Digital Assets: Access after Disability or Death

Estate Planning for the High Tech World In our technology-driven environment, many of us have created “digital assets.”  Digital assets include many types of things such as music, videos, medical records, financial statements, or photographs.  These items may be stored on a computer hard drive, online, or in the “cloud.”  Digital assets may also include accounts on social media websites, e-mail accounts, or merchant websites including credit card companies that offer rewards in the form of points that can be applied to purchase certain goods and services. The world of digital assets can become complicated if the owner of the assets is either deceased or lacks capacity to access to these assets.  It is not unheard of, for example, to receive a notice on a LinkedIn list of a person’s work anniversary years after the person has died.  This is obviously an unsettling event.  What can or cannot be done in these types of situations? Digital assets are governed primarily by terms of service agreements between the owner of digital assets and the provider of services related to digital assets.  Most of us have had experience simply clicking the “agree” button with a provider of digital assets, but equally, most of us do not read the extensive and complex terms of service agreement.  It cannot be assumed that what is included, for example, in a terms of service agreement for Southwest Airlines is the same for Delta Airlines.  Awareness of the contents of the term of service agreement for each digital asset in a portfolio will be informative about how to access a digital asset. Both federal and state...