Account Security

Most people's whole life runs through one email account. It resets the bank password, holds the tax documents, and is the recovery address for everything else. Very few of those accounts are properly protected, and most people only find out when they cannot get into one.

Fixing it is not complicated, but it is fiddly, and it is exactly the sort of job that gets postponed for years. We sit down and do it once, properly, across every account that actually matters.

What we set up

• A password manager you will actually use, with your existing passwords imported and the reused ones replaced

• Two-factor authentication on email, banking, and anything holding money or records, set up so that losing your phone does not lock you out

• Recovery details brought up to date: backup codes saved somewhere real, and a recovery email and phone number that still exist

• Personal and work logins separated, so one does not quietly depend on the other

• A written record of which accounts exist and how to get back into each one

If you are already locked out

A forgotten password, a lost phone, a recovery address you no longer control: these are usually solvable, and they are a great deal easier with someone who has been through the process before. We work through the provider's recovery steps with you and get the account back under your control, then set it up so it does not happen again.

What it is worth

Recovering a single locked account on your own can take weeks of forms and waiting, and some people never get back in at all. Doing this in advance takes an afternoon, and it is the difference between an inconvenience and losing years of documents, photos, and records.