A gift to loved ones

Your digital legacy is the electronic data that is left behind when we die. In today’s technologically immersed world, it is more important than ever to think about your digital legacy as part of estate planning. This contemporary topic raises two threshold questions.

Do your family members and/or designated Personal Representative under your will know how to access your information after you have died? Leave a list of instructions, including passwords, for that trusted individual.

What accounts should be deleted versus preserved? Your trusted individual also needs to know your wishes for deleting versus preserving certain accounts. You might want to delete that dating site, but keep your Facebook open for transition into memorial status. Family members often take comfort in the posts of family and friends after a loved one has died.

To start, make a list of all personal and professional online accounts. You may be shocked at the breadth of your online presence. Personal accounts may include Google, email, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, to name a few. Financial accounts for mortgage and car payments, utilities, online banking, or brokerage/investment/retirement accounts may require dual security questions and passwords for access.

Certain cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin) may also require “recovery keys.” Your list may also include online subscriptions for magazines or cable sites, such as Netflix and Disney+. Perhaps you are a member of online communities such as Nextdoor. You may have an Apple, Amazon, Paypal, Venmo or eBay password.

Professional accounts include emails, professional and alumni memberships, and networking groups such as LinkedIn. The LinkedIn service has a page to advise them if someone has died.

If you are a business owner, consider the future of your website, tradename and domain name registration. You may want to keep your website and domain name registrations alive after your death. If so, you need to designate a specific person or company to manage those sites. Digital afterlife companies are an option to manage your websites, but you need to consider the cost of maintaining that service and the long term sustainability.

Access to these online accounts may require more than password information. If you have been appointed by the Court as Personal Representative of an estate, the Court Order issued with your Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration (if the decedent died without a will), in conjunction with the death certificate, should open most doors for access.

Practical Pointers:

In the latest inane business practice, you often hear the question, “What telephone number is assigned to this account?” If the account required a phone number for set up, you would be wise to provide that telephone number on your password list as it could be a current cell phone, or a former landline, now dropped.

After a loved one has died, it is wise to notify the reporting credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, Transunion), to alert them of the death, and direct alerts to you for any attempts at identity theft.

If you lock your cell phone, your trusted person should have the access code to unlock.

Your estate plan is a gift to your loved ones. Make sure it includes the necessary information to access your online presence.

Laura Moore is an attorney with Warren, Carlson & More, in Niwot whose practice includes estate planning, wills, trusts and estates.