Tips To Protect Your Digital Assets in An Estate Plan

In today’s digitally-driven world, there’s a component that needs to be added to most modern estate plans, and that’s protection of digital assets.

You might be wondering what would comprise the category of digital assets.

Digital assets can include the physical things that we store our digital information on, such as computers and tablets, but it also includes things like accounts managed online, email accounts, photo and video store, social media pages, frequent flyer miles, and really any online account.

As these elements have become such a critical component of most of our daily lives, it’s important they’re protected in estate plans, as with any other asset. Not only are these things important in terms of the fact they’re considered assets, but having access to online accounts and information can be of tremendous assistance to your family if you pass away. It provides them with a lot more protection and can simplify the handling of your estate.

Below are some things to keep in mind as you contemplate protecting your digital assets.

Create An Inventory

Before you can determine what to do with your digital assets, it’s important to assess them and make an inventory, just as you would any other personal assets. It can be as simple as creating a spreadsheet listing all of your online accounts and relevant information such as passwords.

Once you have an inventory, you can work with a professional estate lawyer to cover this area of your planning.

Choose an Executor

Just as you’ll choose an executor for you will who will manage your estate, you’ll also need to choose a digital executor, and that may be the same person or someone different.

Your digital executor is someone who’s going to do things like managing your social media profiles or eventually closing them, handling email accounts, and going through digital files such as photos and videos.

You may find that the executor who will handle your digital assets is someone you have the utmost trust in since some things they control could be private or sensitive.

Your digital executor will also need all of your passwords and other access information, and this should be someone with some level of technical expertise.

Intellectual Property

Perhaps one of the most important areas your digital asset estate plan should cover is any intellectual property you may have, which can include your ideas, and also things that have been copyrighted or trademarked.

This can also include information related to your business.

As you’re creating an estate plan for your digital assets, you’ll have to not only make sure your executor has access to everything, but also that they know what should be done with everything mentioned above. For example, do you want your social media profiles to be closed or left open?

Are there any assets in your digital portfolio that generate income and if so, what should be done with those.

If there are photos or personal things, you have to decide who you want to have them or how you want them to be handled.

Creating plans for your digital assets is a vital part of any complete estate plan, and it’s an important one to focus on, especially as so much of our lives are wrapped up in the digital world.

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