Man down?

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Agreed - all the more reason to get to one (or more) of the annual forum events and actually meet the people we spend time interacting with. (plug, plug ;))

On a more serious point, this relates to the issue of digital legacy and whether/how people are planning to provide access to their digital footprint - laptops, mobiles, forum/cloud accounts, etc. - once they're dead. I know I haven't made any plans and I suspect I'm not alone.

Just more musings and food for thought from me. :)
This is on my To Do list although as I'm only 60 hopefully it will be some time before someone has to deal with my online crap. My father dropped dead of a heart attack very suddenly in 2016, it was quite the shock and my Mum was very ill at the time. Most of his business was done on a PC in his study, luckily for me all his passwords were written on post it notes stuck to the monitor! :oops:
Don't underestimate the hassle of trying to cancel the PayPal account of a deceased person.
"I'm sorry Sir, you need to be account holder to cancel and delete the account"
"I explained that he has died?"
"Yes Sir but you need to be the account holder"
As far as I know he still has a PayPal account
:mad:
 
This is on my To Do list although as I'm only 60 hopefully it will be some time before someone has to deal with my online crap. My father dropped dead of a heart attack very suddenly in 2016, it was quite the shock and my Mum was very ill at the time. Most of his business was done on a PC in his study, luckily for me all his passwords were written on post it notes stuck to the monitor! :oops:
Don't underestimate the hassle of trying to cancel the PayPal account of a deceased person.
"I'm sorry Sir, you need to be account holder to cancel and delete the account"
"I explained that he has died?"
"Yes Sir but you need to be the account holder"
As far as I know he still has a PayPal account
:mad:
Most definitely an issue - when my FIL died, my missus had the same sort of issues with bricks & mortar organisations such as banks & building societies, despite being next of kin and a named executor on the will and having an activate financial LPA. I would imagine that online service providers are even harder to deal with.
 
I thought about this on 2 levels

1) how do we promote more informal / impromptu meet ups? There seem to be more and more cars and coffee venues sprouting up. I go to Gilks Garage Cafe, Gasoline Juice at Weedon Bec and Pistons and Rings amongst others.

2) GDPR - the likes of Faceache et al seem to lock out families in times of bereavement preventing access to memories. We need to all think about this and sharing relevant access privilages.
When I first joined this forum, we had monthly meets (on the Costco car park) near the Trafford Centre. These were quite well attended. Organised mostly by Tourashine and T6180.
As the membership has changed people now seem less interested.
I tried to organise a few things (a couple of meets) and a camping weekend, but the interest was not great so I’ve not bothered since.
 
When I first joined this forum, we had monthly meets (on the Costco car park) near the Trafford Centre. These were quite well attended. Organised mostly by Tourashine and T6180.
As the membership has changed people now seem less interested.
I tried to organise a few things (a couple of meets) and a camping weekend, but the interest was not great so I’ve not bothered since.

I get that.

My take is that I enjoy a drive out with my car mad son in the Transporter / Caterham 7 / 911 / Citroen C2, so if one person joins us its a bonus. We usually head for petrol head venues so we always have an enjoyable mooch around the vehicles and a bacon butty.
 
Most definitely an issue - when my FIL died, my missus had the same sort of issues with bricks & mortar organisations such as banks & building societies, despite being next of kin and a named executor on the will and having an activate financial LPA. I would imagine that online service providers are even harder to deal with.
Going through this process at the moment with my Mum going into a carehome with advanced dementia following a stroke (She is 92 so has had a good innings).

She had Financial LPOA in place and its been very simple to take control of bank accounts using the digital access system on gov.uk which gives each service providor a unique code to access the LPOA. The OPG in Nottingham were excellent as well setting that up (Pre 2016 LPOA so not digital) and even answer the phone really quickly.

She did not have Welfare LPOA in place so has had to stay in hospital for 5 months, effectively bed blocking, whilst I have applied for legal guardianship through the Scottish courts. She would be much more settled in a carehome so its been a nightmare. We are kicking ourselves we didn't check this was in place and all of my family are now getting theirs put in place ASAP. Mine is done so if needed I can be shoved in a care home quickly which is the best thing for me and least hassle for my family.

I would recommend to anyone reading this to just get LPOA's done. Saves so much hassle. Surprised the Gov't & NHS dont attempt to educate the general population about this more.
 
Going through this process at the moment with my Mum going into a carehome with advanced dementia following a stroke (She is 92 so has had a good innings).

She had Financial LPOA in place and its been very simple to take control of bank accounts using the digital access system on gov.uk which gives each service providor a unique code to access the LPOA. The OPG in Nottingham were excellent as well setting that up (Pre 2016 LPOA so not digital) and even answer the phone really quickly.

She did not have Welfare LPOA in place so has had to stay in hospital for 5 months, effectively bed blocking, whilst I have applied for legal guardianship through the Scottish courts. She would be much more settled in a carehome so its been a nightmare. We are kicking ourselves we didn't check this was in place and all of my family are now getting theirs put in place ASAP. Mine is done so if needed I can be shoved in a care home quickly which is the best thing for me and least hassle for my family.

I would recommend to anyone reading this to just get LPOA's done. Saves so much hassle. Surprised the Gov't & NHS dont attempt to educate the general population about this more.
It seems things have moved on since our experience - don't think the digital access system was in place back then. Sound advice, though, to get all LPAs in place. We have a son with SEN, so he, me, & the missus all have financial & welfare LPAs in place, though not all are active.
 
The assumption has always been that next of kin have medical decision making authority!

