Technology is a huge part of everyone's life, it us actually very rare people consider their digital assets when planning a will. Law Society research showed only 7% of people fully understood what would happen to their digital assets when they passed. 93% had not included their digital assets at all.
Saving time for family in the future is one of the reasons it is advised to plan ahead, having details available for all online accounts and online assets.
Providing details of online accounts for things like social media, can enable family to remove and update accounts. A big concern for online media is the risk of hacking, so ensuring the correct people have access is very important. When dealing with your estate, it is essential that your online assets are known, this way your chosen people will benefit fully.
Making a digital legacy
Having essential knowledge in setting up a digital legacy is very important. This is because it cannot be included within the actual will itself. The reason for this is purely down to the sensitive information for financial and account details. It poses security problems as a will may become a public access document on your death.
The correct process would be to draft a letter, detailing all digital assets that you own:
No online banking login details should be included
You shouldn't provide usernames, passwords or security question answers
You should include social media accounts, but no login details
Facebook offer the option to have accounts memorialised, this means that the account saves all photos and memories, however, with personal property, it leaves it open to hackers
In this digital age, most of us will save our information, files and photograph online. Making sure that someone is aware of these details will ensure they do not get lost.
Cloud storage is a popular way of saving information online, they are designed to be secure and personal to the account holder. These platforms will have a set of policies and procedures for this situation, so your loved ones will need to contact them directly to try and gain access.
Not all products or services may be accessed or passed over to another after death, some things, like music files, may only be provided with the right to listen by the account holder only during their lifetime.
Services such as utilities and phones are usually managed online, these companies will need to be listed so they can be contacted. The more detail you can provide on all accounts, the more help you will provide to your beneficiaries. Direct contact will need to be made to close these accounts.
Your personal representative will need to know where this information is, the best thing to do would be to choose a secure location, as the information within is sensitive.