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04-07-2017

Your Digital Assets and how to protect them

Do you realise that anything you store online forms part of your digital assets?

There are several reasons why planning needs to be made for our digital assets upon death or the loss of mental capacity. Many of these assets are of financial value such as Bitcoin accounts, Paypal accounts, online businesses and written works. If these are unable to be accessed, then they may disappear into Cyberspace.

Photographs are commonly stored online these days with icloud being the current flavour of the day and if for some reasons the subscription should lapse during probate for example, these memories may be lost forever. In our experience, photographs are the most sentimental of possessions and families are often distraught when the family history is destroyed or missing.

Identity theft is unfortunately becoming even more commonplace nowadays and upon death or the loss of mental capacity, accounts are no longer being monitored so the risk of it happening to you increases.

There is no reason to worry. We advise that you appoint a “digital executor” in your will and prepare a list of all your digital assets with passwords. This should be accompanied by a letter of wishes instructing the digital executor how to handle your digital assets. It is best that the individual appointed is conversant with technology so that they are able to carry out your wishes without problem. For example, you may want your Facebook account to become “In Memorium”, your digital executor will therefore need to be competent with Facebook to carry this out. It is important to note that many of your digital assets may contain private information that you do not wish to be seen by certain people so this should be considered when appointing your digital executor and drafting your letter of wishes.

If you wish to make an appointment to discuss any of the above then please contact our Private Client Department.