of intent, addresses the immediate and long-term needs of your minor children in any eventuality.
If you have minor children, estate planning is a necessity. Do not leave your children's future to chance. Consult with us to create a multipoint plan that protects you and your family.
[1] Victoria Lurie, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, Caring (Feb. 18, 2025), https://www.caring.com/caregivers/estate-planning/wills-survey.
[2] George M. Hayward, New 2021 Data Visualization Shows Parent Mortality: 44.2% Had Lost at Least One Parent, U.S. Census Bureau (Mar. 21, 2023), https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/03/losing-our-parents.html.
[3] Lurie, supra note 1.
2022-07-25 by Sasha Hartzell
Despite the fact that it happens to every single one of us and is as every bit as natural as birth, very few among us are properly prepared for death—whether our own death or the death of a loved one.
Yet the pandemic might be changing this.
According to Census figures, the pandemic caused the U.S. death rate to spike by nearly 20% between 2019 and 2020, the largest increase in American mortality in 100 years. More than two years and 1 million deaths later, it's more clear than ever that death is not only ever-present, but a central and inevitable part of all our lives.
Graph from the United States Census BureauSome in the end-of-life industry believe that the pandemic's massive loss of life has created an opportunity to transform the way we interact with death, grief, and all of the other issues that arise with the loss of a loved one. Seizing the moment, one startup recently launched Empathy, an AI-based platform designed to help families navigate the death of a loved one. "We're on a mission to change the way the world deals with loss," reads Empathy's 'About Us' page. The company's CEA and Co-Founder, Ron Gura echoes this sentiment:
"For far too many, COVID-19 has been a terrible reminder that death and loss are all around us. But it also represents an opportunity to shift public perception, to bring a topic that has been for far too long shrouded in darkness into the light of day, where we can fully examine it and figure out how best to help those who have to shoulder its burdens."
- Ron Gura, Co-Founder of Empathy
The death of a loved one generates a cascade of emotional, logistical, and financial challenges for those left behind. To further shed light on just how vastly unprepared most of us are when dealing with death, in March 2022 Empathy released its first-ever Cost of Dying Report. In partnership with Goldman Sachs, Empathy's report surveyed more than 2,000 Americans—each of whom had lost a loved one in the last five years—to get a clearer picture of dying's true cost to families.
The report looked not only at the financial burden dying brings, but also at the cost in time, stress, harmed productivity, and strained interpersonal bonds. Complete with insights from advisors, partners, and experts in bereavement, the Cost of Dying Report "bust open the taboo that has for too long kept it out of the public consciousness," said Gula.
Empathy found that the average total bill of death is $12,702. The average cost of a funeral was $7,267—according to the National Funeral Directors Association, that cost has risen 7.6% in the last 5 years. On top of the funeral, families paid an average of $5,846 to hire additional professionals such as lawyers, financial advisors, therapists, and realtors.
Excerpt from The Cost of Dying Report by Empathy
The average cost of lawyers fee's following the death of a loved one was $3,910. This amount, however, is nearly doubled for estates that required the court process of probate, as was the case for one-third of families surveyed; the average total cost to complete probate for the families surveyed was $16,800.
Beyond the purely financial, The Cost of Dying Report found that families spent 13-20 months completing end-of-life tasks for their deceased loved ones. Study participants clocked an average of 420 hours of work to handle an estate with around five phone calls a week (26 hours per month on the phone!) The majority of families also said it took longer to much longer than expected to wrap up all of the necessary tasks.
In the words of contributing attorney Avi Z. Kestenbaum, "every estate is settled eventually. Even the most complex one. But it is very often a long road to get there—and if you think you know how long, you probably don't."
So how do families cover all of these expenses? Unfortunately, the report found that only one in seven families had the costs associated with their loved ones' death prepaid, or were able to use inherited funds. Additionally, more than 50% of families had to deal with estates that included debt. To foot the bill for these expenses, 36.1% of respondents used their own savings or investments, while 42.4% used their checking accounts or credit cards.
