Digital Asset Estate Planning
There are these moments in our lives when technology changes faster than the legislation does.
Although subscriptions to services such as the Internet, mobile phone, or television are often known or easy to guess, if a person passes away or is incapacitated, passwords to other services are difficult to guess. That is why one should think seriously about one’s digital estate planning, as there are currently no legal or other mechanisms that will automatically come to the rescue.
The digital landscape around us is extremely fast-changing, but this doesn’t apply to the laws and regulations concerning data and digital assets. Of course, we don’t have to wait for laws and regulations to catch up with the rapidly developing digital world; we can take some easy steps to be prepared.
First, let us take a quick overview of the most important digital assets that you might want to include in your estate planning.
What are digital assets in an estate plan?
It’s not possible to compile a comprehensive list here, but these are the most important digital assets that you should consider:
Email accounts
Funds kept in online payment accounts
Assets stored in online trading platforms
Cryptocurrencies in crypto wallets
Online banking and financial accounts
Online subscription-based accounts
Insurance and other related accounts
Websites’ domain names
Social media accounts
Of course, we should also mention all kinds of media libraries, such as your private photo storage library, eBook library, and digital music and movie libraries.
How do you write an estate plan for digital assets?
The steps you need to take when creating your digital asset estate plan are similar to the classic one. However, it is recommended that you use special software for it to make it easier for you to catalog and keep track of all of them.
Make a full inventory of all your digital assets and libraries and keep the summary of that inventory with your other important inheritance documents in a secure place.
Protect your digital assets
Indicate where and how your digital assets can be found and accessed. Indicate whether some of them should be permanently deleted, and distribute the rest of the assets among your family and loved ones.
Review your beneficiaries
Make sure that you have designated the right beneficiaries to get access to the right digital assets. People sometimes overlook important details.
Appoint your fiduciaries
Digital assets, more than any other assets, need fiduciaries, such as trustees and executors, to be appointed.
Prepare your digital asset estate plan
Simply put all the information together. Organizing all your digital assets now not only makes it easier for your wishes to be followed after you pass away but is also a big help whenever you need to assess or access them.
What digital assets can you hand down through your estate plan?
All digital items that are licensed, not owned, cannot be inherited or transferred to someone. The best examples of non-transferable digital assets are email and social media accounts. In this regard, the role of the estate plan is to clearly indicate who has the right to close and/or completely erase these non-transferable digital assets.
Are digital assets property?
DGLegacy and digital asset estate planning
How does DGLegacy help you to prepare your digital asset estate plan?
With DGLegacy, you can easily catalog your digital assets, which enables you to protect not only them but also your loved ones should an unforeseen event happen to you.
You are able to catalog your digital, financial, and non-financial assets, designate your preferred beneficiary to them, and have them notified at the time you choose – while ensuring that your executor will know where to find your important inheritance documents.
With DGLegacy, you can protect your digital legacy. Your secure document and password manager with digital inheritance also makes it easy for you to keep your list of digital assets and beneficiaries up to date.
This way, in the event of anything unforeseen happening to you, your loved ones:
Are aware of your assets
Can identify and locate your assets
Can minimize the chance of unclaimed assets.
HOW IT WORKS
Protect your loved ones quickly and easily
Set up “alive” event
Crucial for the system's functioning, this step allows us to monitor that you are “alive”, we name it HeartBeat protocol. You have the option to adjust according to your preferences.
Catalog your assets
Catalogue the assets via DGLegacy, with minimum basic information needed, allowing your beneficiaries to identify and locate them.
Protect your assets
In case of a cyber security breach in a company which holds your assets, or media alerts for a risk related to its financial stability, DGLegacy will proactively notify you.
Invite beneficiaries and trustees
To add beneficiaries and trusties you need only their basic contact information - email and name. They will receive an invitational email.
Detection of fatal event
The Heartbeat protocol of DGLegacy, custom-engineered for your safety, confirms your well-being and detects any unexpected events. We proactively notify your beneficiaries about their designated assets in case of a tragic event.
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