November 13, 2017

The concept of digital estate planning is becoming more popular in recent years because of the surge of online accounts and online assets that people possess. If your service provider does not have an online tool or if you want to guard against the potential misappropriation of such a tool, you might wish to establish a digital executor to manage the carrying out of your digital assets when you pass away.

The revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act of 2015 enables you to extend the traditional fiduciary power for tangible property to include management of a person’s digital assets. This also allows a fiduciary to manage digital property such as web domain, virtual currency, and computer files. However, it won’t restrict a fiduciary’s access to only particular electronic communications. This means that text messages, emails and social media accounts will stay private unless the original user gives express consent in a trust, will, power of attorney or another document. 

Your affiliate accounts, Google AdSense accounts, blog, and website may require someone familiar with the business to serve as your digital executor, such as an employee. However, a close friend or family member may serve as the appropriate digital fiduciary for your social media and personal accounts. Make sure that you choose someone who has the ability and the knowledge to carry out your necessary requests and inform a digital executor about what is necessary to access your digital estate plan as well as the rules and wishes you have for that plan.

Ready to plan? Now is a great time to schedule a consultation with a dedicated lawyer.