When we think about estate planning, the usual things that would come to mind would be property, money, and other tangible assets. With an ever-evolving tech world, it is becoming ever more common to consider a digital estate plan.
The ownership of digital assets continues to increase. From eBooks to photographs and videos stored online, from gaming accounts to cryptocurrency, many of us continue to accrue digital assets, but what happens to these assets when we die?
Whilst it is still unclear exactly what type of rights we all have over our digital content, and also what is the impact of the duty of confidentiality to a deceased’s account holder, it is generally agreed that Executors need to be able to deal with a deceased’s digital assets as part of the administration of their estate.
The most common options offered by internet service providers (ISPs)
- Deletion and termination of the deceased’s account (sometimes with memorialisation of content for a short period prior to deletion)
- The selection of a nominee who will have limited access to the account contents after the original owner’s death
- Permission to access content once certain documentary evidence is provided
As the options differ between providers it is important that we all consider the options for online accounts as part of our estate planning to ensure that any digital assets with emotional or monetary value are not lost. We need to ensure that sufficient strategies are in place to allow our executors or solicitors to access digital assets following death. Providing your passwords to others is often prohibited by the terms of the ISPs and so you may need to consider ways to ensure that you do not fall foul of these terms, such as use of a third party password provider. For those with Apple devices, a new digital legacy facility was announced in 2021, which allows account holders to appoint a Legacy Contact to access their account after death.
A Checklist for Digital Estate Planning
- Make a list of all digital assets you own, from email to utilities and banking, cloud-hosted important documents, and any other subscriptions or memberships that are managed online. Plus, the technology you use to access these assets, i.e. tablet or laptop, mobile phone, hard drive.
- Decide what you would like to be done and perhaps list them as priorities that would need addressing. Some you may simply like cancelling or closing down, others may require action such as transferring to other family members. Common sense will be needed in terms of the type of these assets; for example, if there is money or credit held in accounts, how will this be withdrawn, and so on.
- Be clear on who the Executor of your Digital Estate will be. Will it be the same person who is named as Executor of your Estate, or will someone more tech-savvy be required to manage this?
- Safely and securely store passwords and login details; this could be stored with your Will so it is kept safe until required.
- Include details of your Digital Estate Plan in your complete Estate Plan so that when all documents are signed and witnessed, it becomes legally binding.
It is also important to consider what provision needs to be made in your Will, not just for electronic devices but also the content that can be accessed by them. Although such items may have sentimental rather than financial value, you should consider whether you wish to make a legacy of such items and if so that your will is drafted properly to provide for the gifting of such assets and the appropriate powers are contained to allow your executors to deal with any digital assets.
What is commonly forgotten and what needs to be done
Just as you would make provisions for physical assets to be managed in the event of your death, you may also wish to do the same with your digital profiles and accounts.
When you appoint someone as an Executor of your Estate when you die, you can make reference to any digital assets and what you’d like to be done with them. The Executor will have to reach out to these organisations to get accounts closed down.
Facebook allows you to add a “legacy contact”, which is someone who can make decisions in relation to your account when you have passed away. The account will become memorialised and the legacy contact won’t be able to log in to your account.
When an account becomes memorialised, it will still exist there with all of your memories, photos, posts, and so on, but no action will be able to be taken or friend requests sent, etc.
The appointed individual can ask for your account to be removed, change your profile picture and cover photo, download a copy of what you’ve put on Facebook (if you choose this setting) and share a final message on your account.
The legacy contact should be added whilst you are alive.
Twitter will work with the Executor/Personal Representative of an estate to close an account when someone passes away.
They require some formal documentation, such as the death certificate and the ID of the Executor/Personal Representative.
They won’t allow anyone access to your account; it will simply be closed down.
LinkedIn will arrange to close an account if the Executor/Personal Representative gets in touch. If someone other than the Executor/Personal Representative informs them of a death, then they will hide the account so that it can no longer be found through searches.
It’s also possible to memorialise the account, which must be requested by the Executor/Person Representative and means that the account access is locked and a memorialised badge appears.
The profile will still exist but no activity will take place and the account won’t be able to receive new connection requests or requests such as messages.
For Instagram, the account can be closed by a family member or memorialised by someone else. They will require some proof of passing, such as a link to a news or obituary article from anyone who is not a family member.
For the account to be completely closed down, Instagram will need the birth and death certificate of the person who has passed away and proof that the Executor is the person able to deal with their estate.
There is currently no facility to memorialise an account on TikTok. Only someone with access to your account details and password can request for it to be deleted.
Any online banking accounts will follow the bank’s rules in relation to whether or not the bank need a Grant of Probate to close the account.
Once the bank has been notified of the death, they will freeze the account and any online access should also be frozen.
For other accounts such as online grocery accounts, subscriptions and memberships, it may be worthwhile looking into the safest place to store your passwords, such as allowing your computer to remember them, and ensuring your Executors have your computer password.
You would need to completely trust that your Executors won’t access the account without your permission and ensure it is kept somewhere safe. Alternatively, you could invest in secure software for this purpose.
Speak with an Expert
If you would like guidance from a professional about managing or making your digital estate plan in the future, our estate planning team can assist and help you to identify which details could be important to store for the future.
You can contact our team on 0161 969 3131 or fill in our contact form and one of the team will be in touch to discuss your estate plan.