This was a video lecture (like a TED talk, but not) and was notable for me because I was doing my estate plan at about the same time. Ran across the video maybe in 2015... I will continue the hunt for the video.
The issue wasn't getting into a financial account per se, rather getting into all the devices the husband controlled. She didn't know the passwords.
In the old days, estate executors would monitor physical mail to make sure they found all bank accounts. With many tech savvy people moving away from physical mail, the only notification about which accounts are out there are arriving by email to an account an executor does not have access to. How to know which accounts need to fall under the estate if you don't know the account exists?
Anyway, I will keep up the search for the video. I tweaked my personal technology plan a bit to deal with some of the issues that video raised. In addition to a physical list of key passwords, 2FA recovery keys, and encryption keys, I also included specific recovery scenarios like:
1) me dead, all laptops / phones / 2-factor fobs destroyed
2) me dead, phone missing, but still have laptop & fobs
3) me dead, laptop missing, but have phone & fobs
4) me dead, fobs missing but have laptop & phone
As a courtesy to clients, I also noted what client assets and data I controlled, where I kept the object, how to decrypt if necessary, and who to contact to arrange hand over.