I learned this weekend of the unexpected passing of my cousin. This brought back memories of the passing of a relative a few years back. Although he had finiancial means to provide for his wife and children after his passing, there was a lot of stress at an already tragic time caused by not having prepared to make sure his wife had knowledge and access to their financial information.

My advice (written assuming you handle most of the financial dealings in your marriage - adjust as applicable):

Keep a list of all financial related accounts with login/password information. Walk through its location and contents with spouse.

• Checking, Savings, Investment, 401K, Mortgage, Car Loan, Credit Cards, Insurance (Life/Home/Auto), Utilities, Property Taxes, etc.
• List auto pay (and where it is pulled from) versus manual pay. Timing of major annual/semi-annual bills.

Make sure spouse has login access to email account(s) tied to those logins

Make sure spouse has login access to phone that gets text authentication codes for those accounts. This also may be needed for first email account access on a diffferent computer.

In case the phone is missing/damaged in the course of your passing, make sure spouse is authorized on the phone account to quickly get a replacement phone/SIM card for your line.

If you are like me the paycheck is direct deposit and basically all bills are auto pay either directly from a checking account, or through a credit card which is also autopay from checking. This works great as long as paychecks are being deposited. If that unexpectedly stopped, does your spouse have the necessary information and access to transfer funds (as needed) and pay essential bills?