Before death: Managing your Digital Legacy / Assets / Estate

I'm a little (OK, a lot) behind on updates in several posts in the blog. This is one of them. Sorry about that, readers: I hope to catch up soon. 

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Quire a few companies now offer Internet-based solutions, due to the rising awareness of the importance of managing digital and online assets. The services offered by Legacy Locker, Data Inherit and Entrustet were reviewed in my 3rd ynet article in July 2011. 
In April 2012 Entrustet was purchased by SecureSafe, formerly known as Data Inherit, becoming one of the leading - and bigger - companies. 
Update: PasswordBox acquired Legacy Locker in November 2013. They now offer a digital life management solution for both before and after death. Update: Intel acquired PasswordBox in December 2014.   

I highly recommend choosing the company and service which suit you best and start using their services. By doing so, you will ease what your loved ones will go through after your death. This is also your way of guaranteeing you will control who gets access to what - and what gets deleted before anyone gains access to it. You will also spare them the part of wondering if they should access your digital and online assets or not and if yes, how. 

A very good infographic by the Australian company Life Insurance Finder, detailing what actions are recommend to be taken and in which order, can be found here: step by step expert guide to protect yourself online before you die. 

May 2013 update: Google are the first company to offer an in-house solution - I wrote a separate post about it. 

Legacy Locker

"A safe, secure repository for your vital digital property that lets you grant access to online assets for friends and loved ones in the event of loss, death, or disability."

Entrustet

"Probably without considering it, you have acquired and created numerous, significant digital assets, and traditional wills and trusts don't sufficiently address, manage or protect them. Entrustet provides the tools and resources to create a free, secure list of your digital assets, nominate heirs, specify a Digital Executor and decide which assets to transfer or delete after you pass away".
Entrustet was purchased by SecureSafe in April 2012. 

Data Inherit 

"With DataInherit, you can easily assign beneficiaries to your digital assets in the event that something should happen to you. This will preserve your digital assets for you, your family or your partners". Data Inherit became SecureSafe. 

SecureSafe

Companies who offer similar services are: 

• Last Pass
• Parting Wishes
• The iPhone application Legacy Organiser
• The Israeli start-up, E-Z-Safe - E-Z-Safe cooperates with virtual memorial website Personal Memorials since June 2012
• Life Ensured - Life Ensured was also purchased by SecureSafe, in July 2012
• WordPress plugin "Next of Kin" (Thank you Leah Aharoni for bringing it to my attention);
• Ziggur 
• The Digital Undertakers 

• Estate++
• After Steps
• Planned Departure 
• EverPlans - thank you Or Meidan for sending me this link. 
• Cirrus - Digital Legacy Services 
• DieSmart
• GetYourShitTogether - thank you Uri Gonda for sending me this link. 
• 1Password
• Capsoole
• Life Document Storage
• Final Fling
• GEN-ARC (which acquired Scangaroo)

As this market keeps changing (as seen with the merges and acquisitions above), some websites have been shut down and are no longer available: 

• PassMyWill - seems like they went out of business
• My Internet Data - seems like they went out of business 
• Executor's Resource - seems like they went out of business 
• Vital Lock - seems like they went out of business 
• Asset Lock - seems like they went out of business 
• Slightly Morbid - seems like they went out of business 
• My Web Will - seems like they went out of business 

I do not presume to keep a comprehensive list of all companies offering these services. The Digital Beyond do a great job of doing just that (among other things).