With the fast-growing technology of the digital age, digital assets are becoming an increasingly important asset to consider when creating your estate plan. Digital assets include photos, videos, eBooks, music, emails, social media accounts, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and cryptocurrency.
Here are five (5) things you should know regarding your digital assets:
1. The Terms of Service Agreements entered with the digital service or account providers govern the respective digital assets along with state and federal law.
2. With videos, eBooks, and music purchased and/or downloaded through companies like Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music you only own a license to those digital assets to use during your lifetime.
3. You can set up a Legacy Contact within your email and social platforms like Apple, Google, and Meta (Facebook). A Legacy Contact is someone who can access the digital information contained in your email or social media upon your death. They may save any valuable information and delete or memorialize your account.[4] For services that do not have a legacy contact option, it is important to give your personal representative or trustee powers over your digital assets in your estate planning documents.
4. Cryptocurrency is considered personal property that can be subject to probate upon your death. Currently, cryptocurrency exchanges do not support beneficiary designations like transfer on death (TOD) or payable on death (POD). It is important to make beneficiary designations for your cryptocurrency in your estate planning documents.
5. For any of the digital assets discussed above, it is imperative to leave important information for your designated personal representative or trustee regarding instructions on how to access the accounts or digital wallets.
If you have questions about estate planning for digital assets or would like to discuss other digital asset estate planning strategies for you or your beneficiaries, please contact our office.
