Over the past decade, the financial landscape has changed significantly, and the framework of estate planning has been altered along with it. 20 years ago, an estate would have included primarily physical and financial assets like homes, retirement accounts, and family heirlooms. Today, your estate might include a range of digital assets. If you haven’t updated your estate plan to account for these types of assets, it’s time to bring your planning strategy into the 21st century. Here are some common types of digital assets and how you can address them in your estate plan:
What are Digital Assets?
Anything that has a monetary value but does not exist in a physical form can be considered a digital asset. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are obvious examples, but you may own many other types of digital assets, including:
- Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
- Website domains and content
- Digital photos and videos
- Monetized accounts on social media and content platforms
- Online gaming accounts holding digital goods and services that are worth real-world money
- Online gambling accounts
- Digital rights to music, movies, and other content
- Transferrable rewards program accounts like flyer miles and hotel points
Any of these items could be worth money to your heirs, so it is crucial that you include them in your estate plan so they don’t get lost.
Ensuring Your Heirs Have Access to Your Digital Assets
Speaking to an estate planning attorney about your digital assets is just the first step to including them in your estate plan; you will also need to ensure your heirs will have access to them. You can include documents in your estate plan containing all the relevant usernames and passwords for your cryptocurrency wallets, social media accounts, and apps containing digital assets. You may even need to include your cell phone in your estate plan with instructions on how to unlock it so your heirs will have access to digital assets stored in the cloud.
Protecting Digital Assets
Many types of digital assets don’t offer the same protections as something like an FDIC-insured bank account. For example, if someone hacks your crypto wallet, you may never be able to recover the assets that were lost. For this reason, it’s a good idea not to store valuable passwords digitally on devices with internet access. You may want to store your passwords on a flash drive or external hard drive or even write them out on paper and include that document in your estate.
Anticipate Legal Roadblocks
In many cases, data privacy laws make it illegal for unauthorized persons to access computer systems or for internet service providers to turn over electronic communications to anyone other than the person who created them. That’s why you may want to include written consent to access your devices in your estate plan. You can grant blanket permission to access all your computer systems and devices, or you can grant access to specific heirs for specific devices. Either way, including these documents in your estate plan, will make life much easier for your heirs when they attempt to collect your digital assets.
Estate Planning Attorney in Pennsylvania
As the digital world evolves, the estate planning industry is evolving to keep pace with it. Attorney Robert Slutsky has seen plenty of change during his decades as an elder law attorney, and he strives to remain at the forefront of all new developments in estate planning. He would be happy to discuss your estate plan with you, including any digital assets you may own.
Call Slutsky Elder Law right away if you need an estate planning lawyer in Delaware County, PA, or surrounding counties, call (610) 940-0650 or contact us to request a consultation. Be sure to stay on top of all state-specific estate information relevant to your jurisdiction.