The new digital age has seen the onset of countless new conveniences whether through online shopping, banking, entertainment, or social networking. We can now order food and have it delivered to our door, transfer money at the push of a button, and video chat with friends and family that are halfway around the world. Through all these advancements, however, one thing stays the same, the necessity of virtual security. With all these new apps and websites to use comes the addition of endless different passwords to ensure the safety of personal information, with some sites even forcing you to make a new password every x months as an extra layer of security. All in all, this builds up quite the “portfolio” of digital “assets” that can sometimes get confusing. Now, it may not be a comfortable topic, but in the case of the death or incapacity of the owner of these digital accounts, add another layer of complication, as family members now have to weed through various accounts to consolidate their estate.
The good news is that the same advancements in technology that brought around all these security features, questions, passwords, etc. are the same ones that provide a solution here. Available widely on the web are numerous different password vaults and managers that will allow users to store all of this information in one spot. Applications such as LastPass, True Key, Zoho Vault, 1Password and many others all can accomplish this purpose of simplifying this complicated web of components down to something that is easily manageable. Any new website or service you use can easily add log-in information or notes so that if you ever need to log-in and can’t remember your information, the application will do it for you!
These applications also offer the option to designate “digital heirs” that in the case something happens to the user, these vaults can be passed along and not locked permanently! In this manner, those handling the estate can easily gain access to all the accounts necessary all in one place.
In the case that you’d prefer to simply write down all of your log-in information and other important online details in a notebook or binder, which is sufficient, just make sure to let someone know where that "book" is and how to access it!
One additional step beyond providing access to your accounts to your digital “executor” is actually letting them know what to do with the accounts. For instance, if you’d prefer your Facebook to be set to “memorialized” which will effectively make the account inactive, but allow family and friends to continue to post memories and stories on the page versus closing it out entirely. Also actively selecting if you’d like certain digital assets to go to certain heirs, for example if you would want your grandson to receive your illustrious Fortnite account or your daughter to receive the log-in for your online knitting chat group, you can designate those wishes either in the password manager app or in your notebook. That way there will be no confusion or argument over who gets what when the time comes to distribute those assets.
As an added layer of protection, the right to digital assets can be specified in a trust document drawn up by an estate planning attorney for those with more complicated situations that need specific direction. These specifications usually outline the power of the successor trustees to access, view, modify or make use of any electronic accounts including those financial sites that are used.
To summarize, from Uber to Schwab to Amazon to Facebook and many, many more, the necessity to build a plan to preserve our digital legacy for when “the time comes” is imperative. Using these plans can ease the transition for your loved ones to get their arms around your digital assets and secure your legacy properly. At DWM, we would encourage you to get these items in order to make things easier on you and your loved ones in the future, hopefully a long time down the road.