Times have changed.  It used to be that our company had two keys to the post office box.  One was held by Harry Thornton (A’H), who picked up our mail each day (and cleaned up our offices and did odd jobs) and the other sat in my locked desk drawer.  The keys to my desk drawer were on my key ring and in the safe.   Simple.

Now, what purports to be security?   Who has the passwords for all your eMail accounts?  More importantly, is your eMail properly registered?  Many companies have the account owned by Joey- you know, the techie you hired years ago to set up your eMail.  And, while you pay the bill for the domain and the account each year, you’ve never bothered to insure that the account is really owned by your company.

Or, as is true for many of our unincorporated clients, the mail account is owned by the founder.  As is the website.  And, if that person dies- what will the family do for money?  Since the eBay account, the on-line bill paying, the credit card accounts all have passwords that no one else knows.  And, getting the money out of eBay or transferring funds from the bank to pay the bills- that’s not going to happen.

The first issue that needs to be addressed is to insure all the accounts are in the business’ name.  So, if something happens, the business can continue with someone else taking over.

The second issue is to have a secure location with all the passwords AND account information.  We keep ours in a secure file on both my computer and my partner’s (even though we may not be the majority stockholders).  And, we each know the passwords to each other’s computers.   Moreover, our passwords are also found in yet another eMail account that must be activated at least once every three days (I activate mine every day, just to keep it routine)- or the eMail is sent to four other people with all of our account information and passwords.  That way if both of us disappear or die on the same day, the business can and will continue.

If you don’t have your accounts in the business name, then access may disappear with you.  There are privacy laws and policies that make this a certainty.  PayPal has a policy to bar anyone to account access if they are not the owner (and many PayPal accounts are held in individual names).  Yahoo stipulates their accounts die with the owner- period.  (Ok, they say the account ownership terminates- but that’s the same thing).  And, even if someone else has the password, they could technically be charged with criminal or civil law violations, since the terms of service or policy policies would be violated.

If you are a solopreneur, you should consider putting your passwords in a codicil to your will to assure that your family can collect funds, pay bills, and have access.  (The codicil should be stipulated as secret; putting them in the will may render them public information, since some wills are occasionally published.)

Some states afford the estate of the deceased person to maintain access and ownership of electronic assets.  (One can only hope the Uniform Law Commission acts quickly to set up a uniform policy across the states.)   But, right now, you should assume the onus is on you.

You may want to examine the post I wrote last year exhorting you all to have up-to-date wills and medical directives.  That need is always in season!

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