We find that digital assets are often overlooked in estate planning and can seem harder to keep track of than your tangible assets. However, digital assets can also have value and should be accounted for within your estate.
Digital assets can include:
- Email accounts
- Social media accounts
- Online bill paying services (banks, PayPal, etc.)
- Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
- Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
- Domain names for websites
- Digital photos and videos
- Digital rights to literary, musical composition, motion picture, or theatrical works
- Digital accounts in an online betting account
- Blog contents
- Airline miles, hotel points, or any other transferable rewards programs
- Online video channels where the content is monetized and producing an advertising revenue stream for its owner
- Online gaming avatars that offer online goods or services that may be worth real-world money
Without proper documentation and planning, it might be very difficult, or even impossible, for heirs or beneficiaries to access these assets. In many cases, the providers of these accounts may present significant obstacles to access or may completely deny access.
Here are some steps that we recommend taking to keep your digital assets organized and accounted for to ease this process:
- Start by listing all of your digital assets. Include all important passwords, online accounts (including email and social media accounts) and digital property (including domain names, virtual currency and money transfer apps). Note: avoid storing keys and passwords for cryptocurrencies digitally to reduce the chance of digital theft.
- Store your list in a secure location, but make sure a trusted contact knows how to access it. If possible, store the list in a secure cloud vault (such as the one available in your MyAncora client portal), but also save a backup to a local drive on your personal computer.
- Consider using a reputable password manager tool (like Dashlane, LastPass or 1Password) to store your passwords online. Make sure that your trusted contact has access to the master password, or, even better, is authorized as a legacy contact in the software.
- Make a list of all regular bills and how they are paid, especially those set up for autopay.
- For important online and social media accounts, check with the service provider to see if it allows the designation of a legacy contact who can access the account after death of the account owner. Most large online service providers (such as Facebook, Apple, Google) offer this option. Review this data regularly.
- Work with your estate planning lawyer to ensure that your heirs and fiduciaries have access to what they need, especially if documents have not been updated recently. Many states have enacted laws that give fiduciaries greater access, but in some cases, special language may be needed.