September 15, 2025 • 35 mins
Digital Wrangling: Securing Your Online Legacy
In this episode, Chris Boyd and Jeff Perry from the AMR team at Wealth Enhancement
sit down with Kate Hufnagle, the “digital wrangler,” to unpack the world of digital assets.
Far beyond cryptocurrency, our guest explains how every email, social media profile,
cloud storage, and even auto-ship subscriptions form part of your digital estate. Kate
walks us through real-world examples, from photos saved on your phone to streaming
services tied to your account and explains why it is critical to think about who can access
your devices when you are no longer able. We also tackle the sticky challenges of
incapacity: durable powers of attorney, the limitations of terms of service agreements,
and the conversations you need to have now to spare your family headaches later. By the
end of this episode, you will have a clear roadmap for making an inventory of your
digital footprint, designating trusted contacts, and weaving your online life into your
broader estate plan.
#FinancialPlanning #DigitalLegacy #DigitalAssets #EstatePlanning #TechTalk
For Kate’s freebie (My Estate & Life Organizer), click the following link:
https://www.thedigitalwrangler.com/
For more information or to reach TEAM AMR, click the following link:
https://www.wealthenhancement.com/s/advisor-teams/amr
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to something more with Chris Boyd.
Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner, practitioner,
and senior vice president, financial advisor at wealth
enhancement group, one of the nation's largest registered
investment advisors.
We call it something more because we'd like
to talk not only about those important dollar
and cents issues, but also the quality of
life issues that make the money matters better.
(00:22):
Here he is your fulfillment facilitator, your partner
in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and
across the country.
Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd.
Welcome and thanks for being with us for
another episode of something more with Chris Boyd.
I'm here with Jeff Perry.
We are both of the AMR team at
wealth enhancement and glad to have you joining
(00:43):
us.
Uh, this is going to be a great
episode.
You, you're going to enjoy this because it's
going to be thought provoking and give you
food for things you, the thoughts that you
need to deal with.
There's stuff you got to deal with.
Yeah.
You're going to have homework after this one.
We think about estate planning all the time.
And we talk about, uh, wills and trusts
and power of attorney.
(01:04):
There's a lot of important things to think
about with your estate plan.
But our next guest is Kate Huffnagle and
she is the digital wrangler.
And so joining us as Kate, Kate, thanks
for being here.
We just had a great webinar for our
clients on a Wednesday.
And, uh, if you are listening to the
(01:25):
podcast, you'll have the opportunity to check that
out and maybe watch that for an in
-depth conversation or a really lesson from Kate.
But you start just Kate, thanks for being
here.
Welcome to the show.
Oh, thank you so much, Chris.
I know you and I met earlier this
year, uh, in Waltham when I spoke at
(01:46):
a financial planning conference.
I really appreciate the invitation to join you
and Jeff today.
I went to a financial planning association of
a new England, uh, program for adult, you
know, for education CE and so forth.
Uh, I think it might've been wicked good
talks, but I'm not sure.
Anyway, when you presented, I was thinking, oh,
(02:08):
this is content.
This is the kind of stuff we need
to share.
Cause it's outside the norm of some people
think about absolutely.
And it's definitely the kind of things that
we need to know.
So, uh, when talking about digital assets, uh,
I think, uh, I think of, we are
(02:28):
a lot of our listeners.
We'll probably be thinking, uh, we're talking about
cryptocurrency, digital assets, which is a form of
digital asset, but this topic extends far beyond
that for the kind of things that everybody
has, even if, whether you have, you know,
digital cryptocurrency or not, this is the kind
(02:51):
of thing that you need to deal with.
So what are some examples of digital assets?
Yeah, I'm glad you're asking that question.
So the IRS defines digital assets pretty much
just as crypto, but in the world of
legacy organizing, digital assets are email accounts, social
media accounts, your cloud accounts, your streaming services
(03:15):
that you're paying for the photos that you're
taking on your, on your phone.
Or as, or as my husband says, I
happen to carry around a camera that happens
to be a phone.
Yes.
That's more true than not.
Right.
Right.
So all of these online accounts, whether you're
getting medications on auto ship, or you're getting
(03:37):
pet food on auto ship or toilet paper
on, on auto ship, right?
All of these accounts that we take for
granted are considered digital assets.
So these, oh, sorry, Jeff, go ahead.
I was going to say, Kate, when you
said that during our client webinar, I just
had this picture of, after I leave this
(03:57):
earth of us getting these auto shipments of
dog food at this house forever and ever
and ever.
Boxes arriving and piling up.
Yeah.
Well, I joke with my husband.
I mean, this is, this is probably TMI,
but I mean, I, I always put it
out there.
I mean, I get estrogen patches delivered 90
(04:17):
days supply at a time.
And so I ask him all the time.
I'm like, babe, what are you going to
do with these estrogen patches?
He's like, oh, black market.
Black market.
What do I do with these?
How do I stop them?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's true.
Like, um, I get, I kind of think
prescriptions, uh, that's very true.
And it's not getting less.
It's going to be five years from now.
(04:39):
It's going to be even more prevalent.
Every, these digital assets and these things that
are just automated.
And how do, how do our heirs shut
them off or even know they're coming?
They want some of these things, right?
You know, let's take, take, take one.
You know, Amazon is a great example where,
(05:00):
you know, uh, we do all, not we,
but lots of people do, right.
We, we, we do, you know, collectively we
do, we do shopping, uh, in a convenient
way, stuff can come automatically there too.
That's a good point, but, um, we might
have all these things that we've already purchased
through, like, I'm thinking like our Audible account
(05:24):
is, is Amazon, our, um, our music could
be Amazon, our, uh, prime, uh, videos I've
purchased, you know, stuff, uh, yeah.
Right.
There's all these examples of things that just
like, Oh, that's just one vendor.
Right.
That's one vendor, right?
If you're, if you're an Apple person or,
(05:46):
you know, think back in the early days
of like, you know, iPod and you were,
you know, buying, you know, music through iTunes
or I have some of those still, right.
It's not really the way I do it
anymore.
I listened to Spotify, but there's another subscription.
Uh, you know, is that something I need
to be planning for, uh, in some of
(06:07):
these kinds of examples?
Now, the things where there's like a, I
think a subscription, like.
Spotify or, um, Netflix or, um, I don't
know, things that just, I don't download, I
don't purchase on those.
I just have a monthly cost.
(06:30):
Right.
So in those cases, it's just a matter
of how do I terminate a subscription when
someone's passed?
Right.
Cause they show up on your credit card.
Otherwise you didn't build, right.
Might be L2, you, or maybe not.
And who has access to your email just
as foundationally.
Right.
(06:51):
Yeah.
You start peeling the layers of the onion
and it's, it's just like, wow.
Wow.
So I, I had a change in cars
and Sirius XM notified me.
Oh, we got notified.
So that one you'd trade in your car.
Maybe you get, uh, they're going to be
on top of it, but not everyone's going
to do that.
(07:11):
Right.
So, okay.
Uh, there's this, I, let's talk about the
photos for a minute.
I'm thinking social media and Facebook.
