A Few Simple Steps To Help Prevent After Death Identity Theft

Identity theft is a common problem due to the massive amount of information that is available. This problem is as common for the deceased as it is for the living since the dead cannot protect themselves which could lead to problems down the line for an estate or heirs. However, there are a few simple steps that may be taken that can help prevent the identity of a parted loved one from winding up in the hands of a conman:

• When preparing an obituary do not include any details that may be useful to an identity thief. Birthday’s should not be mentioned since this is information that is required in almost all security checks. In addition, avoid personal details like the maiden name of the deceased mother or even the name of the high school they attended. Both of those pieces of information are often used as security questions and will give a hacker the chance to get into accounts.

• Send documentation of death to all financial institutions in order to start the process to freeze accounts. In addition, report the death to the credit reporting agencies so they can put an alert on the account for anyone that looks up a credit report. However, follow up on all these acts since the process of proving death can be ponderous and take longer than the time required for a thief to steal the identity.

• Cancel identification cards especially drivers licenses and passports. Keeping both active is a risk since a thief could request a new copy and, with some minor alterations, get an ironclad ID they can use to commit any sort of crime.

• The most important step though is to keep an eye on the deceased credit reports and accounts for a period after death. Even with the steps above, a skilled impostor can gain access the an identity so monitoring a credit report a few times a year could save much hassle for an heir or estate administrator.

See David H. Lenok, Protecting Deceased Clients from Identity Theft, Wealth Management, August 19, 2015.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.