Estate Planning for Digital Assets

What happens to your digital assets if you become incapacitated or you die? Our great grandparents never had to think about this question. But in this day and age we need to because our digital lives are so intertwined with our in person lives. 

Have you thought about who you want to have access to your email messages and to your digital photos if you got very sick? Have you thought about what would happen to your social media accounts once you are gone? Do you want your LinkedIn account to get shut down and your Facebook account to get memorialized? Do you want anyone to be able to access your phone and your text messages? What about crypto-currency? If you have a monetizing YouTube account do you want it to continue for the benefit of your heirs?

You have options:

Do Nothing

If you do not make a plan for your digital assets they will not necessarily be handled the way that you want them to be. Your heirs could lose complete access or the accounts could be left open indefinitely. The default is the terms of service for each platform which is generally designed by corporate counsel to protect the platform and not you. 

Use Online Tools

Some digital platforms have online tools such as Google’s Inactive Account Manager or Meta’s Legacy settings. These tools allow you to choose whether your account will be deleted if the platform found out about your death, if your account becomes memorialized and/ or if a survivor could download your data. 

Use Estate Planning

The law has come a long way in how it handles digital assets. Current law, Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), which took effect in California (California Bill AB-691) on January 1, 2017 (Cal. Prob. Code §§ 870 et seq.) allows for the people we assign to take over our assets and affairs, to have access to online accounts after death or incapacitation only if we agree to it explicitly. 

What you can do to protect yourself:

1. Take an inventory of your online assets and your online accounts

2. Make a plan for who and what access you want to provide

3. Execute your plan by assigning someone in your will, trust and/ or power of attorney to handle your digital assets

4. Sign up for a secure password vault such as 1Password or LastPass

5. Update legacy settings on your email and your social media accounts so that they align with your estate planning

Estate Planning for the “Sandwich Generation”

Are you taking care of both young children and elderly parents? Are you providing emotional, physical and financial support to both ends of your family? Are you in the prime of your career but spending every waking moment outside of work acting as a caretaker? If so, you are not alone - you are part of the “sandwich generation.” This term was coined in 1981 by Dorothy Miller and has been illuminated further by elder care expert Carol Abaya who categorized the following scenarios:

-Traditional: those sandwiched between aging parents who need care and/or help and their own children.
-Club Sandwich: those in their 50s or 60s sandwiched between aging parents, adult children and grandchildren, or those in their 30s and 40s, with young children, aging parents and grandparents.
-Open Faced: anyone else involved in elder care

So what should you do if you are part of these groups? First and foremost you need to find ways to take care of yourself so that you can continue to help everyone in your family. While many aspects of your life may feel uncertain and out of control you do have concrete options for what you can do.

One of the most powerful tools you have at your fingertips is estate planning. Estate planning involves making decisions about who will handle your financial, legal and medical affairs in the event of incapacity or death. You can start out by making an estate plan for yourself. Then you can encourage other family members in your life to get their affairs in order like your aging parents and your adult children. But estate planning is more than a stack of documents - it is about conversations, decisions and family bonding.

Take an opportunity to start a conversation with your family about the following topics:

1) Do you have a general plan for your future?
2) Do you feel comfortable speaking with me about it?
3) Would you like my input?
4) If so, have you considered getting professional help to make a specific plan for your finances, legal and medical affairs?

I understand from first hand experience both as an estate planning attorney as well as a member of this generation sandwiched between my seven-year old twins and my aging parents.

If you would like to discuss more, do not hesitate to reach out to schedule a free consultation.