August 17, 2020

Most of the material you probably own that is an asset inside your estate plan is tracked in the form of paper. You might have kept it in a bookcase, in a filing cabinet or a safety deposit box. But what happens when more and more of your assets are digital? Increasingly, our most important things are actually on the cloud or on websites owned by other people.

It’s very difficult to avoid accumulating digital assets and sitting down and trying to list them all might open your eyes to some of the issues associated with this that could make it hard for you to do so. You’ll begin to see the scope of the challenge if you could complete that exercise of trying to list your different digital accounts.

Right now, your electronic communications and digital assets are entrusted to custodians in the form of those companies that store all of these assets like your photos on their servers. These are not governed by property law which means that the terms of service agreement established by the company is the underlying thing you will want to look at to determine what happens if the original owner is no longer able to access these details.

You’ll need to discuss the specifics with your estate planning lawyer if you have concerns about the process and how best to proceed. Scheduling a consultation with a trusted estate planning lawyer can open your eyes and help you put in place the necessary structures, tactics, and strategies to protect your interests.