Estate Planning? Don’t Forget About Your Digital Assets

Usually when we think about estate planning, we focus on our tangible and financial assets. We think about houses, boats, checking accounts, and maybe even retirement funds, but chances are we don’t think too much about our logins and passwords. Consideration of digital assets also serves as a reminder that estate planning is far broader than just disposing of our physical and financial property. Estate planning involves making plans for all aspects of a life after it has ceased. This means that estate planning also covers things like making arrangements for your pets and assigning guardians for your children. Now, estate planning has also come to embody the disposition and administration of digital assets.

What Are Digital Assets?

Digital assets are not just literal interpretations of the term, such as cryptocurrency and NFTs. Digital assets include Instragam and social media followers and accounts, domain names that you own, any online accounts that you have, and online subscriptions. Digital assets also include your email account and everything in it, as well as any photos, videos, or anything saved to the Cloud.

Why Do You Need to Plan for Digital Assets?

Digital assets don’t leave a paper trail, so they can make it incredibly difficult to accurately assess and distribute your estate. Not making a plan for someone to take over your digital assets can also result in a major drain on the financial resources in your estate. For instance, if you have a number of active expensive subscription services but your estate administrator and family members do not know your login information for these services, they may continue to deplete the account until your family members are able to obtain the password (which is often impossible to do) or your lawyer is able to initiate legal action to cease the charges which can also take a while and result in additional costs. Making plans for these sorts of situations can allow for the distribution of your assets to be much more streamlined and in line with what you want.

Estate Planning for Digital Assets

The best way to start estate planning for your digital assets is to inventory them. Many people are not fully aware of all the digital assets that they have in their possession, so first becoming familiar with the full extent of digital assets that you can have and then doing a thorough inventory is hugely beneficial. Creating a roadmap of your digital assets that can be used by your estate administrator or attorney is also very helpful. This should include login information and passwords for all of your online subscription accounts, or any accounts that others will need access to.

Talk to Larry E. Bray

If you are ready to create a comprehensive estate plan or specifically would like assistance planning for your digital assets, The Law Offices of Larry E. Bray are ready to help. Contact West Palm Beach estate planning lawyer Larry E. Bray today and take the first step into your best future.

Resource:

marketwatch.com/story/have-you-included-digital-assets-in-your-estate-plan-11627660917