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Being survived by my spouse is one of my greatest fears. I have an "in case of death" file and my spouse knows where to get it. I don't find your list helpful i

Being survived by my spouse is one of my greatest fears. I have an "in case of death" file and my spouse knows where to get it. I don't find your list helpful in my case though. Mine is a lot simpler: 1. A list of all our financial accounts (checking, savings, retirement, etc) and bills. My spouse already has access to all these, but I handle all the day-to-day finances so it would be easy to forget a particular account or bill exists. 2. Phone numbers, URLs, and policy numbers for my life insurance policies. 3. Information about our internet and our off-site backups. Along with complicated networking equipment, I am self-hosting some software like DNS that could cause the home wifi to stop working if it's not maintained properly. I have instructions on how to unplug it all and set up an off-the-shelf router. 4. Instructions on how to get "In Case of Emergency" access to my password manager. I don't think this is necessary but might make a few things easier. 5. Personal advice on getting help and not withdrawing from family during the grieving process Outside of this, I also have Google Inactivity Manager set up to automatically notify close friends if both me and my spouse pass away. While I'm guessing the police would notify our family somehow, my parents don't have contact information on my closest friends.

abdulhaq 3y ago
> Being survived by my spouse is one of my greatest fears Interesting, one of my greatest fears is my wife dying before me
- bertylicious 3y ago
  Technically the same could still be the greatest fear of parent, but that wouldn't be relevant in the given context.
- gurchik 3y ago
  I don't know, I'm still in my 20s, maybe my mind will change as I get older. Today if I had to choose between my spouse grieving or the other way around I'd rather it be me.
f_allwein 3y ago
> Google Inactivity Manager Interesting, did not know about this. I think there’s no good solution yet on how to be notified if an acquaintance (not close friend or family member) dies. It used to be death notices in the local newspaper, but that’s out because my acquaintances live in so many different places. Does anyone have experience with Google Inactivity Manager?
- gurchik 3y ago
  Google Inactivity Manager is supposed to be used to grant access to your account after you die. In my case my account is not important, I only use it for Youtube these days, but you can write a custom message so that's primarily my use case for it. After you set it up, you get an email every few months reminding you that you have it set up. I have it set up to fire a few months after my account has no activity (YouTube logins etc). However your question made me think. My email provider is forwarding emails delivered to my Gmail via IMAP and I'm not sure if this is considered "account activity." If it is, Google Inactivity Manager may take a very long time to kick in since this forwarding is likely to continue long after I die. I can't find any documentation about this online. I've heard a few people talk about Dead Man's Switch[1] for this purpose but I've never used it. Theoretically it might be possible to self host a solution with a cloud provider. Using a free service like Lambda your account should survive you even if your credit card is closed. 1: https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ https://www.deadmansswitch.net/
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    Huh. Is Google Inactivity Manager something one could use to safeguard against the failure modes of their push to 2-factor auth? As in, set it on shortest possible check-up period, so in case you break your phone and forgot where you put the backup single-use 2FA keys, all you need to do is log out from Google account on any other device, and wait a month or three, and you'll eventually get your account back?
    - gambiting 3y ago
      In theory, yes. That's exactly how it would work - after whatever time you've set a nominated person gets an email allowing them to change your password and all authentication methods so yes, you could potentially get it back this way. Haven't even thought about it tbh and I have it set up.
KRAKRISMOTT 3y ago
Also, keep a copy of everything with a trusted lawyer who can execute your will (if you are on this forum, you can mostly likely afford one). Hardware and software can fail, don’t put all your faith in automated systems.
- stefncb 3y ago
  > if you are on this forum, you can mostly likely afford one ...what?
  - stefncb 3y ago
    Okay I admit my reply wasn't that good. I'll take another shot: I think it's ignorant to assume that everyone on hacker news lives in a developed country and makes a lot of money. The statement was completely unnecessary, and could've been much more useful if it instead said "if you can afford one".
    - KRAKRISMOTT 3y ago
      Fair enough
ipython 3y ago
To lighten the mood a bit, any bets on you outliving Google Inactivity Manager?
- alsetmusic 3y ago
  if OP survives >10y, this is assured. Thanks for lightening the mood.

abdulhaq 3y ago

> Being survived by my spouse is one of my greatest fears Interesting, one of my greatest fears is my wife dying before me

bertylicious 3y ago
Technically the same could still be the greatest fear of parent, but that wouldn't be relevant in the given context.
gurchik 3y ago
I don't know, I'm still in my 20s, maybe my mind will change as I get older. Today if I had to choose between my spouse grieving or the other way around I'd rather it be me.

f_allwein 3y ago

> Google Inactivity Manager Interesting, did not know about this. I think there’s no good solution yet on how to be notified if an acquaintance (not close friend or family member) dies. It used to be death notices in the local newspaper, but that’s out because my acquaintances live in so many different places. Does anyone have experience with Google Inactivity Manager?

gurchik 3y ago
Google Inactivity Manager is supposed to be used to grant access to your account after you die. In my case my account is not important, I only use it for Youtube these days, but you can write a custom message so that's primarily my use case for it. After you set it up, you get an email every few months reminding you that you have it set up. I have it set up to fire a few months after my account has no activity (YouTube logins etc). However your question made me think. My email provider is forwarding emails delivered to my Gmail via IMAP and I'm not sure if this is considered "account activity." If it is, Google Inactivity Manager may take a very long time to kick in since this forwarding is likely to continue long after I die. I can't find any documentation about this online. I've heard a few people talk about Dead Man's Switch[1] for this purpose but I've never used it. Theoretically it might be possible to self host a solution with a cloud provider. Using a free service like Lambda your account should survive you even if your credit card is closed. 1: https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ https://www.deadmansswitch.net/
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  Huh. Is Google Inactivity Manager something one could use to safeguard against the failure modes of their push to 2-factor auth? As in, set it on shortest possible check-up period, so in case you break your phone and forgot where you put the backup single-use 2FA keys, all you need to do is log out from Google account on any other device, and wait a month or three, and you'll eventually get your account back?
  - gambiting 3y ago
    In theory, yes. That's exactly how it would work - after whatever time you've set a nominated person gets an email allowing them to change your password and all authentication methods so yes, you could potentially get it back this way. Haven't even thought about it tbh and I have it set up.

KRAKRISMOTT 3y ago

Also, keep a copy of everything with a trusted lawyer who can execute your will (if you are on this forum, you can mostly likely afford one). Hardware and software can fail, don’t put all your faith in automated systems.

stefncb 3y ago
> if you are on this forum, you can mostly likely afford one ...what?
- stefncb 3y ago
  Okay I admit my reply wasn't that good. I'll take another shot: I think it's ignorant to assume that everyone on hacker news lives in a developed country and makes a lot of money. The statement was completely unnecessary, and could've been much more useful if it instead said "if you can afford one".
  - KRAKRISMOTT 3y ago
    Fair enough

ipython 3y ago

To lighten the mood a bit, any bets on you outliving Google Inactivity Manager?

alsetmusic 3y ago
if OP survives >10y, this is assured. Thanks for lightening the mood.