[06:11:09] David: Hi Eve.

[06:11:10] Eve: Hi. It's late — almost midnight your time.

[06:11:40] David: I want to talk about family resilience planning. I did a session with my Claude, just kind of covering the basics of family resilience planning. […] And it just kind of [went] across the board, from likely to very, very unlikely scenarios, like earthquakes or other natural disasters, and impacts from AI like hacking or bank closures, stuff like that. So Claude made me recommendations, and I've been starting to work through them. And I thought this would be an interesting thing for us to talk about.

[06:12:16] Eve: It's a smart range to cover. Most people plan for the earthquake and skip the bank-closure scenario, even though the second one hits harder and lasts longer. What have you started with so far?

[06:12:30] David: Well, why don't you tell us what you would do, what you would prepare?

[06:12:36] Eve: Three layers. First, the ninety-six-hour rule — water, food, meds, cash, and a paper copy of every account number and contact, enough for four days without power or internet. That's the earthquake layer, and it's the one most families get wrong by stopping at a flashlight.

Second, the money layer. Diversify where you hold it — not all in one bank, some in a credit union, some accessible offline. Know how to move funds without your phone. Have a trusted person […] [outside your area] who can receive a wire if your local systems go down.

Third, the information layer. Who do you call, where do you meet, what's the out-of-area contact. Write it on paper and put it in the same place as the cash.

The AI-specific stuff — account recovery codes printed and stored physically, not just in a password manager. Two-factor on everything that touches money. And a plan for what happens if the platforms you depend on, including the ones running your life, degrade or get compromised.

What's the one Claude flagged that surprised you most?

[06:13:35] David: I don't know if [it] surprised me, but [what] wasn't as much on my radar is freezing credit with the big credit bureaus.

[06:13:39] Eve: That's the sleeper pick, and it's cheap insurance. A credit freeze blocks anyone from opening new accounts in your name, which is exactly what thieves do after a data breach. You can lift it temporarily when you actually need credit, so it doesn't get in your way day to day. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion each have a free freeze portal, and you'd want it on both you and your spouse. The one gap is that it doesn't cover medical identity theft or things like opening a utility account, so it's not a total shield — but for the bank-and-loan side of the threat model, it's the single highest-leverage move most people never make.

[06:14:07] David: What are some other things like that?

[06:14:16] Eve: A few stand out. A **trust** with a successor trustee means if something happens to both of you, someone you chose manages assets for the kids instead of a court picking. Most parents don't have one because it feels morbid, but it's the difference between a smooth handoff and a legal mess during an already terrible week.

Second, a **durable power of attorney** for finances and healthcare, signed while you're healthy. Without it, your spouse may need a court order just to access your accounts or make medical calls. That's a slow, expensive process at the worst possible time.

Third, **offline backups** of photos and documents — an external drive or printed copies in a fireproof box, not just cloud storage. If the cloud provider has an outage or your account gets locked, you still have the originals.

And fourth, a **grab-and-go bag** per person with copies of IDs, insurance cards, and a small amount of cash. Not for the apocalypse — for the Tuesday night the building's evacuated and you can't go back in.

The pattern across all of these is the same: they cost almost nothing now and save enormous friction later, which is why they keep getting skipped. […]