You Need To Deal With Your Digital Legacy Right Now

Good stuff.

It could almost have been written by members of this forum. A number of aspects have already be raised some 12 or more months ago.

 

I was only talking to my wife about the same thing the other day.
With multiple properties, shares,bullion, crypto (which is damn hard to keep track of), I know I need to get this done at some point.
Apart from a spreadsheet, I have it nowhere else. Any tips?

 

Hi @Perky29 I placed this link this morning in another thread. You may be able to get some tips from it.

Straight out, I've gone totally digital and once set up, which is bloody tedious, it's a breeze for me now.

Record Keeping (CGT / Estate) - Shares / LICs / ETFs ...

 

There is no easy solution to all of this. One method may be a google spreadsheet which is shared with others - but what if you don't want them to see until after you are gone/

 

There’s software that is being created to do that. Home - Doculife

 

The manner in which I dealt with that issue is to type and print (old fashioned I know) a hard copy of access details and password which is kept with my Will. Google Dive and so on.

I'm last century for sure but sometimes I feel software can only go so far. Password to get access to password to get access to password and then prove you've got the authority to act.

Was certainly contemplating doing it but then I chose the simplest path I could think of. Signed hard copy with Will and EPoA. And showing the Executor know where they are located. Plus placing a copy on external hard drives just in case of fire and the like.

 

Nice work SK, I like your style.

 

I agree @Simon Hampel, it is a genuine issue. For a long time I have wondered who would clean up my digital debris when I pass. It doesn't help that I am a digital hoarder

Something I am faced with personally is that I do not have access to all of my various accounts and don't even have a list of all of them. It's a worry and presents security risks

 

Ta. My oh so yesterday brain decided it's pretty difficult to hack a piece of paper. Online stuff is another matter.

 

Yes, this is an enormous issue for practitioners in succession law, from several angles. The law hasn't kept up with technology.

For a start, it isn't presently clear, under Australian law, whether digital assets are covered by 'property' and thus can form part of an estate, though many practitioners advise including a special clause in the will bequeathing their digital assets as "better than nothing", and in case the law evolves such that such a clause is binding.

There is an obligation on executors to conduct a diligent search for alternative wills and all assets (including cryptocurrency etc) that the deceased owned, yet simultaneously, executors don't have a legal right to access those digital assets. Even if the executor has the password, if you notify many sites that you're accessing it on behalf of a deceased person, or the site knows the person is deceased, they'll suspend access to the account because their terms of service don't allow other users to access. At worst, the executor may be committing a criminal offence!

So yes, for now, 'work around as you can', but watch out for legislative reform in this area. Many other countries have made laws allowing digital assets to be bequeathed, and/or giving executors right to access, etc.

 

at $9 per month you would hope you don't have 20 years left.

 

But in 20 years, your cryptocurrency would be worth a-kazillion dollars, so $9/month isn't too bad, right?

Honestly, for someone with a lot of digital assets etc, it's probably worth it.

 

If I remember that I have the account then I can do an account recovery if it is associated with a current email account that I have access to. I have site accounts linked to email accouts that I forgot about long ago.

My point is that I can't even clean up my digital debris while I am alive. It will get harder when I pass.

 

I have a spreadsheet listing all my passwords etc...backed up in several hard drives.