Um, it could be, uh, you mentioned through
Apple or, you know, maybe Android, you, you
know, you have a cloud account where a
lot of this stuff gets saved and stored.
(07:32):
Um, these are kind of different examples, maybe
social media from the device.
But, uh, can you talk a little bit
about these kinds of circumstances, social media, the
device, what do we need to be thinking
about when it comes to our digital footprint
and the legacy issues?
(07:53):
Yeah.
So, so there, there's a lot to think
about.
Um, so let me start with, um, I
mean, I'm going to start with Apple.
I go into, um, independent living communities twice
a month in, in my local neighborhood and
give a monthly tech talk.
Um, and I make sure once a year
I touch on, um, digital legacy, but most
(08:14):
of those residents have.
Apple phones or iPhones.
So let's just start there.
Yeah.
Um, so you're using your Apple phone.
I'm an, I'm an iPhone user myself.
I'm taking photos.
I'm using this devices and it's a gateway
to my digital life, right?
I got my email on here.
Um, I have my frequent flyer apps, you
(08:38):
know, my United app, my Southwest app, et
cetera, my social media apps.
Um, and so.
Let's think about it.
It's, it's obvious to me, but I don't
think it's obvious to, to many people is,
okay, can your loved one access your device?
It's like a way to everything, but yeah,
(09:01):
if you're in face, isn't there or your
thumbprint isn't there or whatever, how do I
get in this thing?
And maybe your spouse, they might know, but
if it's not your spouse, you're, you know,
if you have your child or whatever the
situation, probably not.
Right.
And, and I'll, and I'll tell you, Jeff,
that my friends who are married, they have
freely told me that their spouses don't have
(09:23):
the password to their phone.
Um, now my spouse and I, that's another
issue.
Yeah, that's, that's, that's another, my wife will
know.
Cause I'm like an open book, but, uh,
she's got, she got the keys to all
my passwords everywhere.
Right.
Which, which is great.
And, and I met my husband in my
(09:43):
late forties.
Um, and at that point in our lives,
we're just like, well, this is who I
am.
You know, I don't care.
Here you go.
Right.
Um, so having access to the device, whether
it's the phone or the computer, um, I'm
thinking about my 80 year old parents.
They, they have a lot of documents on
their computer.
(10:04):
So every time I travel back East and
I'm visiting them, I'm, I'm having that conversation
is going, I'm going into their home office,
trying to log on.
Do I have, they changed the password to
that computer or not?
Um, so let's, let's, that's, that's the first
step is just thinking about all your devices.
Our loved one's going to be able to
(10:24):
access them.
And, um, and then you asked, then we'll
talk about Apple.
So Apple has a feature called a legacy
contact feature.
And if you're one of the very few
individuals that's reading the Apple or specifically the
iCloud terms of service agreement, you know, what
(10:46):
we love when we are alive, and that's
why we use these technologies is because they're
telling us, you can trust us with your
data.
We're not going to share it with anybody.
Um, now sure.
Some of those social media sites might be
tracking our behavior.
What ads do we click on, et cetera,
(11:08):
but what we post, you know, that we're,
we're in charge, I think about Facebook, right?
I can pay, I can post on Facebook
and have all of my Facebook friends see
the post.
I could dig out an old photo from
the nineties when I was in college and
just have it post so that my college
(11:29):
friends only see it because I'm a little
too embarrassed about my perm hair.
Um, or if I don't care about my
privacy on Facebook, I can post so that
everyone on Facebook can see it, whether they're
my Facebook friend or not.
So when I'm alive, I'm in control and
(11:49):
Facebook, that policy still applies if I'm in
a coma or if I've passed away.
And so if I don't be, if I'm
not proactive and I, if I don't tell
Facebook through the Facebook legacy contact, I want
this person to be able to memorialize my
(12:10):
Facebook account, to delete my account, or I
want them to, or I want that person
to be able to download everything that I've
ever posted on Facebook and then delete my
account.
Um, if we don't tell these, these companies
through these tools, then our loved ones really,
(12:34):
um, can struggle.
And not to those that were in September,
um, it was July.
My tech talk theme for these independent living
communities, um, was actually Facebook, right?
Because Facebook's constantly changing.
These older adults get a little confused and
frustrated.
(12:55):
And this one woman, 88 years old, she
uses Facebook every day.
It's very common.
Yeah.
Yep.
She calls me over and she has her
Facebook, um, open on her phone and she
says, Kate, all of these friends of mine
have passed away, but they keep showing up,
how do I get rid of them?
(13:15):
And I'm like, we'll call her Rose.
I'm like, Rose, I'm like, there's nothing that
you can do.
The families need to take action.
She's like, this is just, she's like, this
makes me sad every single day.
Like, I don't, I know that they've passed.
I don't need to be reminded every day
when I log into Facebook.
So, um, so Facebook has a legacy contact.
(13:37):
Jeff, you ever seen that with, uh, someone
you knew died five years ago and everyone's
wishing him a happy birthday.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like, it's like you cringe it when
you see that.
So this, so this, we're kind of talking
about it in the context of when someone
passes.
But how about when there's an incapacity of
a person?
Um, so like, so like Rose in this
(14:01):
example, she's alive, but she's, you know, she's
getting older and she doesn't have the capacity
any, any longer.
And so somebody's got her in our scenario.
Her nephew has a power of attorney, durable
power of attorney.
Is Facebook going to care about that durable
power of attorney?
Are they going to honor it?
If somebody comes knocking at the door and
(14:22):
say, you know, on, on Rose's behalf, I
want to download this account and terminate it.
Yeah.
So that's a really sticky one.
Um, the terms of service agreements that I
have read primarily focus on after someone passes.
Right.
Um, now the good news with Facebook is
(14:45):
there is no financial string, right?
That account is free.
Um, and that's now that I'm thinking about
it out loud, that's probably why they don't
really Facebook in particular doesn't really talk about
incapacitation.
Um, but I am inspiring the residents in,
(15:06):
in these communities to have those conversations with
their loved ones.
Cause they may walk around with their little
password book.
Some of them have shared with me that
they have been, that they're so safe that
they've written their passwords down in code.
And then I ask them, okay, but do
(15:26):
your loved ones know the code?
And they just look at me and they're
like, oh my God, I never thought about
that.
Um, and, and, and so they think they're
being safe by writing them down in code.
But then when I asked that question, okay,
if you're not able to communicate, then what
happens?
(15:46):
And then the light bulb goes off.
Yeah.
I think that's a, uh, you know, I
think that's a bigger hole than we think
is out there, you know, we think of
death, right.
And then we think, okay, well, how are
we going to handle that?
But there's more often than not.
Well, maybe not more often than not cause
everyone passes, but many times there's this period
(16:08):
of incapacitation and, you know, do our loved
ones, do our powers of attorneys know how
to access all the things we're talking about?
Right.
Well, and, and hopefully the financial power of
attorney at least has the knowledge and the
details to access anything that has a, a
bill, a financial implication with it.
(16:30):
Yeah.
You know, it's funny.
I'm just, I'm listening to you guys and
thinking that, uh, we keep running into this
issue where people don't have checks anymore.
