When you consider the amount of time you are online, updating your blog, adding digital photographs, managing your email and social media accounts and purchasing more e-books, downloading MP3s and movies, how will your family gain access to your digital life, after your death? By talking with your estate planning lawyer, you will find out how to leave access to your PayPal money and other online sources of income and digital media.
Will Your Heirs Know Where to Look?
You may use a variety of passwords to access your online digital life, so how will your family be able to access your accounts after your death? Have you discussed access to your digital life with your estate planning lawyer to check the legality of how certain individuals will be named to access your online life when you can no longer access the websites yourself?
Should you decide to complete a power of attorney, giving others permission to access your account and online activities while you are alive, will they still be able to retain access after you have gone?
The many difficulties that may arise could include having money locked away in accounts that close family and friends are not aware of. As many individuals stop receiving printed statements from their bank, will that account that you have kept hidden from your family be lost forever?
Who will receive your Kindle e-books when you die? Will Amazon allow ownership to be passed to another individual?
Using Joint Accounts
The individuals you leave behind may be able to access your account if it is held in joint names, for a short period after your death. You should discuss this matter carefully with your estate planning lawyer as the law may not yet be clear about which websites and blogs can be opened.
As we all spend so much time online in the modern era, it is important that you carefully list all your online activities that require investigations after your death. Those same individuals will need to know how to access the information at that time.
For social media, you may need to inquire with each individual company to find out how their rules and regulations work in association with law. Some may provide a personal representative of an individual’s last will and testament with access, but others will not. The rules may be different for online bank accounts.
