Many of our valued possessions are now stored online & as such need protecting in the event of death.

Items such as photographs, music & DVDs are often not financially valuable but in a personal context are often priceless.

It’s is vital in this digital age to protect these assets in the event of your death. How would your loved ones access your computer or iPad without the correct passwords or usernames?

Create a Digital Will

It’s quite easy to stop everything disappearing into the ether if you follow these simple rules.

1. Make an inventory of all your passwords & usernames of any digital assets you own such as bank, shopping accounts,email addresses etc.
2. Once you have listed all your digital assets, appoint two executors to deal with your digital estate. Make them responsible for gaining access and if required shutting down or passing on information to relevant heirs.
3. Store all the information in both a personal safe, if you have one, and at your solicitors office. Your Solicitor will make sure that your passwords are passed onto your executors on your death.

Legal Position

Just one last thing. Do not assume that your digital property becomes part of your estate because it doesn’t. The current legal position is that you don’t actually own the digital content; you merely own the licence to make personal use of it. Any collections of books, music etc cannot be legally transferred after death and therefore cannot be bequeathed.

I will be writing a longer explanation of this subject for an international magazine shortly which anyone wanting more information may like to read.