They have bank accounts, but nobody uses a
checkbook.
So all they do is use it to
transfer money, you know, pay bills online and
so forth.
And you know, that's whether it's, uh, incapacity
(16:53):
or after one's passing, um, you get some
challenges of, does anyone know how to access
this stuff?
Um, I do think there are challenges when
someone passes, whether, uh, banks consider you to
have rights to that deceased person's online access,
(17:14):
right?
They don't want you to, well, technically if
you're not on that account, that account is,
or even if you are, they want you
to use your own online access, uh, for
that kind of stuff.
But it's, um, it does, you know, it's
a good example though.
If, if you didn't, Kate, you gave a
great example in the webinar that, you know,
that you're kind of a moving story about,
(17:35):
you know, the, the widower in this case
who just didn't know that the bill was
being paid online, didn't have, you know, access
to the email to get the bills or
whatever, and therefore the lights go out.
Yeah.
The water's off, whatever it is.
Yeah.
Uh, so, you know, if you're not seeing
(17:58):
that stuff in the old paper, which we,
you know, we used to, when someone died,
you'd still get a bill in the mail,
the life insurance, wait by the mailbox.
You'll learn everything in a month, but if
you don't get a bill by paper anymore
and you don't have a paper insurance policy
and you don't have, you know, how do
(18:19):
you know these things?
And you may not even have access to
where it's stored on a computer that, you
know, the, the life insurance was an example
I had never thought of.
Um, Kate, you mentioned that.
And incidentally, again, if you want to watch
the video, you can go to our website
and it's a wealthenhancement.com slash AMR, you'll
(18:41):
get to our website and, or something more
with chrisboyd.com and you'll get to our
website.
So in any case, um, you'll want to
check this out, but, uh, that was an
asset that, you know, life insurance used to
be delivered with a folder, you know, uh,
uh, sometimes there was like a whole presentation
of this very nice binder of sorts that
(19:06):
would, how is your life insurance policy?
I get an email, by the way, your,
your life insurance has been issued, you know,
and there's a PDF maybe attached or something.
Yeah.
Chris, I was on a podcast earlier this
year where the podcast host talked about a
five 29 account.
So, um, it was a, uh, the parents
(19:29):
were divorced.
The mom had a five 29 account for
both of her daughters, the younger daughter.
So the, the mom, if I remember correctly,
passed away unexpectedly in July, about six weeks
before the younger one was going off to
college and, um, the daughters are now, you
(19:55):
know, college age.
They've, they've lost their mom.
They're a mess.
And now the school that she's enrolling in
is asking for tuition payment.
Right.
And, and the daughters are like, well, mom
had a five 29, but we have no
idea.
How do we get, we have, we have
no, yeah.
Where, like what firm is it with?
(20:15):
And exactly.
So we know just not the, uh, angst
of helping the loved one, but we know
that hundreds of millions of dollars every year
sheet back to the states across the country,
because these accounts are lost in many cases.
(20:36):
Right.
And as we are accumulating more digital accounts,
particularly in this age of what I call,
you know, digital banking, right.
People, even if it's just for CDs, Oh,
you know what, I'm going to go over
to this bank, I'm going to get a
half a percentage point higher, or maybe I've
got some eye bonds or something.
Yeah.
(20:56):
Yeah.
How to, how to love ones know about
it.
Right.
Yeah.
That's a great point.
And you gotta have this, uh, list of
where to access this stuff, how to get
into it, where is it, uh, you know,
to at least know it exists, right.
To have some awareness and, you know, this
is really a common, uh, circumstance in the
(21:17):
area of finance is that when, particularly in
a couple, um, one person tends to be
the one who deals with that stuff and
the other person deals with other stuff and,
you know, we, we have our household delegation
of, you know, like you do that, I'll
do this and, you know, divide and conquer
kind of thing.
And you might not just, oftentimes people are
(21:40):
not aware of how, where it is, how
it's structured.
Um, as time passes, we spend a lot
of time trying to encourage people to at
least be tuned in to have an awareness,
you know, you can still have one person
be the primary white person, but, and you
can delegate some of these things, but it's
helpful to at least have an awareness.
(22:02):
You got to have that awareness because particularly,
and I think Jeff brought this up earlier
with the financial accounts, there are some pretty
strict rules that those financial institutions put in
place, right?
And so in my opinion, a good financial
planner and a good estate attorney are going
to be looking at how those financial accounts,
(22:25):
um, are, are titled or, you know, who
the account owner is and doing a review
of those beneficiary designations.
Um, because oftentimes when those banks get that
notification that someone's passed, those assets become frozen.
And then that executor has to follow.
It takes a long time.
Yeah, it takes a long time.
(22:46):
Right.
And I didn't touch on this in the,
in the webinar.
Um, but last year of a report came
out that says in that, that said in
the immediate days and weeks of losing a
loved one, families are spending over $12,000.
Now that could be to pay for a
funeral.
It could be because, you know, 40 people
(23:09):
have converged and traveled from around the country
and they're now, you know, keeping you company,
but those people need to be fed.
Um, but $12,000, I mean, that, that,
that's, that's, that's a lot of money when
you are out of pocket, do you have
the availability to cough up $12,000?
(23:32):
Yeah.
All the things that might be needed.
Yeah.
That's a good point.
And then if it takes, you know, uh,
nine months, a year before probate is completed,
um, how do we get at some of
that money to pay some of the bills
and, you know, some of the challenges you
talked about?
An interesting thing when people made some quick
(23:54):
decisions, trying to save some money, turning off
a cell phone, um, or closing out some
accounts that, that, that was a, I think
an interesting tidbit.
You share that again, would you?
Yeah.
So I had, uh, one of my early
clients, um, so my business, the digital wrangler
is, um, almost three and a half years
old.
Now, one of my first clients was a
(24:16):
woman from the Midwest.
And since my business was still kind of
new and I don't live in the Midwest,
I was, I asked the question, Hey, how
did you find me?
Um, and then I asked the second question,
okay, well, why do you want to work
with me?
And she shared that, you know, her, her
mom had been sick for two or three
(24:37):
years.
So, you know, her passing wasn't unexpected.
They had time to, you know, meet with
the attorneys, meet with the financial, um, advisors
and get all of this information organized.
Um, but my client, after her mom passed,
she's just like, I, I, I've got these
other bills.
(24:57):
I need to make sure they get paid
for, I don't want to pay for my
mom's cell phone.
So she turned it off and she realized,
you know, within a half an hour, she's
like, Oh my gosh, I was trying to
log into mom's Amazon account and close it.
But they're sending a text message to her
phone.
And I just turned that off, um, or
(25:20):
any of the other online accounts, right?
Because multi-factor authentication in this day and
age of, of cyber attacks is a blessing
in a hurry to get rid of that
phone though.
Huh?
Don't be in a right.
So her reasoning was sound.
I don't want to pay for this bill.
My mom has passed, but she realized very
(25:43):
quickly that that was a mistake that she
made.
Yeah.
Easy to see how that would be totally
rational, but in hindsight, right.
Um, and then, you know, that email address,
uh, you know, keep that account open, but
do you know how to get into it?
