Senior Artists—Next of Kin Procedure RE: Art Business

I'm starting a new post copying my reply to the one Janet posted in the technology thread. Janet, This issue is something a lot of us seniors are dealing with. Lynda mentioned a will, and there is also a living trust, should you prefer- paperwork you can get online and file with a legal person. I also bought a NOK Box (Next of Kin) that has all the folders, paperwork and lists of documents you need. Also, there are all the medical forms...just ask your doctor. My doctor brought it up when I turned 65. As far at ASF goes, I have been wondering about that...how to leave my NOK the info to get into my ASF account and let them know. I was struggling with temporary blindness for awhile and thought to stop my account too, but phone calls to the one person I had in my phone (the original salesperson) didn't get any traction, and luckily my vision came back after time, and I was able to continue, but I was really in a quandry for awhile. But I too wonder about how to get all of the ASF and attached parts notified...Stripe, Mailchimp, Fulfillment, etc. Does ASF have a procedure for this (a step-by-step guide-book AND a telephone number to call to get this procedure rolling in the event of an artist passing?...either reassigning the website to the NOK and changing banking info and a different billing program for a NOK or a senior unable to continue and wanting to just keep the website and income flow without the training, etc....something easy for a NOK to take care of. .....a question for the ASF team I think.

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Patrick ShanahanStaffMar 16, 2026

We might need to create one Linnie. Sadly we came face to face with this in the last year as one of the ASF fam in Kevin Grass passed away unexpectedly.

A difficult topic for sure but also; we make plans in life (Wills, trust, power of attorney, advanced health care directives) to give ourselves piece of mind and to lower the burden on our families.

Zero reason we should not have something in place for the art businesses as well.

Gonna talk through this internally.

Side Note: Its also a huge topic generally in the age of social media these days... who ones the accounts, how do you store the passwords, how do you shut them down if you can't log in... etc, etc.

We could likely put into place a super comprehensive one I think to cover all of this and equally importantly.. as well as set into place yearly check-ins to make sure everything stays up to date and is accurate, reflects the artists wishes etc.

Linnie AikensHuman-Made ArtMar 17, 2026

Thank you, Patrick for taking this back to the team. I know it will benefit all of us, no matter what age.

Linnie AikensHuman-Made Art1d ago

Twinky @ Woodland Walks StudioHuman-Made Artjust now

Wow, very timely - my husband and I are right now finishing up the estate planning process and have set up a trust.... but I never considered what to do about the ASF account, which I paid for until I turn 80 (for good or for ill...!!). Clear steps from ASF would be helpful since it appears not a few of us are "older"... but the younger generations are not immune to an untimely demise, so everyone would truly benefit from guidance from ASF. The other huge issue is the dual authentication process that on current phones requires facial recognition... which will be a problem when our faces are no longer available! Who would have ever thought these later years would become so complex with the technologies that are supposed to make our lives "easier/simpler".

Linnie AikensHuman-Made ArtMar 16, 2026

This is Lynda's reply on the same topic, that I copied and pasted for her into this thread:
Lynda Raven Brake. 5m ago
What good ideas Linnie. I have wondered about having a beneficiary on my ASF account. A good question for Art Storefronts. I have seen ads about the Next of Kin box and thought about needing to have one. I have my Will and other important papers in a fire box but not organized.