Not too far in the past, all our financial and tax records were only on paper. Many of you reading this blog remember that era well. But with the rise of computers, the internet, Facebook, and the “cloud,” we now have many assets that are digital. We may not be able to touch them like other property, but we own them all the same. You need to address these digital assets in your estate plan or they may get lost.
You probably have very organized folders on your computer for documents or financial statements. Does anyone else know they exist? Some documents or programs are purely digital, such as Quicken or Quickbooks. Other programs were web-based only. Facebook accounts, e-mail, LinkedIn, blogs, e-mail, and photos are other examples that would mean a lot to your family to have after you passed.
To complicate matters even more, much of this digital information is password-protected. If you do not come up with a way to let your family members or Trustees know how to access this information, they may never get retrieved.
Estate Planning for Digital Assets
Creating an estate plan for your “normal” assets is a very similar process as creating an estate plan for your digital assets. You make a list of what you have, give someone authority to access those digital assets after you are gone, tell that person where to find your assets, and say what you want to have happen with your digital assets.
Creating this list of digital assets can be simple. I would suggest first separating your assets by category (for example, social media or online financial accounts). Then, in columns beside your assets, list your user name, password, PIN numbers, and the website URL. Either create a physical copy and give it to your authorized person or put it with your estate planning documents, or put it somewhere on your computer. If you do put it on your computer, password protect that document and provide that password to your authorized individual.
You also need to spend some time thinking about and deciding what you want to have happen with each of these assets. Do you want a blog to be shut down? Do you want something to be done with your Facebook? Do you want to make sure that an account is not shut down? Does a site produce any income? If so, you should make sure that your authorized person knows. If there are files on your computer that you want to pass on to your family, you can create a list of these files and put them in a folder entitled “To Pass on to Family.”
If you have files or accounts that are no longer needed after you pass, making the decision to shut them down will help protect your family from identify theft.
Create an estate plan for your digital assets does take effort, but not more than normal assets. The more you can put these kinds of assets in order, the easier it will be for your loved ones after you pass.