I ran across this interesting article. It may spark some interest with some of us.
How to Organize Your Digital Afterlife
Ventura County Star, June 22, 2013
Not long ago, it was sufficient to draw up a will bequeathing worldly goods such as your furniture, house, car and other treasures.
But computer-savvy people are beginning to see that it's increasingly important to put their online house in order, as well.
When her time comes, Camarillo estate planning attorney Cheri Elson said, her family will get the user names and passwords to unlock her digital assets. She keeps the various codes stored in a file protected by a master password that will be given to the person appointed to administer her estate.
"So they can just log on," she said. "That's the easiest way to handle it right now. Make sure your executor knows where your estate plan is and knows at least your main password."
That's a necessity because California has no law specifically governing the posthumous distribution of digital assets, Elson said.
"I would love to see the law catch up with the technology, but the reality is it's going to take a long time," she said. "They're not going to create laws until they're forced to and there are so many things they're going to have to address."
Digital assets might be sentimental or commercial. They can include anything from bank and retirement accounts to Instagram photo collections, blogs, Facebook pages and iTunes music vaults. Americans valued their individual digital assets at nearly $55,000, according to a 2011 survey from McAfee, a Santa Clara-based seller of anti-virus and other computer security software.
Only Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Oklahoma and Rhode Island have legislation concerning fiduciary access to digital assets. The nonprofit National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws is working on a model statute for states, acknowledging that the number of digital assets held by the average person is increasing and so are questions surrounding their disposition upon death or incapacity.
Elson believes another bellwether situation like what happened to Justin Ellsworth's family may have to occur before we see new laws.
Ellsworth was a Marine killed in Iraq in 2004. His parents wanted to access his Yahoo email account but didn't have his password and the company refused to give it to them because of its privacy policy. They sued in Michigan and got a court order that compelled Yahoo to give them a CD that contained his email. Ellsworth's case has since become a driving force behind the call for new statutes and has motivated entrepreneurs.
Ellsworth inspired two University of Wisconsin seniors - Jesse Davis and Nathan Lustig - to launch Entrustet, a digital-estate-management service that was acquired last year for an undisclosed amount by Switzerland-based DSwiss, founders of the online data safe service SecureSafe.
Davis uses SecureSafe to store his own passwords but said he'd also recommend simply keeping a pen-and-paper record with the help of an estate attorney. He prefers online solutions, however, saying they're "more manageable."
Whether a person chooses to handle their cyberspace afterlife online or offline, the most important thing is to have a plan and a conversation with your family, Lustig said.
"Because even if you end up using a service like SecureSafe or putting it in your will, nobody's going to know where you stored it unless you tell them," he said. "So it's important to have those conversations and make your wishes known ahead of time."
There are a number of services and programs available to help people document their wishes. Others include eWallet, AssetLock, and Legacy Locker. Google has a new feature called Inactive Account Manager that lets users instruct the company what to do with Gmail messages and other Google services if their account goes dormant.
Davis said he's "played around with" it.
"I thought it was cool," he said.
TIPS
Here are some guidelines on how to guard digital assets:
- Create a written record of the user names and passwords to bequeath.
- Decide on a secure place to store your information, virtually or using pen and paper.
- Work with an attorney to incorporate your wishes into your will or trust.
- Speak with your family or person who will administer your estate about how to access your online accounts.
- Familiarize yourself with the death policies of Facebook, Twitter or any other services whose terms you have agreed to.
(Related content: Social media outlets add an online dimension to ancient ritual of grief)
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