Preparing, Protecting and Passing On Your Digital Assets

Your Digital Legacy

Digital assets or property is any information about you or created by you in digital (electronic) form, including; passwords, email accounts, social media accounts, healthcare sites, medical and dental sites, investment sites, insurance sites, shopping accounts, photo sites, online storage accounts, etc.. All your digital property is considered your digital estate. Developing a Digital Asset Protection Plan is essential to protect and communicating your digital estate.

One of the big reasons to create a Digital Asset Protection Plan is that you don’t want personal details ending up with a stranger or someone who, frankly, you hoped would never see it. That’s true even after we die. And if we don’t plan for how to take care of that personal information, there’s no way to know where it will end up. Identity theft and fraud could also happen after your death. "Depending on your profession, you may also have digital assets that have substantial intellectual property and monetary value, which could also be stolen or misappropriated,"

More than 65 percent of Americans do not have any form of written estate plan in place, let alone an estate plan that addresses digital assets. But think about all the information and docs and apps in these accounts and the potential value they represent. If you’re a photographer, for example, much of your valuable work may be digital and stored in password-protected areas on your hard drive or in the “cloud”. Also, what about those hundreds of irreplaceable family photos? In this day and age, your digital assets should be part of your estate planning…”you need to pass on the keys to your digital kingdom.”

We have created a template to compile a Digital Asset Protection Plan which outlines the tasks necessary to compile the Plan, the required forms, and the inventory documents your will need. This 35+ page template in PDF format can be ordered below.