For those of us old enough to remember the science fiction of the 20th century, the year 2020 still sounds like a futuristic concept. But we’re living in it now and that means some parts of life that wouldn’t make a lick of sense to our disco, hair metal or boy band-loving younger selves are real factors that affect our day-to-day lives.
One of those futuristic concepts is our digital presence online. Between platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, digital communities like Reddit, Amazon accounts, cloud storage, email providers, and many other forms of internet accounts, many people have large online footprints that aren’t easily accessed or administrated by another should they die.
Your digital assets are important to consider in end-of-life and estate planning. Some aspects are important for family members to access because of legal or financial duties when settling an estate, such as bank accounts, credit cards, utility bills. Others are about the sort of things a family member posted or shared through social media and in online communities before they died. Perhaps a surviving family member wants to collect some of the photos their loved one posted on Facebook or Instagram or videos they shared on YouTube. Or maybe a family member would like to remove private or sensitive content that was shared publicly before death.
As part of your estate planning, take some time to list all of the accounts and profiles and internet services that comprise your online footprint. Then, think about who you would trust to be your custodian of these things after you’re gone. You can also codify instructions into your plan about what accounts or online material should be deleted upon your death and what can be left to the discretion of your digital asset executor, who may be your estate executor, a trustee of your estate’s living trust or another family member you designate. It can help to split this into categories, like as follows:
- Documents
- Google Drive and other forms of cloud storage can contain a variety of data, from work documents to your weekly shopping list. Specific to Google, you can set up what is saved from your account and who is notified through its Inactive Account Manager. Microsoft has a process for accessing a deceased person’s account, but it is suggested for both its and Apple’s accounts that your user name and password be shared with someone else so they can access it upon your death.
- Access credentials
- Important accounts like those for Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, banks, credit cards, utility companies or others don’t always have simple ways to retrieve content and then dissolve the account of someone who has died. For these, a good consideration is either maintaining a database of user names and passwords or using a password manager that can be given to an executor of your digital assets. This is a good rule for all your online accounts to be used in tandem with the additional suggestions in the bullet points above and below. Be careful however, that some of the terms of service contracts may restrict assess to others even if they are your executor or power of attorney. Check with your estate planning attorney to make sure that your fiduciaries (executors or powers of attorneys) are acting in compliance with these terms of service contracts.
- Social media
- It may seem comparatively trivial but, as mentioned above, you or your family members may want to preserve or erase elements of your online social interactions after your death. Social media accounts can also be memorialized or dissolved after a person’s death, but it’s better to plan ahead so as not to make the grieving process more painful through inadvertent social media reminders. Facebook offers the ability to assign a legacy contact to manage your page after death, while Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide a process for contacting the platform about memorialization or removal. YouTube is covered by Google’s aforementioned Inactive Account Manager. Note that these social media offerings continue to evolve so check with your estate planning attorney to keep up to date.
As with so many other aspects of estate planning, this is all about thinking ahead to make it easier on your loved ones after you pass. Even with thoroughly modern concerns like these, Family Estate Planning Law Group is there for you and your family to make the most comprehensive estate plan that considers all your assets, from the tangible to the digital.
To learn more about this and other estate planning topics, visit our website, explore our blog, and schedule your complimentary consultation today!