"If anything happens to me..."

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Joichi Ito
Joichi Ito
Community Member

Is there a way to somehow trigger access to all of my passwords "if something happens to me..." to my wife or lawyer?

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  • Stephen_C
    Stephen_C
    Community Member
    edited December 2014
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    Have a look at the 1Password Emergency Kit. There is nothing within 1Password that will do what you want.

    Edit: that link seems not to be working at the moment but here is an AgileBits blog post about the 1Password Emergency Kit.

    Stephen

  • Plato
    Plato
    Community Member
    edited December 2014
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    @Joichi Ito

    I had the same worry. From inside 1P, go to File/Print and put the printout in your safety deposit box. The printout will contain all URLs, usernames and passwords and more.

  • Plato
    Plato
    Community Member
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    @Stephen_C‌

    That emergency kit is nothing more than a template that allows the manual recording of everything that's generated with a 1P printout. That's a lot of work and a significant opportunity for error.

    I have V5. Is the printout perhaps not available with previous versions?

  • Stephen_C
    Stephen_C
    Community Member
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    That emergency kit is nothing more than a template that allows the manual recording of everything that's generated with a 1P printout.

    That is not so: have you looked at the Emergency Kit? A simple 1P print out will not record, for example, your master password (at least so far as I'm aware), who vaults may be shared with, location of backups and other critical data, etc. It may not record your device logins and any PIN codes—simply because those are likely to be entered before you can load 1Password.

    The Emergency Kit is much more than simply a print out of your 1Password data. The disadvantage of a simple print out is that it will be out of date as soon as you change your 1P data. The key information recorded in the 1Password Emergency Kit is likely to go out of date much less often for the very reason it's not a list of all your 1P data.

    Stephen

  • Plato
    Plato
    Community Member
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    "The key information recorded in the 1Password Emergency Kit is likely to go out of date much less often for the very reason it's not a list of all your 1P data."

    Then it's much less useful than the printout.

  • danco
    danco
    Volunteer Moderator
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    @Plato, not at all. The info in the emergency kit will let others get into your computer and your up-to-date 1PW data, and they can continue from there.

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni
    edited December 2014
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    I have to agree with Stephen_C and danco here @Plato‌

    A printout is a visual snapshot of your vault from a specific point in time. Sometimes that can be useful but if you're adding new entries or updating older ones on a regular basis a snapshot will go out of date and anything newer than than the printout is lost.

    The goal behind the 1Password Emergency Kit (now up to version 3 which I've linked to) is to facilitate access to the entire vault. Given how often people will change Master Passwords this document can remain valid even if the devices and machines you use are replaced, as long as it's updated when something as important as your Master Password is revised.

    A printout will allow you to mostly recover from a catastrophic storage failure, this is aimed more at allowing the designated person to access all of your accounts. Also, as a 2 page document (if printed in duplex), it's much more amenable to being stored with a will. One of my vaults came in at 65 pages (33 if duplex) which is a lot larger in size.

    In the case of @Joichi Ito‌ I think a printout of this filled in PDF, sealed and left with their will would achieve what they want, updated if and when they change their Master Password.

  • Plato
    Plato
    Community Member
    edited December 2014
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    @danco and @littlebobbytables‌

    The emergency kit assumes that the "newbie" will be able to correctly follow the instructions at a time of high stress AND that the reader is familiar with 1Password. I could not find anywhere in the kit where the reader is told to use CMD-backslash. Even if that instruction is added, I can pretty much guarantee you that my wife will repeatedly use the forward-slash key until she finally throws up her hands in desperation. Then, she will pass the emergency kit on to my sons who are 20 and 80 miles away and they will read the emergency kit while at their own computers. In that scenario, there's no way in hell that they'll get to my financial sites. I'm sure that they'll then call each organization and unsuccessfully try to convince the agent to give them access. In the meantime, my wife needs cash. It will get real ugly quick.

    If the next-of-kin can access all financial records using my computer, why do they care about accessing them again using my iPod and iPhone? That's extraneous information on the emergency kit. Besides, my solution allows such access anyway.

    My printout allows my wife to (tediously) access every web site and, if necessary, my sons can easily help her from any computer. I change the financial passwords on a schedule and, with each change, yes I do take a trip to the Safety Deposit Box. It's no big deal - I go to the bank to use the ATM regularly so why not go inside once in a while?

