Clean Swedish death, but for your digital life

What do you want people to have? now? Why wait for death to share the things you want to share? For example, you might want to give people access to your photos and videos. You can also share important, actively used documents — health files, children’s immunization records, pet health records — with one or two people you trust.

The best cloud storage services allow you to share files and folders securely. Keeping documents in cloud storage also means backing them up, so copies of your documents are safe in the event of fire, flood, theft, or local data loss.

What would you want someone you trust to access quickly and easily if you were incapacitated or died unexpectedly? One of my fears is that I will be hospitalized and no one will remember that I prepared and signed an advance care directive. If you don’t have a lawyer holding your important documents (and maybe even if you do), make sure at least two people can access digital copies of them quickly and easily.

As with other important documents, you can share these files securely via cloud storage, but put them in a clearly labeled folder, such as _IMPORTANT FILES. Using an underscore ensures that the folder appears at the top of the list when you sort files alphabetically. Because these documents contain sensitive information, be sure to check your security settings when sharing is enabled so that only trusted people can access them.

Examples of paperwork that should be included are a will, power of attorney form, advance health directive, deeds and titles, certificates (birth, marriage, divorce), and identification papers (Social Security cards, naturalization papers).

What do you wish people would only get after you die? You may not want your sibling or spouse to have the keys to your email or Instagram account now, but do you want them to post on your behalf after you die? Do you want them to permanently delete any accounts once you’re gone?