What You Can Do Now to Help Avoid Identity Theft When You’re Gone

One of the reasons you’ve likely decided to create an estate plan is to make things easier for your loved ones after you’re gone. An important part of estate planning is preventing your identity from being stolen when you pass away.

As awful as that sounds, it’s sadly all too common. “Ghosters,” as they’re often referred to, take advantage of the fact that loved ones in mourning often don’t think to take all the necessary steps to freeze accounts, notify the necessary parties of the death or protect personal information – either online or in hard copy.

With one piece of information, like a password, Social Security number or stolen driver’s license, experienced ghosters can quickly empty bank accounts, max out credit cards and more before anyone realizes what’s happened. That can leave beneficiaries with less money than their loved one intended. Let’s look at just a couple of things you can do to help prevent that from happening.

Leave your executor all the information they’ll need to access

Keep a current list of your accounts, credit cards, loans and lines of credit, insurance policies and more. Keep a separate (and secured) list of login credentials and passwords to allow your executor or someone with financial power of attorney access to your accounts.

If there’s no other owner on the account and no payable-on-death or transfer-on-death beneficiary, the company that holds it should be notified of the death so they can put a notice on the account and possibly freeze it.

You should also keep a list of your account numbers and log-in credentials for Social Security, Medicaid, VA and any other benefits so your executor can notify these agencies of your death. This will help prevent anyone from taking your benefits.

Keep your personal documents secured and accessible to the right person(s)

Your executor should be able to easily find and access your driver’s license, passport and other IDs, your checkbook and credit cards so they can ensure that no one can access them. They also need to be able to find your estate plan, if you have a paper copy of it (or have access to an online copy). Don’t put documents they’ll need in a safe deposit box unless someone else is a co-owner of the box and has a key. 

These are just two things you can do to help prevent identity theft and other fraud. With experienced estate planning guidance, you can determine other steps to take to help protect your assets after you’re gone.