ESTATE PLANNING, Preparedness
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT YOUR DIGITAL STUFF?
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT YOUR DIGITAL STUFF?
Your Digital assets or your Digital property?
You may have pensions, documents, bank accounts, investments property, vehicles, art, etc but you just don’t think of your digital presence online as an asset of yours.
But, according to the new world encompassing us today to is! And it can really screw your family up if they can’t access of any your digital assets.
What are some of the digital assets you probably have today?
1- All of your online accounts such as: credit card and bank accounts, rewards account, frequent flyer or hotel, car rewards.
2- Digital files that you own, could be photos, videos, or music or diaries
3- iTunes account, Google Play accounts
4- Email accounts, all social media accounts, facebook account, networking accounts, e-commerce accounts, EBay, Amazon, PayPal, Staples, Best Buy, Square, etc.
5- Websites, blogs, ancestry.com, domain names
6- EBooks, Kindle etc.
7- Online gaming assets, smartphone games, World of Warcraft, Second Life
8- Any online casino, poker, gaming accounts ie, Entropia Unverse, or Space Station.
9- Smartphone, passwords, vmail, home security system etc.
10- Medical records
These types of assets are not necessarily included in your will and have a lot of grey areas associated with them on what is ownership, what is transferrable.
Of course these types of digital assets are just as important as any physical assets that you have and the best way to keep full control over them is to have a plan so that on death or if you were to incapable, these digital assets can be monitored, altered, cancelled or transferred to your beneficiary as per your wishes.
How do maintain that control? With a plan of course. The only system that I have seen to date is the new APP that has been released, Your Backup Plan App. This APP ensures that you have a beneficiary to control your wishes after you are unable to. It encompasses all of the digital world as well as the physical assets in one APP.
Most of the digital accounts all have different policies on cancellation or transfer of the assets. So, it is best that you know all of the passwords, logins and usernames to the accounts so that the next person will have full control over them in the event of incapacity.
Some of the digital accounts request a court order to access the person’s past digital account. To avoid those types of inconveniences, costs and stress you can manage your digital property by sharing the information with your beneficiary. But, some cases people don’t feel comfortable doing that until they are unable to. They feel they don’t want to lose control until they have to.
And all ages should be considering this type of planning. This isn’t just for seniors. A matter of fact, statistics show that 50+ age group have 80% digital assets and 20-50 age group have 100% digital assets.
Estate planning in both Canada and the United States don’t seem to have any type of legal protection for any digital property. And surviving family members are faced on a daily basis with the challenges when trying to access or delete any online accounts under the name of the deceased person. And what is even more complicated is that most states, jurisdictions, or provinces have varied rules governing the release of information to the family member without a court order. Of course some people this is because of our new world of fraud.
Some digital property is worth thousands, if not millions so it should not be forgotten.
What about money making Bloggers?
Avid marketers, bloggers, or account holders of money making ventures should definitely set up their own legal structure to protect their interests in any jurisdiction and ensure you have a trustworthy beneficiary or partner that can be part of the equation. That can be arranged using Your Backup Plan APP.
Check out CBC News Video: Apple demands widow get court order to access dead husband’s password
Apple demands widow get court order to access dead husband’s password
Tina Olexa
YOUR BACKUP PLAN APP
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