Right.
Or those kinds of things.
Um, I was just thinking, um, today it
(26:06):
seems like Venmo is more popular than, or,
or similar venues, you know, um, I gotta
say I was a slow adopter to that,
but you know, Oh, now I got a
Venmo account, you know, but would anyone know
how to get at my Venmo, uh, the
(26:26):
mouth?
No, that's not going to break the bank
or anything.
It's not my balance.
There is not my bank account balance, but
it's something, you know, you still have a
balance in there.
I'm carrying a balance and, you know, keep,
keep a hundred, a couple hundred bucks, you
know, right on there.
So why you wouldn't want that to be
just foregone, you know?
(26:47):
Um, you talked a little bit about, um,
points as well.
You know, I think that, you know, my,
my wife loves travel and, you know, that
resonated a little bit when you were talking
about, uh, travel points and some of the
kinds of, um, it can be big money.
You know, a lot of people, I know
many of my friends have like a million
(27:09):
miles here and we had a great episode
with, was it Colin Strout, the travel guy
or whatever his nickname is.
So, uh, that go see that on our
past podcasts, past podcasts, if you're interested in
that kind of topic.
But this was an interesting take on, you
know, what happens to all the value of
those frequent flyer miles or, you know, your
(27:33):
Marriott or Hilton points or whatever, or, um,
you know, you're, you're just, or you're free
or you're free coffee from Panera.
Oh, that's a great example.
Yeah.
Like you're, yeah.
Just like if you've been racking up those
points.
So what happens?
They're just gone.
No.
(27:54):
Well, they're gone.
If no one knows how to access them.
Yeah.
Right.
Um, I did not tell this story, but
I had, um, I learned the story of
from a, um, estate attorney in Philadelphia who
I consider to be one of the nation's
leading experts in digital assets.
Um, but she told me a story that
I think it was in the late nineties.
(28:17):
Um, oh my gosh, I can't remember his
name.
This is like some famous, um, writer, composer
of, of, of music.
Um, and they had document, like they had
these digital files of a manuscript that they
were working on of something and their will
said, okay, Kate has my permission to go
(28:40):
publish this right.
As you know, as a, as a after
loss of event, well, the files were password
protected.
And so the court authorized the executor to
go hire hackers to try and get in.
They, the hackers were not successful and they
(29:00):
spent like six, they spent six figures trying
to hack that to, to access the files
because they, they, at that point estimated it
was probably worth $20 million.
So today's in today's dollars, that's probably like
50, probably more.
Um, and so just because the executor has
(29:22):
been authorized in this digital age, the authorization
is no longer, sometimes it's no longer sufficient.
You've got to leave those access instructions behind.
So those reward points, you know, Jeff, like
you were saying, you know, people who have,
(29:43):
you know, a million miles, you know, that
that's real money.
And I look at it as if, if
the family knows how to access those, then
they can transfer those points to other family
members and then they can take a trip
in their loved one's honor.
I mean, what a gift that would be.
(30:06):
Yeah.
Great idea.
Yeah.
Nice.
Well, we're just scratching the surface.
You get the sense that there's a lot
of, um, things that we tend to overlook
and how we should deal with them is
challenging.
And when, if we're not proactive, when it
comes to Facebook or Google or Apple or
(30:27):
whatever, um, we might have problems that, that
those content might be lost that you, that
you intend to be accessible and retained.
And, um, so there's things you need to
do and some actions you need to take.
I'm going to start with, you have a
free download on your website, the digital wrangler
(30:49):
.com, uh, tell everyone what they can get
as a starting point just to help them
get organized in this regard.
Yeah.
So I have a freebie called my estate
and life organizer.
It's just, it's a one pager, but it's
just a simple way to get started.
And it has prompts to indicate like, where
(31:11):
are you saving your passwords?
What bills are set up on auto pay?
Cause the bills are certainly not going to
be in your will.
Um, what auto shipments do you have, um,
set up?
And then it also includes, um, some prompts
with a, you know, just like a little
(31:32):
check, check the box of what legal documents
do you have?
You know, do you have a medical directive
or a healthcare proxy, et cetera?
Because especially if you're having a medical emergency,
your loved ones will need to produce that
document relatively quickly.
(31:52):
Um, and then there's also a section of
like, who are your trusted advisors?
Do you have a financial planner?
Who is your estate attorney?
Um, so it's just, uh, something simple to
get you started and get you thinking about,
wow, what information will my loved ones need
to know when my time comes?
(32:15):
Cause Jeff, you said it earlier, like we're,
we're, we're all going to pass away.
We just don't know when it's going to
happen.
Yeah.
And whether it's with a pad of paper
or a good program, which you did talk
about during the webinar, people might want to
check that out, but, um, you know, you
need to get started with inventorying.
(32:36):
Inventorying your, where you have these passwords, what
they are.
Inventorying, uh, the kind of devices you have
and what, uh, you know, cause those might
have details.
People may want to retain those documents.
Like you were talking about that.
I don't know if everyone's worth $20 million,
but you know, uh, but you still might
(32:56):
have things there.
You want that people may want to retain.
Right.
And, uh, you gotta start somewhere.
Uh, this is a great place.
That's a great resource to have a helpful
tool to kind of identify some of the
things to be thinking about.
So, uh, go check that out.
The digital wrangler.com is the website.
(33:17):
Um, and if you need help in the
process, Kate's, uh, that's her, her role.
She's, she's your helper.
You can hire her directly.
And, um, I don't know, I was trying
to, I'm still trying to find where I
can add my, on my iPhone, somebody to,
uh, be my, my, my be an added
person who's eligible to that contact.
(33:37):
I might be calling you Kate.
Cause I might need the help.
Yeah.
Well, Chris, you can always go to my
YouTube channel, which is the digital wrangler, and
I've got some videos where I screen share,
um, and, and walk you through, cause a
lot of people are learners these days, right?
So if you have an apple channel like
that there, you can walk it.
(33:58):
Pause.
Let me get to that.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So for anyone listening who has an apple
account or a Facebook account or a Google
account, you can go to my, um, YouTube
channel and look for those videos on how
to designate the legacy contact for those.
Great resources.
Um, Kate, you're such a pleasure to make
(34:20):
the time to thank you for being with
us.
Such a great guest.
We love having you and hope we'll have
you back again sometime.
This is great content for people to be
thinking about.
Hope, hope everyone takes note and gets serious
about it.
I hope so too.
Okay.
Thanks everybody.
If you need any help with, uh, any
aspect of your own financial planning or portfolio
management, that's why we're here.
(34:41):
We're a resource to you in thinking about
any aspect of your finances when it comes
to trying to put it all together and
integrate the whole process, don't hesitate to reach
out to us if we can be a
resource to you until next time, everybody keeps
driving for something more.
Thank you for listening to something more with
Chris Boyd.
(35:01):
Call us for help, whether it's for financial
planning or portfolio management, insurance concerns, or those
quality of life issues that make the money
matters matter.
Whatever's on your mind, visit us at something
more with chrisboyd.com or call us toll
free at 866-771-8901.
