For Your Beneficiaries Why You Should Keep a List of Your Online Account Login Info
2 SurprisingWays Artificial Intelligence Protects Your Money and Future
Across the world, more and more organizations — banks, insurance providers, cable companies, etc. — are moving away from sending paper bills in the mail to sending online bills directly to their customers’ email address. There’s nothing wrong with that, but in recent years, it’s created some new predicaments in the world of trust administration. Not too long ago, we had a client who had received a bill from the cable company for an elderly loved one who had passed away. However, the bill could only be paid online, and the online account was only accessible with a password. The cable company wouldn’t let our client cancel the cable account until they had the password! Now, while not every company that bills a deceased loved one will be this difficult to deal with, it’s led Justin and me to start advising clients who are setting up estate plans with us to write down all of the passwords and login information to all their online accounts and subscriptions so that their beneficiaries can access them after they’re gone. Some institutions are even sending W-2s and 1099s online now. Just telling your beneficiaries to watch your mailbox for any incoming bills isn’t enough anymore. Once you make a detailed list of all your passwords and usernames for each of your online accounts, you need to keep it somewhere that it won’t get lost. We recommend using a private, at-home safe, if you have one. However, do not keep the list with your estate planning documents, since those can get lost or stolen. We also do not recommend keeping this list of passwords in a safety deposit box for any reason. Honestly, we don’t recommend using safety deposit boxes at all, but that’s a topic for another article. The bottom line is that making a list of all your online account login information is just one more step you can take to help your beneficiaries rest easy.
Most people who hear about artificial intelligence (AI) conjure up an image of a robot acting and thinking on its own. However, it’s far more than that. Businesses use AI systems to identify human behavior patterns and tailor marketing messages. Health care professionals also use them to provide diagnoses and monitor trends. And now, AI is being used for financial security.
RISK MANAGEMENT
Many are concerned about the risk of someone hacking into their bank accounts and cleaning them out. While that can happen at any moment, individuals often have a number of safeguards in place to protect their finances and mitigate this risk. The same is true for businesses, such as banks, credit card companies, or online retailers, though the risks are often far higher for these companies than they are for individuals. How does AI help? It works with data faster and more accurately than a human ever could. By using AI to monitor financial transactions, a company can keep track of the real-time activity of its customers and verify its authenticity. For example, someone who makes a large withdrawal from their bank account might get an AI-generated call, text, or email seconds afterward to verify the transaction.
FRAUD DETECTION
AI can also predict and flag unusual activity associated with fraud. By combining two of its processes — data management and pattern identification — AI can pinpoint oddities within a person’s finances. For example, if a card is used for a purchase in America then used a few hours later for a purchase in another country across the world, AI can detect this suspicious activity almost immediately and send an alert to the cardholder. Additionally, AI is created to learn, which means that over time, it will become more attuned to what is or is not fraudulent activity. Artificial Intelligence is a powerful and beneficial tool for business owners and individuals alike. Read more about what AI is doing in the financial world at MarutiTech.com/ways-ai-transforming-finance .
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Trusts • Probate • Long-Term Care Planning • Elder Law
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