[Hidden-tech] Locked Laptop

[Chris Hoogendyk]

As an aside to Claudia's question, it's worth taking the time to think 
about documenting one's assets, accounts, and digital life for one's 
family in case of death. I have been dealing with my own wife's passing 
this last month and have come to appreciate the complexity of everything 
involved. It's somewhat easier for me, because I already managed the 
family finances and digital accounts, but still . . . it's a lot.

Last year I came across the following article on my Apple News stream 
and passed it along to my sons and daughters with a note that I was 
doing this – "why-you-need-a-digital-estate-plan-and-how-to-create-one" 
on FastCompany – 
https://www.fastcompany.com/91228523/why-you-need-a-digital-estate-plan-and-how-to-create-one. 
I already had a physical notebook in a file next to my desk in my home 
office, and my nearest son and daughter are aware of it. That provides 
the passwords to get into everything else. I use a MacBook with Dashlane 
managing my passwords, pass keys, etc.

In the process of doing all this, I noticed that Fidelity (where my 
wife's and my retirement accounts and investments are) as well as the 
Social Security Administration, on .gov, have checklists of things to do 
and places to notify in case of a loved one's death. They overlap, but 
each covers some things the other doesn't. One thing I hadn't thought of 
was to notify the credit bureaus so that any future attempts at identity 
theft are blocked. I was able to upload a death certificate to Experian, 
and they notify the other two.

It also greatly simplifies things if you have specified beneficiaries on 
your online investment and retirement accounts. That bypasses probate 
and can be handled relatively quickly with very little hassle.

For those of you who know me and/or knew my wife, her obituary appeared 
in this weekend's Daily Hampshire Gazette, and the online version 
appeared yesterday on legacy.com – Margaret Halbeisen – 
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/gazettenet/name/margaret-halbeisen-obituary?id=58628336.


Chris Hoogendyk (He/Him/His)
胡可思

Treasurer and Executive Director
David Crockett Graham Historical Fund, Inc.
https://www.davidcrockettgraham.org

Amherst, MA
<chris.hoogendyk at gmail.com>
<choogendyk at earthlink.net>

Erdös 4

On 6/28/25 1:29 PM, Claudia Gere via Hidden-discuss wrote:
>
> A close friend of mine died and left her laptop locked. As coexecutor, 
> I’m helping her brother sort out everything. The only thing we need is 
> access to QuickBooks. She has the application and files her laptop. We 
> have the password to her online account but it doesn’t look like she 
> had online back up. We also have her original disc copy of QuickBooks. 
> Know anyone who could extract the info from her laptop drive or unlock 
> it? Glad to pay for the services. Thank you! Claudia
>
> *Claudia Gere, Creator
> Aspiring Authors ProgramTM 
> <https://www.claudiagereco.com/speaking/aspiringauthorsprogram/>*
>
> *+1.413.359.0003
> ClaudiaGere.com*
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page:http://www.hidden-tech.net
> Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
>
> You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list.
> If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members
> page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
> http://www.hidden-tech.net/members
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20250628/82bbfe93/attachment.html>