Even with a will, they may be overlooked 

CNBC – JAN 18 2022

Key Points
• Fewer than half of Americans have a formal plan for what happens to their assets when they die. 

• While that has stayed consistent in the past few decades, the list of what they potentially own has grown more complicated. 

• From digital assets to financial accounts to sentimental items, here’s what to think about to make sure your loved ones have access to everything they need when you pass away.

If you’re like most Americans, you do not have a formal plan for what will happen to your assets when you die. 

Just 46% of Americans have made provisions for how their money and estate should be handled, a 2021 Gallup Poll found. Those results have been more or less consistent since 1990. 

But even as people’s reluctance to plan for their deaths has stayed the same over the past few decades, the assets they own have likely become more complicated. 

From airline rewards and credit card points to social media accounts and cryptocurrencies, the checklist of assets to plan for has grown longer.

While your written plan – if you have one – should cover big things, like your home and retirement savings, you may have other belongings that have been overlooked. 

Take inventory of assets

Your assets may run the gamut from homes, cars, bank accounts or collectables. 

To make sure those assets are accessible in an emergency, you should be sharing the unlock code for both your phone and your computer with someone in your life, Schneiderman recommended. 

In addition, you should be putting all of your online passwords in a secure password manager and making sure someone has access to that information, too. 

“If not, you can get completely locked out of people’s worlds today,” Schneiderman said.

In addition to granting access to social media accounts, make a plan for how you want those to continue after your death, if at all. 

With Facebook, for example, you can tell the company who you would want to maintain your account after you pass away, said certified financial planner Carolyn McClanahan, director of financial planning at Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Florida.