{"id":120598,"date":"2023-06-25T05:19:05","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T12:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"\/blogs\/?p=120598"},"modified":"2024-11-20T21:46:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T05:46:17","slug":"digital-estate-planning-what-to-do-with-your-digital-assets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/digital-estate-planning-what-to-do-with-your-digital-assets\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Protect Your Digital Estate"},"content":{"rendered":"

While we\u2019re enjoying all the good things in our digital lives\u2014our <\/span>eBooks,<\/span> movies, email accounts, social media profiles, eBay stores, photos, online games, and more\u2014<\/span>there’ll<\/span> come a time we should ask ourselves,\u202f<\/span>What happens to all of this good stuff when I pass away?<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like anything else we own, those things can be passed along through our estates too. Some of it, anyway.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the explosion of digital media, commerce, and even digital currency too, there\u2019s a very good chance you have thousands of dollars of digital assets in your possession. For example, we can look at\u202f<\/span>research we conducted in 2011 which found that people placed an average value of $37,438 on the digital assets they owned at the time<\/span><\/a>. Now, with the growth of streaming services, digital currency, cloud storage, and more in the past decade, that figure feels conservative.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Enter the notion of a digital legacy, the way you can catalog your digital assets and prepare to pass them through your estate.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Estate planning for your digital assets<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Like so many aspects of digital life nowadays, estate planning law has started to catch up to the new realities of life online. However, attorneys, executors, and heirs still face some challenges when dealing with an estate and its digital assets. In the U.S.,\u202f<\/span>new laws are rolling out that address how digital assets are treated when the owner passes away<\/span><\/a>. For example, they give fiduciaries (like an estate executor, trustee, or an agent under a power of attorney) the right to manage a person\u2019s digital assets if they already have the right to manage a person\u2019s tangible assets. Such laws continue to evolve, and they can vary from state to state here in the U.S.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With that in mind, nothing offered in this article is legal advice, nor should it be construed as such. For legal advice, you can and should turn to your estate attorney for counsel on the best approach for you and the laws in your area. However, consider this article as a sort of checklist that can help you with your estate planning.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether your assets have real or sentimental value, you can prepare your estate for the ones you care about.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are digital assets in a will?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The best answer you can get to this question will come from your legal counsel. However, for purposes of discussion, a digital asset is any text or media in digital form that has value and offers the bearer with the right to use it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To frame it up in everyday terms, let\u2019s look at some real-world examples of digital assets that quickly come to mind. They <\/span>include,<\/span> but <\/span>aren’t<\/span> limited to:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n