SWMBOs parents have just completed their financial and health care POT application which can take up to 6 months to be ratified. Our son turns 18 this year after which we will review / amend all of our legal instructions (and start frittering their inheritance)
 
I went over on the ice on Friday, thankfully didn't land on my knackered hip but my back was painful over the weekend. Im not sure if being a big lad protected me from worse damage, or contributed to my downfall in the first place.

Im on a musicians forum and over the years people have passed away, including one older chap in his 70s who passed away in bed with a lady 50 years his junior who wasn't his wife! That one made the papers, so while he disappeared suddenly from the forum we eventually discovered what had happened.

Its sad, because you get to know them, learn their likes and dislikes, and they do become friends of a sort. Fingers crossed KoB is OK.
All ready for you mate ;)

:slow rofl:

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It kind of goes against all the rules but if something goes wrong, my Mrs has got access to both my MacBook and MacMini which both have a spreadsheet with all my usernames / passwords etc. (and backups on two separate USB sticks). I say 'kind of goes against all the rules' as the file is pretty heavily protected and and whilst it could be cracked, it's probably beyond the abilities of the average little scrote and I can live with the level of risk (during my working life, I was a security specialist!).
Part of me would like to take part in forum meets but I don't particularly play well with large groups of people. I was OK with that sort of thing until about 35 years ago when I suffered a fairly major head trauma. Medics have explained it to me but I won't bore you lot with the details.
 
It kind of goes against all the rules but if something goes wrong, my Mrs has got access to both my MacBook and MacMini which both have a spreadsheet with all my usernames / passwords etc. (and backups on two separate USB sticks). I say 'kind of goes against all the rules' as the file is pretty heavily protected and and whilst it could be cracked, it's probably beyond the abilities of the average little scrote and I can live with the level of risk (during my working life, I was a security specialist!).
Part of me would like to take part in forum meets but I don't particularly play well with large groups of people. I was OK with that sort of thing until about 35 years ago when I suffered a fairly major head trauma. Medics have explained it to me but I won't bore you lot with the details.
Some of the forum meets are not huge amounts of people. Also at a camp site you could park on the periphery and stay away from the big group. There are a few peeps who do this. Just a thought.
 
It kind of goes against all the rules but if something goes wrong, my Mrs has got access to both my MacBook and MacMini which both have a spreadsheet with all my usernames / passwords etc. (and backups on two separate USB sticks). I say 'kind of goes against all the rules' as the file is pretty heavily protected and and whilst it could be cracked, it's probably beyond the abilities of the average little scrote and I can live with the level of risk (during my working life, I was a security specialist!).
Part of me would like to take part in forum meets but I don't particularly play well with large groups of people. I was OK with that sort of thing until about 35 years ago when I suffered a fairly major head trauma. Medics have explained it to me but I won't bore you lot with the details.

An Uncle of mine died last March. He left no passwords or any way to access his various different computers and his very significant estate is mainly made up of stocks and shares around the world, all done via the internet. His wife knew nothing, she didn't even know who he had stocks and shares until she started reading letters sent to him after his death and she's never used a mobile phone, let alone one of those new fangled computers.
To say it's been a nightmare is an understatement, it's all in the hands of solicitors and I guess they've seen it all before.
My wife knows what's what and how to access everything she needs to if I fall off the perch and vice versa.
 
I thought about this on 2 levels

1) how do we promote more informal / impromptu meet ups? There seem to be more and more cars and coffee venues sprouting up. I go to Gilks Garage Cafe, Gasoline Juice at Weedon Bec and Pistons and Rings amongst others.

2) GDPR - the likes of Faceache et al seem to lock out families in times of bereavement preventing access to memories. We need to all think about this and sharing relevant access privilages.
My missus knows all my relevant passwords and PIN numbers, as I know hers. All banking and investments are in joint names where possible. We have lasting power of attorney over each other and our daughter has LPA over both of us. If you can’t trust family, who can you trust?
 
I wouldn't trust my family ! We are estranged.
I need to compile a password book for my Mrs, but it's one of those jobs I always put on the back burner.
My main concern is my mobile phone......
 
It kind of goes against all the rules but if something goes wrong, my Mrs has got access to both my MacBook and MacMini which both have a spreadsheet with all my usernames / passwords etc. (and backups on two separate USB sticks). I say 'kind of goes against all the rules' as the file is pretty heavily protected and and whilst it could be cracked, it's probably beyond the abilities of the average little scrote and I can live with the level of risk (during my working life, I was a security specialist!).
Part of me would like to take part in forum meets but I don't particularly play well with large groups of people. I was OK with that sort of thing until about 35 years ago when I suffered a fairly major head trauma. Medics have explained it to me but I won't bore you lot with the details.

It kind of goes against all the rules but if something goes wrong, my Mrs has got access to both my MacBook and MacMini which both have a spreadsheet with all my usernames / passwords etc. (and backups on two separate USB sticks). I say 'kind of goes against all the rules' as the file is pretty heavily protected and and whilst it could be cracked, it's probably beyond the abilities of the average little scrote and I can live with the level of risk (during my working life, I was a security specialist!).
Part of me would like to take part in forum meets but I don't particularly play well with large groups of people. I was OK with that sort of thing until about 35 years ago when I suffered a fairly major head trauma. Medics have explained it to me but I won't bore you lot with the details.
Like your security posture on usb backups - assume you have them located somewhere different for you Apple products just in case of a disaster (although guess you are storing in the cloud).

Lots of people make backups of things then keep them in the same place as the prize e.g copies of family photos copied to a usb stick. If in the same place such as your house then you may lose both in say a fire.

The other thing you could do is add say ‘VW’ to the end of all your passwords, then store them all without the ‘VW’ so if they were ever compromised on your spreadsheet they would still not work.
 
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