Or send us your questions to amr-info
(35:25):
at wealthenhancement.com.
You're listening to something more with Chris Boyd,
financial talk show, wealth enhancement, advisory services, and
Jay Christopher Boyd provide investment advice on an
individual basis to clients only proper advice depends
on a complete analysis of all facts and
circumstances.
The information given on this program is general
financial comments and cannot be relied upon as
pertaining to your specific situation.
Wealth enhancement group cannot guarantee that using the
(35:47):
information from this show will generate profits or
ensure freedom from loss.
Listeners should consult their own financial advisors or
conduct their own due diligence before making any
financial decisions.
Welcome to something more with Chris Boyd.
Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner, practitioner,
and senior vice president, financial advisor at wealth
enhancement group, one of the nation's largest registered
investment advisors.
We call it something more because we'd like
to talk not only about those important dollar
and cents issues, but also the quality of
life issues that make the money matters better.
(00:22):
Here he is your fulfillment facilitator, your partner
in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and
across the country.
Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd.
Welcome and thanks for being with us for
another episode of something more with Chris Boyd.
I'm here with Jeff Perry.
We are both of the AMR team at
wealth enhancement and glad to have you joining
(00:43):
us.
Uh, this is going to be a great
episode.
You, you're going to enjoy this because it's
going to be thought provoking and give you
food for things you, the thoughts that you
need to deal with.
There's stuff you got to deal with.
Yeah.
You're going to have homework after this one.
We think about estate planning all the time.
And we talk about, uh, wills and trusts
and power of attorney.
(01:04):
There's a lot of important things to think
about with your estate plan.
But our next guest is Kate Huffnagle and
she is the digital wrangler.
And so joining us as Kate, Kate, thanks
for being here.
We just had a great webinar for our
clients on a Wednesday.
And, uh, if you are listening to the
(01:25):
podcast, you'll have the opportunity to check that
out and maybe watch that for an in
-depth conversation or a really lesson from Kate.
But you start just Kate, thanks for being
here.
Welcome to the show.
Oh, thank you so much, Chris.
I know you and I met earlier this
year, uh, in Waltham when I spoke at
(01:46):
a financial planning conference.
I really appreciate the invitation to join you
and Jeff today.
I went to a financial planning association of
a new England, uh, program for adult, you
know, for education CE and so forth.
Uh, I think it might've been wicked good
talks, but I'm not sure.
Anyway, when you presented, I was thinking, oh,
(02:08):
this is content.
This is the kind of stuff we need
to share.
Cause it's outside the norm of some people
think about absolutely.
And it's definitely the kind of things that
we need to know.
So, uh, when talking about digital assets, uh,
I think, uh, I think of, we are
(02:28):
a lot of our listeners.
We'll probably be thinking, uh, we're talking about
cryptocurrency, digital assets, which is a form of
digital asset, but this topic extends far beyond
that for the kind of things that everybody
has, even if, whether you have, you know,
digital cryptocurrency or not, this is the kind
(02:51):
of thing that you need to deal with.
So what are some examples of digital assets?
Yeah, I'm glad you're asking that question.
So the IRS defines digital assets pretty much
just as crypto, but in the world of
legacy organizing, digital assets are email accounts, social
media accounts, your cloud accounts, your streaming services
(03:15):
that you're paying for the photos that you're
taking on your, on your phone.
Or as, or as my husband says, I
happen to carry around a camera that happens
to be a phone.
Yes.
That's more true than not.
Right.
Right.
So all of these online accounts, whether you're
getting medications on auto ship, or you're getting
(03:37):
pet food on auto ship or toilet paper
on, on auto ship, right?
All of these accounts that we take for
granted are considered digital assets.
So these, oh, sorry, Jeff, go ahead.
I was going to say, Kate, when you
said that during our client webinar, I just
had this picture of, after I leave this
(03:57):
earth of us getting these auto shipments of
dog food at this house forever and ever
and ever.
Boxes arriving and piling up.
Yeah.
Well, I joke with my husband.
I mean, this is, this is probably TMI,
but I mean, I, I always put it
out there.
I mean, I get estrogen patches delivered 90
(04:17):
days supply at a time.
And so I ask him all the time.
I'm like, babe, what are you going to
do with these estrogen patches?
He's like, oh, black market.
Black market.
What do I do with these?
How do I stop them?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's true.
Like, um, I get, I kind of think
prescriptions, uh, that's very true.
And it's not getting less.
It's going to be five years from now.
(04:39):
It's going to be even more prevalent.
Every, these digital assets and these things that
are just automated.
And how do, how do our heirs shut
them off or even know they're coming?
They want some of these things, right?
You know, let's take, take, take one.
You know, Amazon is a great example where,
(05:00):
you know, uh, we do all, not we,
but lots of people do, right.
We, we, we do, you know, collectively we
do, we do shopping, uh, in a convenient
way, stuff can come automatically there too.
That's a good point, but, um, we might
have all these things that we've already purchased
through, like, I'm thinking like our Audible account
(05:24):
is, is Amazon, our, um, our music could
be Amazon, our, uh, prime, uh, videos I've
purchased, you know, stuff, uh, yeah.
Right.
There's all these examples of things that just
like, Oh, that's just one vendor.
Right.
That's one vendor, right?
If you're, if you're an Apple person or,
(05:46):
you know, think back in the early days
of like, you know, iPod and you were,
you know, buying, you know, music through iTunes
or I have some of those still, right.
It's not really the way I do it
anymore.
I listened to Spotify, but there's another subscription.
Uh, you know, is that something I need
to be planning for, uh, in some of
(06:07):
these kinds of examples?
Now, the things where there's like a, I
think a subscription, like.
Spotify or, um, Netflix or, um, I don't
know, things that just, I don't download, I
don't purchase on those.
I just have a monthly cost.
(06:30):
Right.
So in those cases, it's just a matter
of how do I terminate a subscription when
someone's passed?
Right.
Cause they show up on your credit card.
Otherwise you didn't build, right.
Might be L2, you, or maybe not.
And who has access to your email just
as foundationally.
Right.
(06:51):
Yeah.
You start peeling the layers of the onion
and it's, it's just like, wow.
Wow.
So I, I had a change in cars
and Sirius XM notified me.
Oh, we got notified.
So that one you'd trade in your car.
Maybe you get, uh, they're going to be
on top of it, but not everyone's going
to do that.
(07:11):
Right.
So, okay.
Uh, there's this, I, let's talk about the
photos for a minute.
I'm thinking social media and Facebook.
Um, it could be, uh, you mentioned through
Apple or, you know, maybe Android, you, you
know, you have a cloud account where a
lot of this stuff gets saved and stored.
(07:32):
Um, these are kind of different examples, maybe
social media from the device.
But, uh, can you talk a little bit
about these kinds of circumstances, social media, the
device, what do we need to be thinking
about when it comes to our digital footprint
and the legacy issues?
(07:53):
Yeah.
So, so there, there's a lot to think
about.
Um, so let me start with, um, I
mean, I'm going to start with Apple.
I go into, um, independent living communities twice
a month in, in my local neighborhood and
give a monthly tech talk.
