How to Organize Your Online Accounts for Your Estate Plan
An important aspect of your estate planning that many people might overlook is your digital legacy. You should start considering what you want to happen to all of your online accounts that you have created and maintained over the years. You don’t literally own any online blogs, social network accounts, or digital files, but you are permitted to leave detailed instructions for your executor on what you would like your digital legacy to be after you die.
What is Included in Your Digital Legacy?
While considering your digital legacy and online identity, look through your social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn), blogs, domain names, any listservs or online communities you were a part of, music, photos, selling accounts (Amazon or eBay) and any financial or banking accounts. Any networking accounts are yours by licensing rights only, but they are not technically your actual property, so they will not be included in your will or any other estate plans.
What Instructions Should I Leave for My Executor?
Social media accounts: Each social media company has its own policies on what to do with deceased accounts. You can tell your executor to post a status update, tweet, or post after your death.
Email: What happens to your email accounts will also depend on the individual policies of the company in charge of your account. Eventually it will be deleted, but you can tell your executor to send, print or save any important email before the account expires.
Blogs and domains: You can tell your executor to post on your blog about your death, delete the blog account, or archive its posts. You can also tell your executor to transfer, delete or continue paying for your domain license.
Photos, music, and digital files: Decide how your executor will access any digital files, and you can use your will to leave these items to your friends and loved ones with detailed descriptions.
Sellers accounts: Leave instructions on what you want done with your account; usually you can leave any items you were selling to your loved ones through your will.
Financial accounts: It’s important that your executor has clear access to your financial accounts in order to pay bills and execute your estate plans.
The Law Office of Brandon L. Campbell can continue to help you through this process. Contact us today to start organizing your estate documents and plans.
