Do I Really Need to Include Social Media in an Estate Plan?
Consider how much information you keep on your social media profile before dismissing the idea of including it as part of your estate. Adding it to your estate plan could ensure that the right family member controls those photos, fond memories, and even videos that would be lost forever if no one inherits them.
If you are active on social media, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or another social media website, what will happen to all of your digital assets on those sites if you were to pass away? Can anyone access your profiles to shut them down? What about download videos, photographs, or even status updates?
You might assume family members can email customer support, letting them know that you have passed and request they shut down your profile. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Not only will the company not shut down the profile, but your loved ones will have no access and no way to access your profiles. Likewise, the companies that do provide access to family members put a clock on it. In some cases, they give you only so many days or weeks to remove all the information before they automatically shut it down and everything is erased from their servers permanently.
Adding Social Media to Your Estate Plan Is Like Most Assets
You would be surprised to find out how easy it is to add digital assets, especially social media, into your estate plan. It works like other assets, which means you need to inventory them, name a beneficiary for those assets, make sure they have access, and then let them know how you wish for them to handle their inherited digital asset.
Start By Making a List of All Social Media Accounts
First, list all of your social media accounts, including those you are barely active on. If you do not wish to include one because of limited activity, consider shutting it down permanently now rather than leaving it out of your estate plan.
For those that are active and that you want a family member to inherit, write down the website address or social media name. Then, write down the username, password, and email associated with your account.
Social media accounts include:
Name Your Beneficiary
You want to name someone who is internet savvy. Giving your digital assets to someone who has no familiarity with social media or how to use it just puts more work on their shoulders. Also, they may not know how to close out a profile or download the items on that profile. Therefore, having a family member inherit your profiles, who at least is social media savvy, is best.
Decide whom you want as the primary beneficiary of those accounts. Facebook recently added its legacy option, which allows you to name a successor – including another Facebook user. Make sure the legacy user is also the person you name in your estate plan.
Provide Your Instructions
Now you need to tell your beneficiary what they will do with the newly inherited social media profiles. Some options include:
Downloading and storing all images, videos, and memories. You may not wish for your profile to remain active, but before it is taken down, you want all memories removed from that site and saved elsewhere. Tell your beneficiary what you want them to do with the photos, videos, and other memories on your profile.
Create a legacy or “in memory of” page. Some family members ask that their page remain active, but change to an “in memory of” or legacy page. This allows friends and family members to go back, look at times they spent with you, and remain active with others who were part of your social media network.
Closing them down entirely. You may not want your profile to stay online. After all, leaving a profile up as a legacy page can increase the risk for fraud and identity theft (individuals are searching the internet for legacy social media profiles). Therefore, you can request that your beneficiary remove the pages entirely.
Do Not Forget Other Digital Assets
While you are adding your social media, do not forget the other digital assets you may have out there. These are treasures to family members, and sometimes they provide insight into your daily life that loved ones never even knew about.
Some other digital assets you should include in your estate plan are:
- Online Photo Storage Sites
- Online Document Storage Sites (like Box or Dropbox)
- Your Email Accounts
- Your Personal or Professional Blog
- Ancestry Accounts and Website Profiles
- Online Dating Profiles
- Online Calendars and Booking Services
- Memberships and Accounts Online
Speak with an Jacksonville Estate Planning Attorney about Adding Digital Assets to Your Estate Plan
If you already have an estate plan, creating an addition for your digital assets is simple. Meet with your estate planning attorney and let them know that you would like to include your digital assets. They may have a unique way for you to track passwords and information about those sites so that they can give them to your beneficiaries later on.
If you do not have an estate plan, now is the perfect time to start. In that estate plan, you can include your regular and digital assets. Digital assets, especially in today’s highly digitized world, are treasures to family members. They allow them to interact, see you, and even remember you years later.
Whether you have an existing plan or you would like to create a new estate plan, it is never too late or early to start. Meet with a local estate planning attorney that understands the value of digital assets just as much as physical ones. Three Oaks Law can help you with your estate planning needs.
Get started with a free consultation about your estate planning needs by calling us, or you can request more information by filling out our online contact form.