What to do with your portfolio when you die or become incapacitated

A backup person to close out your trading positions and someone (or more) to take over the management of your portfolio when you can’t manage it, is crucial.

- Simon Brown

I have written before about the benefits of a trading buddy, including them being able to execute trades for you if required and to keep you honest to your trading strategy. In this edition I want to go a little wider, and a little more morbid, into the topic of somebody to help.

The first question is what happens to your trading account if you’re incapacitated for whatever reason and unable to monitor and exit your trades? You need a backup person to get you out of derivative positions, especially if you have open positions that do not have a stop-loss in the trading system. But even with a stop-loss, there is a risk of that stop being missed and it could turn out very expensive.