Tag: digital

In the Internet age, estate planning isn’t just about making a will or setting up a trust. You probably have digital assets stored only in the cloud that are part of your estate. After you pass away, executors or family members will need to access those assets to distribute them to heirs.

How Can Heirs Gain Access to Digital Assets?

Digital assets come in many forms these days. You might own the following:

• Online bank accounts with banks that have no brick-and-mortar branches
• Retirement accounts through online brokerages
• Websites, forums, or online accounts with monetary value
• Publications and intellectual property stored only online
• Bitcoin or other alternative currencies

These assets have value and should be distributed to your heirs after your death. But gaining access to and transferring ownership of the assets could be a headache.

In Illinois, executors can use the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act to access electronic records on behalf of a deceased person. However, the person must have specifically stated in a will, power of attorney, or other estate planning document that the executor could access these accounts. Or the person needed to fill out a form on each company’s website to allow another person access.

Further, you should place a list of your accounts, usernames, and passwords in a place accessible by your executor or family members. This might be in your safe deposit box or with the lawyer who has a copy of your will.

Distributing Digital Assets

States have begun passing a variety of laws beyond the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act to govern distribution of digital assets. For example, laws may govern how to determine the value of a particular asset (often the fair market value on the owner’s date of death). These laws help the executor properly gather and distribute all digital assets as part of the probate process.

To change accountholders on online digital asset accounts, the executor might need to spend hours on the phone contacting online companies or jump through hoops such as filling out forms. The heirs even may need to invoke intellectual property laws to gain ownership of digital assets. In short, distributing digital assets can be complicated and time-consuming.

Want to start planning your estate? Local attorney Andrew Szocka, Esq. provides thorough and speedy estate planning help in the Chicagoland area. To schedule a free initial consultation, visit the Law Office of Andrew Szocka, P.C. online or call the office at (815) 455-8430.

In the Internet age, estate planning isn’t just about making a will or setting up a trust. You probably have online accounts that your executor or relatives will need to access. But if they don’t have the password and don’t have explicit permission from you, account access could be a struggle.

Will Your Executor or Relatives Be Able to Access Your Accounts?

If you have even one online account, then at some point you agreed to user terms and conditions prepared by the company that hosts the account. These pages of legalese often include restrictions on other people accessing your account using your username and password. The restrictions may continue even after you have passed away.

As a result, your executor or your relatives may have a great deal of difficulty accessing these accounts. Simply using your username and password in your stead might violate the user terms and conditions, if they can even find your password. If they try to contact the companies and explain the situation, they might hear nothing back or simply be told that they cannot access the accounts. Fortunately, you can take a few steps now to prevent these problems.

A Balance Between Security and Sound Estate Planning

To prevent problems with others accessing your accounts after your death, take advantage of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. Illinois adopted this Act in 2016, and it applies to digital assets created in the past and in the future. The Act allows executors and other fiduciaries to access your electronic records and sometimes your electronic communications.

You must give your executor, attorney, or agent explicit access to your accounts and other digital assets, such as by including special language in your will. Also, some companies provide a method for designating an agent to access the accounts on their websites. Even if you explicitly say in your estate plan that someone can access your accounts or fill out a company’s form, fiduciaries might still have trouble gaining access without passwords and usernames.

To prevent this issue, you should make sure that someone has access to your account usernames and passwords after your death. This could be as simple as making a paper list and leaving it in your safe deposit box, or using a password manager and including the master password in your will or a document stored with your will.

Want to start planning your estate? Local attorney Andrew Szocka, Esq. provides thorough and speedy estate planning help in the Chicagoland area. To schedule a free initial consultation, visit the Law Office of Andrew Szocka, P.C. online or call the office at (815) 455-8430.