Um, and I make sure once a year
I touch on, um, digital legacy, but most
(08:14):
of those residents have.
Apple phones or iPhones.
So let's just start there.
Yeah.
Um, so you're using your Apple phone.
I'm an, I'm an iPhone user myself.
I'm taking photos.
I'm using this devices and it's a gateway
to my digital life, right?
I got my email on here.
Um, I have my frequent flyer apps, you
(08:38):
know, my United app, my Southwest app, et
cetera, my social media apps.
Um, and so.
Let's think about it.
It's, it's obvious to me, but I don't
think it's obvious to, to many people is,
okay, can your loved one access your device?
It's like a way to everything, but yeah,
(09:01):
if you're in face, isn't there or your
thumbprint isn't there or whatever, how do I
get in this thing?
And maybe your spouse, they might know, but
if it's not your spouse, you're, you know,
if you have your child or whatever the
situation, probably not.
Right.
And, and I'll, and I'll tell you, Jeff,
that my friends who are married, they have
freely told me that their spouses don't have
(09:23):
the password to their phone.
Um, now my spouse and I, that's another
issue.
Yeah, that's, that's, that's another, my wife will
know.
Cause I'm like an open book, but, uh,
she's got, she got the keys to all
my passwords everywhere.
Right.
Which, which is great.
And, and I met my husband in my
(09:43):
late forties.
Um, and at that point in our lives,
we're just like, well, this is who I
am.
You know, I don't care.
Here you go.
Right.
Um, so having access to the device, whether
it's the phone or the computer, um, I'm
thinking about my 80 year old parents.
They, they have a lot of documents on
their computer.
(10:04):
So every time I travel back East and
I'm visiting them, I'm, I'm having that conversation
is going, I'm going into their home office,
trying to log on.
Do I have, they changed the password to
that computer or not?
Um, so let's, let's, that's, that's the first
step is just thinking about all your devices.
Our loved one's going to be able to
(10:24):
access them.
And, um, and then you asked, then we'll
talk about Apple.
So Apple has a feature called a legacy
contact feature.
And if you're one of the very few
individuals that's reading the Apple or specifically the
iCloud terms of service agreement, you know, what
(10:46):
we love when we are alive, and that's
why we use these technologies is because they're
telling us, you can trust us with your
data.
We're not going to share it with anybody.
Um, now sure.
Some of those social media sites might be
tracking our behavior.
What ads do we click on, et cetera,
(11:08):
but what we post, you know, that we're,
we're in charge, I think about Facebook, right?
I can pay, I can post on Facebook
and have all of my Facebook friends see
the post.
I could dig out an old photo from
the nineties when I was in college and
just have it post so that my college
(11:29):
friends only see it because I'm a little
too embarrassed about my perm hair.
Um, or if I don't care about my
privacy on Facebook, I can post so that
everyone on Facebook can see it, whether they're
my Facebook friend or not.
So when I'm alive, I'm in control and
(11:49):
Facebook, that policy still applies if I'm in
a coma or if I've passed away.
And so if I don't be, if I'm
not proactive and I, if I don't tell
Facebook through the Facebook legacy contact, I want
this person to be able to memorialize my
(12:10):
Facebook account, to delete my account, or I
want them to, or I want that person
to be able to download everything that I've
ever posted on Facebook and then delete my
account.
Um, if we don't tell these, these companies
through these tools, then our loved ones really,
(12:34):
um, can struggle.
And not to those that were in September,
um, it was July.
My tech talk theme for these independent living
communities, um, was actually Facebook, right?
Because Facebook's constantly changing.
These older adults get a little confused and
frustrated.
(12:55):
And this one woman, 88 years old, she
uses Facebook every day.
It's very common.
Yeah.
Yep.
She calls me over and she has her
Facebook, um, open on her phone and she
says, Kate, all of these friends of mine
have passed away, but they keep showing up,
how do I get rid of them?
(13:15):
And I'm like, we'll call her Rose.
I'm like, Rose, I'm like, there's nothing that
you can do.
The families need to take action.
She's like, this is just, she's like, this
makes me sad every single day.
Like, I don't, I know that they've passed.
I don't need to be reminded every day
when I log into Facebook.
So, um, so Facebook has a legacy contact.
(13:37):
Jeff, you ever seen that with, uh, someone
you knew died five years ago and everyone's
wishing him a happy birthday.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like, it's like you cringe it when
you see that.
So this, so this, we're kind of talking
about it in the context of when someone
passes.
But how about when there's an incapacity of
a person?
Um, so like, so like Rose in this
(14:01):
example, she's alive, but she's, you know, she's
getting older and she doesn't have the capacity
any, any longer.
And so somebody's got her in our scenario.
Her nephew has a power of attorney, durable
power of attorney.
Is Facebook going to care about that durable
power of attorney?
Are they going to honor it?
If somebody comes knocking at the door and
(14:22):
say, you know, on, on Rose's behalf, I
want to download this account and terminate it.
Yeah.
So that's a really sticky one.
Um, the terms of service agreements that I
have read primarily focus on after someone passes.
Right.
Um, now the good news with Facebook is
(14:45):
there is no financial string, right?
That account is free.
Um, and that's now that I'm thinking about
it out loud, that's probably why they don't
really Facebook in particular doesn't really talk about
incapacitation.
Um, but I am inspiring the residents in,
(15:06):
in these communities to have those conversations with
their loved ones.
Cause they may walk around with their little
password book.
Some of them have shared with me that
they have been, that they're so safe that
they've written their passwords down in code.
And then I ask them, okay, but do
(15:26):
your loved ones know the code?
And they just look at me and they're
like, oh my God, I never thought about
that.
Um, and, and, and so they think they're
being safe by writing them down in code.
But then when I asked that question, okay,
if you're not able to communicate, then what
happens?
(15:46):
And then the light bulb goes off.
Yeah.
I think that's a, uh, you know, I
think that's a bigger hole than we think
is out there, you know, we think of
death, right.
And then we think, okay, well, how are
we going to handle that?
But there's more often than not.
Well, maybe not more often than not cause
everyone passes, but many times there's this period
(16:08):
of incapacitation and, you know, do our loved
ones, do our powers of attorneys know how
to access all the things we're talking about?
Right.
Well, and, and hopefully the financial power of
attorney at least has the knowledge and the
details to access anything that has a, a
bill, a financial implication with it.
(16:30):
Yeah.
You know, it's funny.
I'm just, I'm listening to you guys and
thinking that, uh, we keep running into this
issue where people don't have checks anymore.
They have bank accounts, but nobody uses a
checkbook.
So all they do is use it to
transfer money, you know, pay bills online and
so forth.
And you know, that's whether it's, uh, incapacity
(16:53):
or after one's passing, um, you get some
challenges of, does anyone know how to access
this stuff?
Um, I do think there are challenges when
someone passes, whether, uh, banks consider you to
have rights to that deceased person's online access,
(17:14):
right?
They don't want you to, well, technically if
you're not on that account, that account is,
or even if you are, they want you
to use your own online access, uh, for
that kind of stuff.
But it's, um, it does, you know, it's
a good example though.
