The days of having only physical assets like tangible personal property, and intangible property like bonds, investment accounts, and other bank accounts are long gone. With the introduction of social media, email, and other digital accounts, your legacy is more online than you may think. All of these digital accounts make up your digital assets. Many people don’t think about these when creating their estate plans, but they are equally as important as your physical assets! Below, we will go over what constitutes a digital asset and how to incorporate it into your estate plan.

First, let’s dive into the types of digital assets.

• Financial Digital Assets:
  • Bank Accounts and Investment Accounts: Managing your finances and investments has become the new norm. Understanding how to transfer and secure these assets is crucial.
• Personal Digital Assets:
  • Social Media Accounts: Sharing our lives on social media is something almost everyone does. Because of all the information we share, we must ensure proper transfer!
  • Social Media Accounts: Sharing our lives on social media is something almost everyone does. Because of all the information we share, we must ensure proper transfer!
  • Digital Photos: DropBox, Google Photos, and other digital photo services have helped preserve cherished memories, but now leads to having to pass them down.

Challenges in Managing Digital Assets After Death

Due to privacy policies placed by social media platforms, email companies, and many others, they are unable to release information in the account or allow others access following a user’s passing. This can be an issue if the deceased has not left behind usernames and passwords. This is where planning and password managers are very important!

How to Begin

The first step in planning is sitting down and doing an audit of all the online accounts you may have, in order to understand what needs to be included in this plan and what information is needed to access those accounts. For example, is two-factor authentication turned on? Are there security questions associated with the account?

Gather all this information into a secure place and then start mapping out how to best disperse this information to your loved ones. Your usernames and passwords should be left with someone you trust with your personal information.

Things to Consider

Even with a plan in place, it is important to keep an eye out for legal changes in estate planning and digital assets. As this issue becomes more common, policies may change. In addition, like with any estate plan, you should always review and update your wishes so the information goes to the right person.
To ensure that all your assets are protected and ready to be passed down, it is best to speak to an attorney and make sure everything is done legally and in a manner that minimizes your family members’ efforts to access the accounts.
Need help setting up a comprehensive estate plan that keeps your digital assets in mind? We’re ready to help! Contact us.