The Digital Estate Planning Guide

While you probably know that it is essential to put together an estate plan including items like a last will and testament, medical directives, power of attorney, and other legal documents, many of us haven’t considered what will happen to our digital presence when we are gone. But whether you want everything deleted or you’d like some things to “live on” after you are gone, it is important to plan ahead and take steps to manage your digital legacy.

The Digital Legacy Clinic

Jed Brubaker, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, is an expert in the digital footprints we leave behind. He says the average person has 190 accounts at the end of life and over 850 GB of data. Brubaker launched a Digital Legacy Clinic in Colorado, guiding people on how to manage their accounts after realizing that no central website or organization was addressing this issue. Students help staff the clinics in Denver and Boulder, but their advice is helpful to anyone creating a digital estate plan. These questions can help you clarify your next moves in creating a digital estate plan.

• What’s your goal?
• Who owns the accounts or data?
• What platforms are the accounts or data on?
• Do you have access?
• Do you want someone to inherit the access?

Managing a digital estate may be particularly challenging for seniors, but a few tech companies are trying to make the process easier. For example, Facebook offers a form to help save or close accounts after death. Unfortunately, only about 15 percent of online companies have a clear system for handling a user’s death.

How to Create a Digital Estate Plan

Creating a digital estate plan can be simple. It requires similar components to a last will and testament: a defined testator, defined assets and beneficiaries, and an executor.

Conduct Inventory of Your Digital Assets

You’ll want to start by listing out all your digital assets. As mentioned above, you might have more digital assets than you recalled. Take some time and think properly about your digital footprint, listing out as many sites, accounts, and devices as you can remember.

Decide How to Handle Digital Accounts

Once you have listed your digital assets, specify what you want done with them. In some cases, you might be inclined to memorialize them, archive them, or leave them as is. In other cases, you may want the account deleted or passed on to another individual. Each site, account, and business has its own policy regarding how to close or memorialize an account after the owner’s passing, so take some time to research each policy.

For closing some social media and other online accounts, a death certificate might be requested to confirm you or your loved one’s passing. Additionally, most businesses will not allow family members or friends access to your password under any circumstances.

When writing a will, be aware that the information will be shared with your family and friends. If authorized within a legal will, such as your last will and testament, the information may become public record after a period of time.

Name a Digital Executor

Once you’ve defined your digital assets and what you want done with them, name a digital executor to distribute the assets and information. Pick someone you trust with the responsibility of properly distributing your digital asset information.

Store and Share Your Document

After the document is drafted, you can decide how to store it. You could make it a legally binding document by attaching it to your last will and testament. Alternatively, if you already have a will, you can attach it as a codicil (or amendment to your existing will). If you don’t have particularly sensitive information, or rather not go through the action of adding it to your last will, you could simply store it in a safe place for your loved one after your passing. Please ensure that you inform your digital executor or other trusted family members and friends about the location of the document.

Does Everyone Need a Digital Estate Plan?

While it is not necessary for everyone, creating a digital estate plan is a growing concern for many people. Our lives are deeply and irrevocably connected to the internet, and creating a digital estate plan ensures that part of our lives is just as properly addressed as any other. 

In addition to properly addressing our digital presence, there are other benefits to closing online accounts and protecting digital assets after death, such as helping limit the possibility of identity theft and informing followers and friends of the individual’s passing.

In a digital age, your end-of-life planning will undoubtedly include some help from the internet. At Tulip Cremation, we want to make it easy for you when planning final arrangements, for yourself or for your loved one. We offer a transparent direct cremation service that can be arranged online or with our 24/7 Family Care Team at (844) 942-4909.

Image by Niek Verlaan from Pixabay