If, if you didn't, Kate, you gave a
great example in the webinar that, you know,
that you're kind of a moving story about,
(17:35):
you know, the, the widower in this case
who just didn't know that the bill was
being paid online, didn't have, you know, access
to the email to get the bills or
whatever, and therefore the lights go out.
Yeah.
The water's off, whatever it is.
Yeah.
Uh, so, you know, if you're not seeing
(17:58):
that stuff in the old paper, which we,
you know, we used to, when someone died,
you'd still get a bill in the mail,
the life insurance, wait by the mailbox.
You'll learn everything in a month, but if
you don't get a bill by paper anymore
and you don't have a paper insurance policy
and you don't have, you know, how do
(18:19):
you know these things?
And you may not even have access to
where it's stored on a computer that, you
know, the, the life insurance was an example
I had never thought of.
Um, Kate, you mentioned that.
And incidentally, again, if you want to watch
the video, you can go to our website
and it's a wealthenhancement.com slash AMR, you'll
(18:41):
get to our website and, or something more
with chrisboyd.com and you'll get to our
website.
So in any case, um, you'll want to
check this out, but, uh, that was an
asset that, you know, life insurance used to
be delivered with a folder, you know, uh,
uh, sometimes there was like a whole presentation
of this very nice binder of sorts that
(19:06):
would, how is your life insurance policy?
I get an email, by the way, your,
your life insurance has been issued, you know,
and there's a PDF maybe attached or something.
Yeah.
Chris, I was on a podcast earlier this
year where the podcast host talked about a
five 29 account.
So, um, it was a, uh, the parents
(19:29):
were divorced.
The mom had a five 29 account for
both of her daughters, the younger daughter.
So the, the mom, if I remember correctly,
passed away unexpectedly in July, about six weeks
before the younger one was going off to
college and, um, the daughters are now, you
(19:55):
know, college age.
They've, they've lost their mom.
They're a mess.
And now the school that she's enrolling in
is asking for tuition payment.
Right.
And, and the daughters are like, well, mom
had a five 29, but we have no
idea.
How do we get, we have, we have
no, yeah.
Where, like what firm is it with?
(20:15):
And exactly.
So we know just not the, uh, angst
of helping the loved one, but we know
that hundreds of millions of dollars every year
sheet back to the states across the country,
because these accounts are lost in many cases.
(20:36):
Right.
And as we are accumulating more digital accounts,
particularly in this age of what I call,
you know, digital banking, right.
People, even if it's just for CDs, Oh,
you know what, I'm going to go over
to this bank, I'm going to get a
half a percentage point higher, or maybe I've
got some eye bonds or something.
Yeah.
(20:56):
Yeah.
How to, how to love ones know about
it.
Right.
Yeah.
That's a great point.
And you gotta have this, uh, list of
where to access this stuff, how to get
into it, where is it, uh, you know,
to at least know it exists, right.
To have some awareness and, you know, this
is really a common, uh, circumstance in the
(21:17):
area of finance is that when, particularly in
a couple, um, one person tends to be
the one who deals with that stuff and
the other person deals with other stuff and,
you know, we, we have our household delegation
of, you know, like you do that, I'll
do this and, you know, divide and conquer
kind of thing.
And you might not just, oftentimes people are
(21:40):
not aware of how, where it is, how
it's structured.
Um, as time passes, we spend a lot
of time trying to encourage people to at
least be tuned in to have an awareness,
you know, you can still have one person
be the primary white person, but, and you
can delegate some of these things, but it's
helpful to at least have an awareness.
(22:02):
You got to have that awareness because particularly,
and I think Jeff brought this up earlier
with the financial accounts, there are some pretty
strict rules that those financial institutions put in
place, right?
And so in my opinion, a good financial
planner and a good estate attorney are going
to be looking at how those financial accounts,
(22:25):
um, are, are titled or, you know, who
the account owner is and doing a review
of those beneficiary designations.
Um, because oftentimes when those banks get that
notification that someone's passed, those assets become frozen.
And then that executor has to follow.
It takes a long time.
Yeah, it takes a long time.
(22:46):
Right.
And I didn't touch on this in the,
in the webinar.
Um, but last year of a report came
out that says in that, that said in
the immediate days and weeks of losing a
loved one, families are spending over $12,000.
Now that could be to pay for a
funeral.
It could be because, you know, 40 people
(23:09):
have converged and traveled from around the country
and they're now, you know, keeping you company,
but those people need to be fed.
Um, but $12,000, I mean, that, that,
that's, that's, that's a lot of money when
you are out of pocket, do you have
the availability to cough up $12,000?
(23:32):
Yeah.
All the things that might be needed.
Yeah.
That's a good point.
And then if it takes, you know, uh,
nine months, a year before probate is completed,
um, how do we get at some of
that money to pay some of the bills
and, you know, some of the challenges you
talked about?
An interesting thing when people made some quick
(23:54):
decisions, trying to save some money, turning off
a cell phone, um, or closing out some
accounts that, that, that was a, I think
an interesting tidbit.
You share that again, would you?
Yeah.
So I had, uh, one of my early
clients, um, so my business, the digital wrangler
is, um, almost three and a half years
old.
Now, one of my first clients was a
(24:16):
woman from the Midwest.
And since my business was still kind of
new and I don't live in the Midwest,
I was, I asked the question, Hey, how
did you find me?
Um, and then I asked the second question,
okay, well, why do you want to work
with me?
And she shared that, you know, her, her
mom had been sick for two or three
(24:37):
years.
So, you know, her passing wasn't unexpected.
They had time to, you know, meet with
the attorneys, meet with the financial, um, advisors
and get all of this information organized.
Um, but my client, after her mom passed,
she's just like, I, I, I've got these
other bills.
(24:57):
I need to make sure they get paid
for, I don't want to pay for my
mom's cell phone.
So she turned it off and she realized,
you know, within a half an hour, she's
like, Oh my gosh, I was trying to
log into mom's Amazon account and close it.
But they're sending a text message to her
phone.
And I just turned that off, um, or
(25:20):
any of the other online accounts, right?
Because multi-factor authentication in this day and
age of, of cyber attacks is a blessing
in a hurry to get rid of that
phone though.
Huh?
Don't be in a right.
So her reasoning was sound.
I don't want to pay for this bill.
My mom has passed, but she realized very
(25:43):
quickly that that was a mistake that she
made.
Yeah.
Easy to see how that would be totally
rational, but in hindsight, right.
Um, and then, you know, that email address,
uh, you know, keep that account open, but
do you know how to get into it?
Right.
Or those kinds of things.
Um, I was just thinking, um, today it
(26:06):
seems like Venmo is more popular than, or,
or similar venues, you know, um, I gotta
say I was a slow adopter to that,
but you know, Oh, now I got a
Venmo account, you know, but would anyone know
how to get at my Venmo, uh, the
(26:26):
mouth?
No, that's not going to break the bank
or anything.
It's not my balance.
There is not my bank account balance, but
it's something, you know, you still have a
balance in there.
I'm carrying a balance and, you know, keep,
keep a hundred, a couple hundred bucks, you
know, right on there.
