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Creating a Digital Plan
from Bell Wealth Q3 2023
by Bell Bank
With guidance from your advisor, these are the basic steps for creating a digital plan:
1. Create a detailed inventory of all digital assets, including your username, password and security answers for each. By law, online providers can’t share your electronic communications without your consent, so you need to identify who will access these assets and how.
2. Determine which digital assets have value and your desired recipients. You may think you own a digital asset, but you may have purchased a nontransferable license to use the asset, with no ownership rights established. You need to review the terms of the agreement so you know.
3. Appoint an individual responsible for handling your digital assets/online ac counts. For example, your Facebook account can be deleted or changed to a “memorialized” site. Appoint a “legacy contact” to notify Facebook of your passing and monitor the memorialized site.
4. Consult your estate planning attorney and tax advisor to determine what digital assets need to be included in your estate and tax planning provisions. You may need to give consent for people to access the contents of your digital communications.
5. Position trusted individuals to administer digital assets during incapacity and after death, especially since most financial firms that provide corporate fiduciary services are not yet able to administer digital assets.
Having your wishes incorporated into strategic estate planning not only gives you peace of mind, but also helps eliminate potential discord among your beneficiaries. Appointing trusted advisors for digital assets can reduce stress and conflict among family members as the digital revolution races forward.
