Comment The ethics of it, and the relieving your mind part (Score 1) 812
I am both a geek and an ordained clergy person, and a Religious Studies professor, and I am also a mom and a sister, cousin, niece, etc. Wearing all those hats, I think that someone who can sensitively get into those accounts and figure out if it was or wasn't suicide could help the family in peace of mind, which is way beyond just helping pay for the funeral. But it needs to be someone who will not disclose the info in any hurtful way, someone who is very discreet and also insightful. Just as we love to have the physical hand written love letters and such of our ancestors, his relatives have the same need to have his electronic files, just as they would unquestionably have his files if they were in a file cabinet in an office. That's how I see it, anyway.