Most people know they have physical assets. They look at and use these items every day. They include houses, cars, boats, paintings, other artwork, household goods, coin collections, precious metals, jewelry and countless other items.
But, have you asked yourself, do I have digital assets? Before I get there, I will digress for a moment. I remember our home telephone when I was a kid and how it was only used to make phone calls. It was further limited by its cord length. I could barely get away from the base and the rest of my family overhearing the call. Today, however, our cell phones allow us to call from almost anywhere in the world but also store an incredible amount of our personal information, from family pictures to bank account information. We are rarely without our phones during the day.
Now back to digital assets. If you use Google products (Google Photos, Gmail), Apple products (e.g. iPad and iPhone), Facebook, X, email (e.g. Yahoo!Mail, AOL, Outlook.com) or online photo sharing (e.g. Instagram, Photobucket, Imgur, Shutterfly, Flickr), or cryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin), then, yes, you have digital assets! Have you considered what happens to these assets after you die and how someone else can access this information? Here are a few basic steps you can take to help pass on your digital assets.
Google and Apple allow you to create legacy contacts on your phones and other devices. After your death, your legacy contact may be able to request certain information and access your devices to obtain your personal information such as pictures, messages and files you have downloaded. Facebook and password management websites and apps also allow you to create legacy contacts for your accounts. This allows you to choose a trusted individual to access your devices and accounts and help preserve and protect your digital assets.
For those accounts that don’t provide for a legacy contact, you can create a list of logins and passwords to provide to a trusted individual or let a trusted individual know where to find the list. You can also explicitly state in your will that your personal representative or executor is authorized to access your digital assets. Please note that even with this information, there is no guarantee that your legacy contact and personal representative can access these accounts due to federal privacy laws and platforms’ terms of service, but this is a start and better than doing nothing. If you have concerns regarding a specific asset, please contact your trust administrator at FineMark.