For most families, the financial costs associated with loss were exacerbated by a lack of information about exactly how much money they should expect to spend, according to physician Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, in the report's section on death's financial cost. Compounding that stress, Ungerleider says, was the families' fear of making a mistake that will make their financial burden even worse.
"A majority of families find themselves unprepared for and under-informed about the real financial costs of death, with few available resources for finding out," writes Ungerleider. "They can spend months or years terrified that a wrong move will wipe out their inheritance or even their own savings."
As an example of what such a mistake might look like, Ungerleider notes that a lack of proper estate planning can lead to the deceased's home being seized after death for Medicaid Recovery, even if the family member who was their primary caregiver is still living in the home.
Fortunately, there are ways you can dramatically reduce the financial, logistical, and emotional burden for your loved ones upon your death. There are strategies to help your family to avoid the time, expense, and emotional burden associated with probate, such as by placing assets in a properly created and maintained revocable living trust. We also offer planning strategies that can help you and/or your senior parents qualify for Medicaid and other benefits, without putting the family home or other assets at risk.
Our end-of-life planning also includes asset protection, avoiding family conflict, funding long-term care, and estate tax mitigation, just to name a few. Sit down with us for a Family Wealth Planning Session to find the most effective and affordable planning solutions for you and your family.
The more you prepare for your own eventual death and learn about the process, the more support you can offer friends and family members who have recently lost a loved one. As Kestenbaum notes, "as a society, then, we can be much more aware not only of the stress that our bereaved friends, neighbors, coworkers, or employees are under, but also understand that the pressure will persist for a very long time. So even one year later, try to ask: How are you? Is there anything I can do to help? That will be very meaningful."
by Julia Walker
Well, that doesn’t seem right.
It usually starts with something small. A strange email from a bank you do not recognize. A new credit card account you do not remember opening. A password reset link you never requested. A notice from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that someone has already filed a tax return in your name.
At first there is confusion. No, there’s no way that’s right.
Then anxiety sets in. Am I being scammed?
After that, you may spend hours or days on the phone with banks, credit bureaus, and government agencies to reach an unsettling conclusion: Someone has my information and is pretending to be me.
Next comes anger, frustration, and a sense of violation. How could this happen?
Acceptance eventually sets in, along with a determination to never let scammers get the upper hand again. But sometimes it is too late. The damage has been done—to finances, reputation, peace of mind, and, sometimes, legacy.
Preventing cybercrimes such as identity theft starts with awareness, including the recognition that cybersecurity is not just an IT problem or something that affects businesses. It is a personal wealth preservation issue that can affect you not only now but also after you are gone, making it crucial to strengthen your digital defenses long before your estate reaches administration.
Scammers routinely target estates, executors, and grieving families, often by mining obituaries and public probate records to launch phishing, impersonation, and identity-theft schemes.
Growing Cyberthreats and Their Impact on Estate Planning
You may have started to take the first steps toward creating a digital estate plan, but that planning should also account for the growing risks that cybercriminals pose to both your assets and your legacy.
● Seventy-three percent of US adults have experienced some form of online scam or cyberattack. Most report weekly scam calls, text, and emails.[1]
● Americans reported 2.6 million fraud cases and 1.1 million identity-theft incidents to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2024. Losses exceeded $12.5 billion, a 25 percent increase over the prior year.[2]
● Identity theft is now one of the most common types of consumer fraud, with nearly 750,000 cases in the first half of 2025 alone.[3]
● Seventy-six percent of consumers say they feel more anxious about cybersecurity today than they did two years ago, driven by impersonation enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) and increasingly sophisticated scams.[4]
Cybercriminals now use AI-generated voice clones to impersonate loved ones, breached financial and medical data to answer security questions, and automated scraping of public records to target people with unnerving precision. You will very likely be targeted at some point and may have already been a victim of cybercrime. Even if you avoid direct harm during your lifetime, your estate and heirs may be more vulnerable after your death.
