What to Do About Your Tech & Digital Assets Before You Pass Away

Have you considered what may happen to your digital assets and online accounts when you pass away?

Specifically, the photos and files on your mobile and laptop, or your social media accounts and passwords?

Nobody wants to think about passing away, but doing so before it’s too late will make life easier for your loved ones.

Plus, we all have those sentimental images locked up on our mobiles or cloud accounts, right?

We have listed our top 4 tips for addressing your digital assets below:

Digital Executor & Heir

A normal executor may be able to administer your digital assets via your Will.

However, making an unambiguous executor of your digital assets will guarantee they can.

Perhaps your normal executor isn’t someone you consider ‘tech savvy’, and the role may be better suited to someone else you trust.

Perhaps you want to separate your executor completely from the person you want access to your photos, email accounts or online files.

For example, a sibling or friend may be nominated as your executor, but you may feel that a younger person i.e. your child, a niece or nephew, is in a better position to take over your social media account and/or the photos in your phone.

In addition, your digital assets may not be considered as important as they truly are while your executor is fulfilling his or her primary role of handling your whole estate and any subsequent disputes.

Create a Digital Inventory

List your digital assets and identify your digital portfolio.

How can one take care of your digital assets when you pass away if they don’t know exactly what they are?

Sure, digital assets have undeniable sentimental value, but other technological assets have may monetary value too.

Recently, anti-virus software giants McAfee conducted a survey to determine the value of digital assets in the US.

They found that consumers valued their digital estate at over AUD45,000, and this figure is set to grow considerably in our lifetime too.

Password Manager

Malwarebytes Labs defines a password manager as “a software application designed to store and manage online credentials. It also generates passwords. Usually, these passwords are stored in an encrypted database and locked behind a master password.”

Password managers generally allow you to configure an emergency contact, who can access your information in specific circumstances, such as your passing.

Estate Planning

Its common practice to outline the distribution of your property in a Will.

Historically, many Wills have overlooked digital assets and haven’t been up-to-date with the latest tech products and services.

You can prepare an inventory of your digital assets and information, storing it securely while making it easily accessible to those who have been given your permission to use it.

You can also include a separate clause in your Power of Attorney for addressing your digital assets.

Ultimately, it has been predicted that addressing digital assets in your estate planning will become the ‘normal’ in our lifetime.