The Risk Of Identity Theft Does Not End When You Die

If you are a caregiver for an elderly family member, you are always on your guard against financial abuse.  You monitor your elderly family member’s transactions, and perhaps you even have a power of attorney.  You get suspicious when a professional caregiver or anyone else seems overly interested in befriending your family member.  Maybe your other relatives even accuse you of undue influence and financial abuse.  Unfortunately, the risk of financial abuse does not end when the person dies.  The estates of recently deceased people are also vulnerable to financial crime.  A deceased person’s property and identifying details are just lying around, waiting for thieves to pounce, and the person is no longer there to notice that his or her identity has been stolen.  For help protecting a deceased family member’s estate from financial crimes before and during probate, contact a Tampa probate lawyer.

Don’t Let Your Deceased Family Member’s Digital Estate Become Undead

Digital estate planning is an emerging subfield of estate planning.  Apple now lets you designate a successor for your Apple account, and he or she can access your devices and stored content upon presenting your death certificate.  Estate planning lawyers encourage clients to write instructions in their wills about who should have control over their blogs and digitally published music files after they die.  Even if the decedent was not so well organized about building a digital estate plan, a probate lawyer can help you locate the decedent’s digital property and deal with it appropriately.  At minimum, you should make sure that no one else can access the decedent’s devices or list of passwords.

Keeping the Decedent’s House Secure Until the Estate Sale or the Transfer of Property

If the decedent lived at home until the end, you must also deal with a newly empty house.  To protect it from burglars, install an alarm system if the house does not already have one.  You or other family members should visit the house frequently, so it is not always empty.

Preventing Social Security Fraud

The Social Security numbers of recently deceased people are easy prey for Social Security fraud and identity theft.  If fraudsters find an unattended Social Security number, not only can they cash the decedent’s last Social Security check, but they can also open new accounts in the decedent’s name.  This could mean that, by the time the estate gets to probate, it has more debt than it did when the decedent died.

The best way to prevent this problem is to notify the Social Security Administration directly as soon as the person dies.  The coroner will eventually notify them, but it could take weeks, which is long enough to leave room for identity theft.

Contact David Toback About Preventing Posthumous Identity Theft

A Central Florida probate lawyer can help you protect your deceased family member’s estate even before the probate case begins.  Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.

Source:

msn.com/en-us/news/technology/5-non-obvious-things-you-must-do-quickly-when-a-loved-one-dies/ar-AA1u0QFu?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=8bf20181f7694c2ebf9398a24fefdba8&ei=19