Why Estates Can Be Vulnerable to Cybercriminals
The FBI reports that in 2024, Americans over age 60 were the most frequently targeted demographic for online scams and fraud and lost the most money to cybercrimes.[5]
Fraud schemes targeting the estates of people who have passed away are another area of growing cybercrime concern.[6] As with older adults, estates, particularly those of seniors, are often perceived as holding substantial assets. The individuals and property involved with estate administration can also create unique vulnerabilities that attract cybercriminals.
● The loved ones left behind are often overwhelmed and distracted after a loved one’s death, making them more susceptible to scams. Cybercriminals use times of chaos, confusion, and heightened emotion to their advantage, preying on feelings such as fear, urgency, and trust during times when people may let their guard down.
● Executors may be unfamiliar with digital security, making phishing attempts more successful.
● Multiple parties (attorneys, advisors, banks, beneficiaries) are exchanging sensitive documents during estate administration, sometimes through unsecured or informal methods.
● The deceased person’s dormant accounts are often easy entry points for identity theft because they often go unmonitored, rely on outdated passwords, and may be tied to personal information that criminals can exploit before anyone realizes that there is a problem.
● Scammers routinely impersonate banks, government agencies, attorneys, or even the executor.
● Probate is public, giving criminals a ready-made list of heirs, contact information, and sometimes asset details.
Social engineering attacks—scams that use deception rather than technical hacking—that rely on sophisticated cybertools such as AI to exploit basic human psychology and manipulate people are on the rise.[7] And just as cybercriminals capitalize on natural disasters[8] and tech outages,[9] the estate administration process is a scenario that could provide the perfect opening for fraud and deception.
A Digital Defense Plan for Your Estate
You would not leave your physical property unsecured, but without a digital defense plan, you are essentially leaving the front door unlocked to cyberthieves, compromising your traditional and digital assets. Understanding points of vulnerability and taking a few simple precautions can help reduce your exposure to cybercrimes.
Issue: Email is the weakest link. Most cyberattacks begin with email.
● What you can do: Use strong passwords, multifactor authentication (MFA), and encrypted document-sharing platforms. Avoid sending unprotected sensitive materials, and encourage your executors to follow the same security practices when administering your estate.
Issue: Executors cannot secure what they cannot see. Unknown or dormant accounts often remain open and unmonitored, making them prime targets for takeover and identity theft.
● What you can do: Create a detailed inventory of important digital accounts and storage locations. Ensure that fiduciaries (such as your executors and advisors) know what accounts must be closed, monitored, or secured.
Issue: Sensitive legal and tax documents are insecurely stored or shared. Wills, statements, and tax documents often sit unprotected in inboxes or cloud folders.
● What you can do: Store documents securely using online encrypted folders or password-protected vaults, and ensure that fiduciaries know where to find documents and how to access them.
Issue: Executors may not be prepared for digital threats. Phishing attempts surge during estate administration, and many executors are unfamiliar with digital-security practices.
● What you can do: Name a tech-literate executor (or coexecutor) who is comfortable managing digital accounts and security protocols. Include with your estate planning documents a brief “executor security checklist” that outlines verification steps (such as confirming account ownership and access authority) and highlights common red flags, such as urgent payment requests, unexpected account changes, or requests for credentials.
Issue: Probate exposes personal information. Public probate court filings often disclose the names and contact information of executors and beneficiaries and may even include a list of assets with their values—information that scammers can easily weaponize.
● What you can do: Talk with your attorney about whether trust-based planning or other probate-avoidance tools can reduce public exposure of your estate and limit targeted fraud.
Issue: Heirs and beneficiaries are prime targets for impersonation scams. Criminals impersonate banks, attorneys, courts, or even executors to solicit money or sensitive data. For example, a scammer may send an email posing as the estate’s bank or attorney, claiming an urgent problem with an account and requesting immediate payment or login credentials from a beneficiary or executor.
● What you can do: Educate executors and beneficiaries about how to spot and avoid common scams[10] and establish a simple verification process for unexpected requests.
