Planning for control of your personal information after you die used to be as simple as telling someone about the desk drawer or the fireproof box or the safe deposit box at the local bank. But in the era of smartphones and cloud computing, that same stuff may be stored in digital formats on servers scattered across the globe. You may keep documents online or use email as a catch-all for paperless receipts, insurance information or financial transactions. And don't forget the photos, videos and musings left behind at social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn et al.
So how do you make sure all that information - protected by who knows how many passwords - is handled the way you would like after you're gone? Two words: Plan ahead.
Providers that store digital content are restricted in how they can disclose it to someone other than the account holder. Much of it is protected by privacy laws. And terms of service agreements for things like free email may prevent companies from disclosing that material to anyone without a court order.
