ESTATE PLANNING, Preparedness
5 STEPS TO PROTECT YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD
Do you have teenagers? Maybe even adult children? Do you know someone that does? We will need to know these 5 Steps to protect your Social Media World.
Because not only are we at risk for not protecting our social platforms, digital assets & property but now so are our kids at risk!
WHAT TYPES OF DIGITAL ASSETS IN THIS SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD?
What types of accounts are these Digital assets? Things like
- Accounts such as their XBox account, or iTunes/Google play account, Amazon, poker, gambling sites or Accounts that have any credits attached to them ($dollar values)
- Social Media pages
- Websites
- blogs
- Clouds
- Storage accounts
- Library accounts
- Gaming accounts
- App accounts or pages
Whether young or older, as soon as we have set up accounts we are at risk. Let me explain the risk.
RISK
When we set up our own private accounts, we have put our loved ones at risk. With more than 1.2 million social media users dying annually, family, friends, social media services and the Internet are left to deal with a deceased user’s digital assets ( or what we call accounts and pages) When we die, who takes control of our social media networks, blogs and websites?
How have we done this? When we set up the various digital platforms and accounts we normally don’t share our logins and passwords with anyone. As a matter of fact we, personally also have difficulty keeping track of our accounts just for ourselves.
What happens if you don’t keep good records of your digital property?
TRYING TO LOCATE YOUR DIGITAL PROPERTY
For each of your accounts, libraries, storage and social media platforms – When the Executor of that estate realizes that the person had an account, or any of the digital property – they will need to show proof of death and usually a court order to prove that they can be given access to that account. That will cost money and time to get a court order.
Each account or platform will also have other certain requirements and steps that will also be needed at that time to gain access. This may include an application, documentation and a court order from a US court.
It is important to deal with these digital assets for various reasons. Preventing identity theft and to ensure that the pages or accounts are not used in any criminal behaviour.
Perhaps you may wish to continue the management of the online business or a blog that your family member has. Or they wish that you continue with it.
The value of the asset may be significant for a loved one or beneficiary. For example, the asset may have sentimental value such as digital photos, or it may have significant monetary value such as a professional blog or a gambling / gaming account.
Now, do you really want to go through all that work and the costs involved? Or do you want others to have to find your digital assets too?
The last risk that is involved is a predator hacking into the dormant account, whether that is the facebook/twitter account on a social media platform or a library of purchased music, apps or games or even thousands of dollars of credits that are sitting in dormancy.
MANAGING YOUR RISK
1- What would you like done with your accounts once you are gone? List your wishes for each of them. Keep that list up to date.
2- Keep your digital accounts up to date regularly
3- Make a list of all of the social digital platforms you have, including libraries, storage and accounts. Keep them up to date and share the list with someone you trust.
4- Make a list of payments required to keep up your accounts and their payment method.
5- Keep a list of logins of all the accounts, etc.
Your Backup Plan App will keep your digital assets organized and updated easily with the use of your smartphone.
YOUR BACKUP PLAN
TINA OLEXA, Developer
YOUR BACKUP PLAN APP, now available to download on iTunes and Google Play stores
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