it's not nice to think about. and even when we think we've got a grasp, we probably don't.

but the truth is, we're all going to die. and in the many things that your loved ones will need to deal with after your death, you don't want lots of paper work to be one of them. trust me.

i was thinking about building something like a spreadsheet that would house important passwords, documents, policies, etc. but because this is obviously a common challenge, i just came across this article today, and i want to share it with everyone.

Death-Defying Websites Pass Crucial Info to the Grieving - U.S. News & World Report

Many of us have readied for our physical death by doing such things as getting life insurance and wills in place. Now a number of websites want to prod us into prepping our virtual selves for the afterlife. They're offering digital safekeeping for documents, online passwords, and other data that could prove crucial or comforting to grieving relatives and friends.

Some techies understand the death-defying power of the Internet. For years, programmers have coded computers to send E-mails if the user didn't enter a password in a timely fashion—say, every week. The notes originally went to supervisors or colleagues with needed passwords and instructions. They later included E-mails to friends and loved ones and were called "death switches," writes David Eagleman, who turned the concept into Deathswitch.com.

Several sites arose from the personal experiences of entrepreneurs who tried to unwind the Web affairs of loved ones after they died. Jeremy Toeman conceived LegacyLocker.com after struggling unsuccessfully to get access to his grandmother's Hotmail account after she died. "I wanted to contact her friends to let them know of her passing," he says. In pondering his own mortality during a plane flight, he realized nobody would know the passwords to Web domains he owns. Read entire article