People thinking about their legacies often focus on their physical property. They want the most valuable assets to end up in the control of their closest loved ones. People often allocate resources with financial value and emotional importance to specific beneficiaries in their estate plans.
However, they may overlook resources that could have significant emotional value for the people they leave behind when they die. Digital assets have become relatively commonplace in recent years. They can represent a significant financial investment in some cases. They may have major emotional value to the people left behind when someone dies.
Digital resources include online storage of documents and photographs, social media profiles and digital investments. Those digital resources could inspire fights among the beneficiaries of an estate. They could also end up unclaimed because family members are unaware of them or have no way to access them.
How can people address their digital resources in their estate plans?
Identifying all electronic resources
The first step in the process of adding digital assets to an estate plan involves creating an inventory of those resources. The various different social media platforms an individual uses, the companies they use for digital storage and even the platforms they use for trading or renewing digital assets can all be important to identify. After creating a comprehensive list of digital resources, people can then begin planning how to address them.
Granting authority or ownership as appropriate
In some cases, testators can provide login information for accounts so that their family members or personal representatives can access online accounts. In cases involving digital storage, that access may allow them to back up key records or photographs on an external hard drive to preserve them even after a subscription lapses.
In scenarios involving social media accounts, it may be necessary to provide consent to create a memorialized page or to grant loved ones permission to make posts on the account after the original owner’s passing. People may also have to make plans for their high-value digital assets. The nature of the investment influences the kind of plan necessary to transfer ownership to someone new.
In some cases, it might be adequate to include assets in a will. Other times, especially when there are substantial digital investments to address, testators may want to consider adding a trust to their estate plans or transferring those assets to a trust.
Recognizing that digital resources have both emotional and financial value can help people recognize when they may need to expand their estate plans. People with digital resources may want to address them when they create their estate plans or modify existing documents to address those electronic resources.