Issue: Identity theft of the deceased is common. Dormant and unmonitored accounts create easy entry points and are frequently hijacked after death. Criminals use a decedent’s information found in public records and online obituaries to open credit accounts, redirect mail, submit false change-of-address forms, or file fraudulent tax returns.
● What you can do: Develop a postdeath digital and identity-protection checklist for your estate and executor. This should include promptly notifying the major credit bureaus of the death, placing a credit freeze or fraud alert on the decedent’s credit file, forwarding and monitoring mail, filing the final tax return and IRS death notification, and quickly closing, consolidating, or memorializing unused online accounts and financial profiles.
Do Not Become a Cybercrime Statistic
Cybercrime statistics are sobering. We all know the risks of falling prey to online fraudsters, but when knowledge is not paired with action, it is an invitation for disaster. A proactive approach to cybersecurity rooted in awareness, preparation, and avoiding high-risk situations is key to securing your estate—and your legacy—in a digital world.
[1] Jeffrey Gottfried, Eugenie Park, & Monica Anderson, Online Scams and Attacks in America Today, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (July 31, 2025), https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/07/31/online-scams-and-attacks-in-america-today.
[2] New FTC Data Show a Big Jump in Reported Losses to Fraud to $12.5 Billion in 2024, Fed. Trade Comm’n (Mar. 10, 2025), https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/new-ftc-data-show-big-jump-reported-losses-fraud-125-billion-2024.
[3] Jack Caporal, Identity Theft and Credit Card Fraud Statistics for 2025, MotleyFoolMoney (Aug. 15, 2025), https://www.fool.com/money/research/identity-theft-credit-card-fraud-statistics.
[4] Vicky Hyman, When It Comes to Fraud, a Sense of Insecurity and Even Inevitability, Global Survey Shows, Mastercard Cybersecurity (Oct. 6, 2025), https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/stories/2025/consumer-cybersecurity-survey.html.
[5] Press Release, FBI, FBI Releases Annual Internet Crime Report (Apr. 23, 2025), https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-annual-internet-crime-report.
[6] Henry Rinder, Fraud Targeting the Elderly and Estates: A Growing Concern, NJCPA (Sept. 23, 2024), https://www.njcpa.org/stayinformed/news/blog/post/njcpa-focus/2024/09/23/fraud-targeting-the-elderly-and-estates--a-growing-concern.
[7] Michelle Maratto & Sana Hashmat, Unmasking Social Engineering: Protecting Your Wealth from Deceptive Cyber Tactics, J.P. Morgan Wealth Mgmt. (Oct. 1, 2025), https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/cybersecurity/phishing/unmasking-social-engineering-protecting-your-wealth-from-deceptive-cyber-tactics.
[8] Niamh Ancell, Cybercriminals Capitalize on LA Wildfire Chaos via Fake GoFundMe’s and Crypto Coins, Cybernews (Jan. 17, 2025), https://cybernews.com/cybercrime/cybercriminals-exploit-la-wildfires.
[9] Brian Fung & Sean Lyngaas, Hackers Are Already Taking Advantage of the CrowdStrike Outage Chaos, CNN Bus. (July 22, 2024), https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/22/tech/hackers-crowdstrike-outage-scams.
[10] How to Avoid Imposter Scams, Fed. Trade Comm’m Consumer Advice, https://consumer.ftc.gov/features/how-avoid-imposter-scams (last visited Dec. 22, 2025).
2026-06-10 by Julia Walker
Myth 7: My old life insurance policy is enough.
A life insurance policy that was adequate before you purchased a home may no longer be enough to meet your family’s financial needs following your death. Taking on a mortgage often creates a much larger financial obligation, and your coverage should be reviewed in light of that debt as well as ongoing costs such as property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and other household expenses. It is also important to consider whether your policy would provide enough support for your family’s day-to-day living expenses and longer-term goals if you were no longer here. If your coverage has not been updated, your loved ones may need to rely on savings, sell assets, or reconsider whether they can realistically afford to keep the home.
.jpg "life insurance")