By: Kristin M. Gunsolus

March 18, 2021

What Are Digital Assets and How Are They Included in My Estate Plan?

When people think about estate planning, they often forget about their digital assets.  If not properly stated in your estate plan, family photos and videos could be lost forever, and social media accounts could stay online long after you have passed.  Especially in today’s era, it has become the norm to store financial records digitally, and many people own different digital assets, such as bitcoin and domain names for websites.  Without properly stating how you want your digital assets to be handled in your estate plan, your family may lose access to them after you have passed.

Obstacles with Gaining Access to Digital Assets

Gaining access to a loved one’s digital assets is not as easy as it may seem.  There are obstacles family members face when trying to access the decedent’s digital assets.  One issue is passwords.  If you do not know the password and the decedent did not write it down, it could be incredibly hard to bypass.  Another issue is with data encryption, which is practically impossible to figure out unless you have the proper passcodes.  Certain criminal laws also cause an issue for some families.  Laws on both state and federal levels prohibit unauthorized access to computer systems and private personal data.  Lastly, there are data privacy laws.  Federal data privacy laws prohibit online service providers from giving away the contents of a computer to anyone other than the owner without the owner’s lawful consent.

How to Make Your Estate Plan Digitally Inclusive

To help make the process of including your digital assets in your estate easier, here are some helpful tips.  Your first step should be to make a list of every digital asset you own so your loved ones know what you have.  Also, listing the usernames and passwords would make gaining access to these assets much easier.  Next, backing up your data in the cloud helps prevent any of your assets from being lost.  Finally, the most important thing you can do is to provide consent in your legal documents allowing providers to release the contents of your electronics to the appropriate people.

 *Please note, the content of this post is for informational purposes only and is  not to be considered legal advice.