- January 15, 2020
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The SECURE Act is one of the bigger legislative changes in retirement planning in recent years. One of the biggest changes it brings is how assets in IRAs are distributed when the owner dies. In the past, people used the stretch option of the IRA to allow heirs to stretch out distributions over their lifetimes. The … Continue reading “2020 The SECURE Act – An Opportunity to Review Estate Plans, Including Digital Assets”
- October 31, 2019
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SIM Card Swapping and the threat to estates…it’s quick and can be costly. Recently, Good Morning America ran a segment on a swiftly growing form of ID theft known as SIM card swapping. The thief contacts a phone provider, requesting a replacement SIM card of the victim’s phone. With this new chip, they’re able to … Continue reading “What’s the latest ID Theft Scam? Hint: It Goes After Apps (and it’s fast)”
- September 19, 2019
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I’m pleased to have been invited to speak at the 61st Annual Trust & Wealth Management Conference, presented by the Florida Bankers Association on September 26th. The fact that such an august association of bankers is including digital assets in their annual gathering reflects the growing importance of this new asset class even in traditional … Continue reading “Florida Bankers Association Welcomes Lee Poskanzer to Trust & Wealth Management Conference”
- August 29, 2019
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Here’s another reason why it’s important to control and manage digital assets during life and after death. A supervisor at Vanguard Group was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing $2.1 million from the accounts of dead or inactive customers through the use of passwords that he stole from his own staff. Vanguard is … Continue reading “Passwords are a Thief’s Best Friend: $2.1 Million Stolen from Dead Customers and Dormant Accounts”
- August 21, 2019
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Kudos to The Wall Street Journal’s Abigail Summerville, who really gets the problem of digital afterlife. She nails it, in fact: “Social-media giants, with hundreds of millions of accounts, are increasingly grappling with how to handle digital legacies of users who have died.” A few points we want you to consider: 1 – Social-media giants … Continue reading “Kudos to The Wall Street Journal on Digital Afterlife”
- August 14, 2019
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I’m pleased to share with you an article from Next Avenue, part of the PBS public media system, in which Dr. Carla Sofka and Lee Poskanzer served as expert sources for writer Mark Ray about the “netiquette” of navigating social media during death and grieving. The article also appeared online at Forbes, which shares Next … Continue reading “Directive Communication Systems’ Lee Poskanzer in Next Avenue”
- July 10, 2019
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Sharing passwords won’t work with two-factor authentication or biometrics. What now? The stories of families figuring out how to access their loved one’s digital life are just beginning. Here are just two: A professional man works diligently to create an estate plan, doing everything necessary to protect his wife. Then he commits suicide. After the … Continue reading “Protect Your Digital Life With Directives”
- June 12, 2019
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“After she died, breaking into her phone was the only way to put together the pieces of her digital life.” This story of a family devastated by an unexpected death of a mother and having the added worry of having to figure out how to gain access to two decades of their mother’s digital life, … Continue reading “Hacking Mom’s Phone – Expect to Read More Like This”
- June 12, 2019
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This is a new estate planning issue that becomes very personal, very fast. Not planning for online estate management creates a host of disasters for those who are left behind, says The Guardian in the article “What happens to our online identities when we die?” Here’s just one aspect – a young woman with a … Continue reading “What happens if you don’t plan for your digital afterlife?”
- June 10, 2019
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We applaud NBC News’ addressing the issue of digital afterlife, but the advice was incorrect, and could cause people to lose so much of their loved one’s digital lives, including some that are irreplaceable. 1) If the digital account’s system figures out that someone who is not the account holder is trying to log in, … Continue reading “Digital Afterlife Needs a Digital Directives, Not Shared Passwords”