So why you wouldn't want that to be
just foregone, you know?
(26:47):
Um, you talked a little bit about, um,
points as well.
You know, I think that, you know, my,
my wife loves travel and, you know, that
resonated a little bit when you were talking
about, uh, travel points and some of the
kinds of, um, it can be big money.
You know, a lot of people, I know
many of my friends have like a million
(27:09):
miles here and we had a great episode
with, was it Colin Strout, the travel guy
or whatever his nickname is.
So, uh, that go see that on our
past podcasts, past podcasts, if you're interested in
that kind of topic.
But this was an interesting take on, you
know, what happens to all the value of
those frequent flyer miles or, you know, your
(27:33):
Marriott or Hilton points or whatever, or, um,
you know, you're, you're just, or you're free
or you're free coffee from Panera.
Oh, that's a great example.
Yeah.
Like you're, yeah.
Just like if you've been racking up those
points.
So what happens?
They're just gone.
No.
(27:54):
Well, they're gone.
If no one knows how to access them.
Yeah.
Right.
Um, I did not tell this story, but
I had, um, I learned the story of
from a, um, estate attorney in Philadelphia who
I consider to be one of the nation's
leading experts in digital assets.
Um, but she told me a story that
I think it was in the late nineties.
(28:17):
Um, oh my gosh, I can't remember his
name.
This is like some famous, um, writer, composer
of, of, of music.
Um, and they had document, like they had
these digital files of a manuscript that they
were working on of something and their will
said, okay, Kate has my permission to go
(28:40):
publish this right.
As you know, as a, as a after
loss of event, well, the files were password
protected.
And so the court authorized the executor to
go hire hackers to try and get in.
They, the hackers were not successful and they
(29:00):
spent like six, they spent six figures trying
to hack that to, to access the files
because they, they, at that point estimated it
was probably worth $20 million.
So today's in today's dollars, that's probably like
50, probably more.
Um, and so just because the executor has
(29:22):
been authorized in this digital age, the authorization
is no longer, sometimes it's no longer sufficient.
You've got to leave those access instructions behind.
So those reward points, you know, Jeff, like
you were saying, you know, people who have,
(29:43):
you know, a million miles, you know, that
that's real money.
And I look at it as if, if
the family knows how to access those, then
they can transfer those points to other family
members and then they can take a trip
in their loved one's honor.
I mean, what a gift that would be.
(30:06):
Yeah.
Great idea.
Yeah.
Nice.
Well, we're just scratching the surface.
You get the sense that there's a lot
of, um, things that we tend to overlook
and how we should deal with them is
challenging.
And when, if we're not proactive, when it
comes to Facebook or Google or Apple or
(30:27):
whatever, um, we might have problems that, that
those content might be lost that you, that
you intend to be accessible and retained.
And, um, so there's things you need to
do and some actions you need to take.
I'm going to start with, you have a
free download on your website, the digital wrangler
(30:49):
.com, uh, tell everyone what they can get
as a starting point just to help them
get organized in this regard.
Yeah.
So I have a freebie called my estate
and life organizer.
It's just, it's a one pager, but it's
just a simple way to get started.
And it has prompts to indicate like, where
(31:11):
are you saving your passwords?
What bills are set up on auto pay?
Cause the bills are certainly not going to
be in your will.
Um, what auto shipments do you have, um,
set up?
And then it also includes, um, some prompts
with a, you know, just like a little
(31:32):
check, check the box of what legal documents
do you have?
You know, do you have a medical directive
or a healthcare proxy, et cetera?
Because especially if you're having a medical emergency,
your loved ones will need to produce that
document relatively quickly.
(31:52):
Um, and then there's also a section of
like, who are your trusted advisors?
Do you have a financial planner?
Who is your estate attorney?
Um, so it's just, uh, something simple to
get you started and get you thinking about,
wow, what information will my loved ones need
to know when my time comes?
(32:15):
Cause Jeff, you said it earlier, like we're,
we're, we're all going to pass away.
We just don't know when it's going to
happen.
Yeah.
And whether it's with a pad of paper
or a good program, which you did talk
about during the webinar, people might want to
check that out, but, um, you know, you
need to get started with inventorying.
(32:36):
Inventorying your, where you have these passwords, what
they are.
Inventorying, uh, the kind of devices you have
and what, uh, you know, cause those might
have details.
People may want to retain those documents.
Like you were talking about that.
I don't know if everyone's worth $20 million,
but you know, uh, but you still might
(32:56):
have things there.
You want that people may want to retain.
Right.
And, uh, you gotta start somewhere.
Uh, this is a great place.
That's a great resource to have a helpful
tool to kind of identify some of the
things to be thinking about.
So, uh, go check that out.
The digital wrangler.com is the website.
(33:17):
Um, and if you need help in the
process, Kate's, uh, that's her, her role.
She's, she's your helper.
You can hire her directly.
And, um, I don't know, I was trying
to, I'm still trying to find where I
can add my, on my iPhone, somebody to,
uh, be my, my, my be an added
person who's eligible to that contact.
(33:37):
I might be calling you Kate.
Cause I might need the help.
Yeah.
Well, Chris, you can always go to my
YouTube channel, which is the digital wrangler, and
I've got some videos where I screen share,
um, and, and walk you through, cause a
lot of people are learners these days, right?
So if you have an apple channel like
that there, you can walk it.
(33:58):
Pause.
Let me get to that.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So for anyone listening who has an apple
account or a Facebook account or a Google
account, you can go to my, um, YouTube
channel and look for those videos on how
to designate the legacy contact for those.
Great resources.
Um, Kate, you're such a pleasure to make
(34:20):
the time to thank you for being with
us.
Such a great guest.
We love having you and hope we'll have
you back again sometime.
This is great content for people to be
thinking about.
Hope, hope everyone takes note and gets serious
about it.
I hope so too.
Okay.
Thanks everybody.
If you need any help with, uh, any
aspect of your own financial planning or portfolio
management, that's why we're here.
(34:41):
We're a resource to you in thinking about
any aspect of your finances when it comes
to trying to put it all together and
integrate the whole process, don't hesitate to reach
out to us if we can be a
resource to you until next time, everybody keeps
driving for something more.
Thank you for listening to something more with
Chris Boyd.
(35:01):
Call us for help, whether it's for financial
planning or portfolio management, insurance concerns, or those
quality of life issues that make the money
matters matter.
Whatever's on your mind, visit us at something
more with chrisboyd.com or call us toll
free at 866-771-8901.
Or send us your questions to amr-info
(35:25):
at wealthenhancement.com.
You're listening to something more with Chris Boyd,
financial talk show, wealth enhancement, advisory services, and
Jay Christopher Boyd provide investment advice on an
individual basis to clients only proper advice depends
on a complete analysis of all facts and
circumstances.
The information given on this program is general
financial comments and cannot be relied upon as
pertaining to your specific situation.
Wealth enhancement group cannot guarantee that using the
(35:47):
information from this show will generate profits or
ensure freedom from loss.
Listeners should consult their own financial advisors or
conduct their own due diligence before making any
financial decisions.
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