Have you considered what will happen to your digital assets after you die? Have you made plans for disposition of blogs, web sites, photos, e-mail, financial data, social networking sites profiles, fan pages, etc.? Many sites make it very difficult for anyone other than the account holder to access them and that can create problems for your executor and beneficiaries unless you plan in advance.
In his book The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman tells the story of Justin Ellsworth, a U.S. Marine killed in action in Iraq. Justin’s parents wanted access to his Yahoo ( YHOO – news – people ) e-mail account so they could gather more details about his life. After Yahoo refused, his parents had to go to court to gain access to his personal e-mail account in a process in which Justin had no say. – How To Pass On Digital Assets After You’re Gone
Entrustet provides a free way to protect ALL your digital assets. Entrustet is a secure online service that allows you to create a list of your online accounts and digital files, manage their distribution and deletion on death.
You can use Entrustet to protect your digital assets and take control of your legacy. Use the Account Guardian to create a list of your digital assets and decide if you want to transfer each asset to an heir or have them destroyed after your passing.
Check out the Account Incinerator, if you have assets you’d like securely and privately destroyed after your passing, and check out the Attorney directory, to find an experienced estate planning attorney in your area who can help you incorporate your digital assets into a traditional will or trust.
- Create a secure list of digital assets
- Designate heirs and a Digital Executor
- Decide which assets are transferred to heirs and which are deleted
- Legally protect your digital assets
Entrustet Premium costs $5/month and will be available in August. Why sign up for Entrustet Premium?
- Save family and friends enormous amounts of time and hassle
- Have personal online accounts discreetly deleted upon your passing
- Craft your digital legacy by making sure certain accounts don’t remain part of your online presence
Further Reading:
The best we can do is to put things in order as well as we can, pick the right people to handle them, and leave reasonably clear instructions. I suggest that we want to try to do the same things for our digital estates.Toward that end, I want to recommend a simple five-step plan that you can start on today and then revisit from time to time. — Estate Planning for Your Digital Assets By Dennis Kennedy
The Digital Beyond maintains this list of online services that are designed to help you plan for your digital death and afterlife or memorialize loved ones. These services come in all flavors including digital estate services, posthumous email services and online memorials. — The Digital Beyond Online Services List
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- Dead Media Beat: Digital Death Day (wired.com)
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