Digital estate planning involves the legal and technological aspects of managing someone's digital assets after their death. These include everything from passwords for social media accounts and payment apps to digital bank accounts - Image Samuel, Sayward, & Baler LLC

 

Estate Planning: Why You Need to Plan for Your Online Assets

By Saghir Aslam
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

(The following information is provided solely to educate the Muslim community about investing and financial planning. It is hoped that the ummah will benefit from this effort through greater financial empowerment, enabling the community to live in security and dignity and fulfil their religious and moral obligations towards charitable activities)

Make sure you consider your digital assets when creating your estate plan. Taking this step can help give survivors access to online accounts and important digital assets.

You may have an estate plan that spells out what to do with your houses, financial accounts, and other property when you're no longer here, but does it spell out what to do with your social media accounts, online financial accounts, or your smartphone and all its photos? As you worked through the various steps of estate planning, did you consider how a loved one would access your phone or computer if something happened to you? 

That's a problem that one family encountered after the death of a loved one. The family wanted to delete personal information from an online account. However, the heirs didn't have the account password and couldn't log in. On behalf of the estate, they contacted the online service and undertook the process of providing documents and forms to prove their authority to manage the deceased's online account.

You can make it work.

Those kinds of cloud storage accounts represent just one kind of digital asset. As more of our lives are lived online, the number of accounts, passwords. and user identities we establish continue to increase. Some of these assets have real value and that means incorporating a strategy for your digital assets to your overall estate planning process. 

What is digital estate planning?

Digital estate planning involves the legal and technological aspects of managing someone's digital assets after their death. These include everything from passwords for social media accounts and payment apps to digital bank accounts. Accounting for this wide variety of assets and accounts has become a critical element of estate planning. 

Sometimes, people fail to consider the sentimental value of photos stored in digital cloud accounts. And they might forget that online financial assets may be difficult or impossible for their heirs to access without login credentials. 

Even something as simple as paying a utility bill or accessing funds for daily living can become challenging if those activities require an online password that heirs, an executor, or a trusted relative don't have.

(Continued next week)

(Saghir A. Aslam only explains strategies and formulas that he has been using. He is merely providing information, and NO ADVICE is given. Mr Aslam does not endorse or recommend any broker, brokerage firm, or any investment at all, or does he suggest that anyone will earn a profit when or if they purchase stocks, bonds or any other investments. All stocks or investment vehicles mentioned are for illustrative purposes only. Mr Aslam is not an attorney, accountant, real estate broker, stockbroker, investment advisor, or certified financial planner. Mr Aslam does not have anything for sale.)

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