Passwords not in an open note

A list of passwords for surviving relatives is understandable and risky at the same time. Understandable, because the bank, mail and insurance sit behind a lock. Risky, because a note every heir can read is no longer a lock. Do not put passwords in an open field of the life file, and do not put them in a note that goes along with the portal. The portal shares layers with people you invite. A password in that layer is at once a password of the circle that may read along. You do not want that, not even if the circle is small and seems agreed. The list belongs outside the shared file.

What does belong in the file: that a list exists, and who may open it. A short sentence is enough. The list is with the trusted person, in a safe, or in a password manager outside Ervazo. Ervazo is not a password manager. The program keeps files, tasks and documents you upload. It is not made to vault secrets against the people who may see the file. So write the place and the person, not the keys. A surviving relative who knows the place can call the person. That person opens the list according to the arrangement made during life, or does not open it.

After death the temptation changes. Someone wants to read the mail in order to stop accounts and asks whether the password is in the file. The answer ought to be no. The executor has tasks in the estate, not free access to every private account because a telephone lies on the table. What access a platform gives is set out in that platform's procedure. Until that procedure has been followed, the account stays closed. The file states only who may open the list. If the list is in a note anyway, take it off before an heir is allowed into the portal.

During life the same distinction applies. The trusted person sees what you switch on. Switch on where the list can be found if that person may need it, and leave the rest off. Do not share a screenshot of passwords in the correspondence. Draft letters stay in the file and can later become visible when the layer with letters is switched on. A password in a draft has then already landed in the wrong place. Read the text before you invite someone. A yearly pass through the life file is a good moment to see whether the sentence about the list is still right.

Note that a password list exists and who may open it. Do not put the keys themselves in a note heirs can read, and do not put them in a field that goes along with a portal. Ervazo is not a password manager and does not become one through a creative detour in a note. This piece describes that boundary in the file. It does not say which account may be opened after a death. This is not legal advice and not tax advice. Who may have access to mail or the bank follows from the arrangement during life and from the rules of the institution, not from a shared note.