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You might have more digital assets than you realize

On Behalf of | Jan 9, 2023 | Estate Planning

If you think that anything digital is just for young, internet-savvy people, you might be overlooking an increasingly relevant matter in estate planning. More and more people could benefit from strategies to deal with online and computer-based assets after death.

In this context, your assets might be something other than money, real estate or personal property. This article will look at that definition and explore some strategies people use.

Definition of digital assets

Generally speaking, you could consider as digital assets a variety of the accounts, files and data that you have online or on your computer. Some examples might include:

  • Social media accounts
  • Photographs or writing
  • Online businesses
  • Financial accounts with online-only statements

Your list would be specific to your exact online behavior. Furthermore, the way you might want to deal with each specific asset could be different depending on the type of asset that it is.

Tools for specific services

Some major online services have automatic recovery and legacy tools that could help you if you lose access to your account for a prolonged period of time. It might take you some knowledge and skill to even discover where these tools are in the services that you use. Additionally, you might need to set each one up differently if you choose to use them for multiple services.

Overall estate strategy

Finding a place for your digital assets in the overall context of your estate plan is not always easy. Make sure you consider the types and values of the various digital assets, the people you want to be involved and any automated functions that you wish to set up.

This is an era of accelerating technology. New estate planning concerns, such as digital assets, are likely to continue to emerge.

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