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January 15, 2015

Estate Assist – Securely Store Private Information

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What would happen to the information in your digital, financial, and personal accounts in the event of an emergency? Would your family members know where to find your life insurance policy paperwork, or how to access your bank accounts? Estate Assist is a web-based tool that gives people peace of mind knowing that their assets and account information will be shared with family members if the worst should ever occur.

The last thing you want to do when a loved one passes away is hunt for important legal documents. With Estate Assist, you can ensure that your family doesn’t have to go through that process. Manually type all of your digital, financial, and personal account information—including passwords—into Estate Assist. You can also upload copies of important documents like life insurance policies, birth certificates, and wills. Then, you’ll want to designate which trusted family members should have access to this information in the event of an emergency. You can decide whether the recipient should be able to access your account at any time, or only after your death. (Estate Assist works with state and local agencies to verify death certificates, to ensure your information is never breached prematurely.) During the time between when you upload your information and when it’s accessed by your heirs, Estate Assist will keep it totally secure. In the event that its servers are breached, Estate Assist even says it will spend up to $1 million helping each user recover from the damage.

Estate Assist essentially acts as a digital safety box, and it’s also a useful tool for keeping track of the usernames and logins that go along with basic accounts you use each day—things like social media, email, cable, phone, and internet accounts. With Estate Assist, you can login on the fly and access the necessary information.

Practical Uses:

  • Securely store important account information in the cloud
  • Designate a family member to access your accounts in an emergency
  • Make digital copies of life insurance policies and wills
  • Save all username/password information for social media accounts in one place

Insider Tips:

  • Estate Assist accounts are accessible from any desktop or mobile device
  • The “Find My Accounts” feature automatically discovers all the accounts you have
  • Use the “Lost Wallet Service” to terminate and reorder credit cards if your wallet is lost or stolen
  • Estate Assist will assist in notifying account providers if your identity is compromised

What we liked:

  • Estate Assist will spend up to $1 million to help users recover data if it’s stolen
  • Estate Assist is also an identity theft protection tool
  • Death certificates are required as proof before a family member can access an account
  • Users can add an unlimited number of username/passwords to their accounts

What we didn’t like:

  • Estate Assist charges on a per month basis, which could get expensive over time

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: October 2014
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: San Francisco, California
  • Founded by: Woodrow Levin
  • Web site: https://www.estateassist.com

Costs:

  • $4.95 per month

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