    In the same envelope with the printout is a sheet with basic 1P instructions and the Master Password just in case my wife or my sons wish to use my computer but, again, they can ignore 1P and still access all sites.

    littlebobby... Yeah, sixty-five pages is indeed long but does that include sites that your next of kin have no need for, such as the login for this forum? Do you really have sixty-five pages of financial sites? Why not copy only the important sites to another vault? In our case, our savings are spread among three organizations and we have only one checking account. We have only two general purpose credit cards and maybe five store-specific credit cards. Besides, the credit cards are of no real concern as I made sure not to turn off paper statements for any of them and the web is not necessary for any dealings with them.

    Finally, go back to the original post on this thread and read it again carefully. Are you absolutely certain that the lawyer will come to my home to use my computer? If so, how much will this lawyer charge to investigate 1Password operation?

  • Megan
    Megan
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @Plato,

    As always, thanks so much for your feedback!

    I think it really comes down to personal preference here. I think the strength of the 1Password Emergency Kit is that it gives people a place to start: it provides an opportunity for users to consider what sort of information they need to pass along to their loved ones, and what will be the easiest way for it to be handled. The Kit might include more details than you think are necessary, or perhaps be missing a few details that you would like to include, but the important thing is that it starts the conversation.

    We'd like to think that 1Password is user-friendly and could be a great resource for family and friends to manage your digital life, but if you think it's more than your next of kin will want to deal with, then a printout of your 1Password data is certainly an option.

    Finally, go back to the original post on this thread and read it again carefully. Are you absolutely certain that the lawyer will come to my home to use my computer? If so, how much will this lawyer charge to investigate 1Password operation?

    I can't say much about all lawyers, but I do know of a few who actually include 1Password licenses as a part of their service and instruct their clients to store all digital data in a password manager to simplify the estate process. :)

  • Plato
    Plato
    Community Member
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    @Megan‌

    Perhaps I missed it but I'm unable to locate anywhere on the emergency kit where it tells the user to use CMD-backslash. Also, you might wish to tell the reader that, if CMD-backslash doesn't do anything, quit and restart Safari.

  • Megan
    Megan
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @Plato,

    The Emergency Kit is curated by users and is not designed by the AgileBits team. It certainly wouldn't be a good introduction to 1Password - that's what our User Guides are for. :)

    If I was including this Emergency Kit with my will, I would include a link to the 1Password User Guides and Knowledgebase so that anyone who was not familiar with the program would have easy access to the walkthroughs that they might need.

  • Plato
    Plato
    Community Member
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    @Megan‌

    Again, it's a lot easier for the next of kin to simply enter passwords the same way that they've been doing for years.

    Now, are you going to respond to my thread "5.02 Issue?"

  • Megan
    Megan
    1Password Alumni
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    Hi @Plato,

    I've responded to your post. I apologize for the delay - we've been working through a bit of weekend backlog, and when you re-posted there, it bumped it further up the list. ;)

  • danco
    danco
    Volunteer Moderator
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    Of course, legally, for the most important sites (banks, etc), next of kin (more strictly, executors under the will) are not entitled to access the sites.

    That's often the agreement for even a fairly general site.

    At least in the UK, bank accounts are frozen at death and can't be used until probate is obtained.

    And if one is alive and unable to function, again a third party cannot use the account unless there is a power of attorney in which case the attorney would still have to apply to use the account.

    Usual disclaimers apply, IANAL, and UK rules may differ from US.

  • Ben
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    Actually in my experience it works pretty similarly in the US. :)

  • Plato
    Plato
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    @danco‌
    @bwoodruff‌

    That does not apply in my case. All of my money (except for IRAs) is joint ownership with my wife and she's the one that I'm concerned about. On top of that, my IRAs have her listed as primary beneficiary and hers have me listed as primary beneficiary. In all cases, our sons are secondary beneficiaries. Our house is joint ownership and our two cars are joint ownership. Furthermore, each of us has power of attorney for the other.

    My need for the printout is simply to ensure that my wife does not have any practical problems accessing that which she is legally permitted to access.

  • Drew_AG
    Drew_AG
    1Password Alumni
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    Thanks for your thoughts and feedback about all this, @Plato! As Megan mentioned earlier, this is one of those things that really comes down to personal preference. It sounds like a printout works for you in your situation. Others may find that the Emergency Kit better fits their needs. I think it's great that there's a choice! :)

    If you need anything else, we're here for you!

This discussion has been closed.