It is imperative to understand what you keep online and what will happen
to it once you are no longer there
The
Internet has changed the way we live. Technology has taken over our lives in
many ways and most of us are a tangled mess of emails, smartphones, iPads and
laptops. We use technology for almost everything we do—our morning alarm, daily
calendar, correspondence through WhatsApp, emails and SMS, bank accounts and
social network accounts. This dependence on the Internet has given us something
new to think about—dgital assets. During our lifetimes, they afford us the
luxury of being able to do almost everything on-the-go and immediately. But
what happens to these assets when we pass away?
Justin
Ellsworth died while serving in the US armed forces. His father, appointed
personal representative of his estate, sought access to his Yahoo account to
make a memorial for him. Yahoo has a policy of not sharing passwords and
refused to co-operate.
When
Helen and Jay Stassen’s 21-year-old son, Benjamin, committed suicide, the
Stassens went searching for answers. They found themselves engaged in a
conflict with Facebook and Google. Both companies refused to give them access
to their son’s account.
In
both these cases, the families had to resort to getting a court order for
access to information. These cases highlight the uncertainty about privacy of
people’s digital lives in the event of their death.
What
are digital assets?
Historically,
a person’s estate consisted of a Will, trusts, life insurance policies, and any
property that a person owned, including financial accounts. While many people
manage their finances, business, and personal lives online, only a few have
organised or centralised their online accounts. This can make managing and
distributing these assets difficult after the person has died, and can lead to
confusion for family members, denial of access, and even an inability to locate
the accounts or information in the first place.
What
happens to the many posts you made on social networking sites if you die or
become incapacitated? What about the emails you stored with various service
providers? What happens to the thousands of images you have stored on your
Flickr or Instagram accounts? Maybe you run a website or a blog or an online
business. What about registered domain names and libraries of movies, digital
music and e-books that can be of significant value? Even closely held companies
have information that is digital: banking records, documents, spreadsheets,
personnel records, domain names.
For
the majority of us, these accounts and digital assets are likely to outlive us.
And when we die, it is left up to family members and executors of the Will to
sort through them all. A digital estate plan is a plan for the succession of
your digital assets. It can help your family locate and access any accounts you
have online. With the launch of the Digital India campaign by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, our daily involvement with the digital world is only going to
rise.
What
happens to digital assets without any plan?
It’s
almost always in the terms of service of every digital company to not share
your account information with anyone other than you. Most companies are aware
of the trust placed in them, and take their responsibility to protect the
privacy of people who use these services seriously. Companies like Google,
Twitter and Outlook may provide content from the account on the receipt of
relevant documentation but will not provide passwords or other mechanisms that
would enable anyone to log in to a user’s account. Google also goes a step
further with “Inactive Account Manager,” which is a way to either share or
delete the account after a set period of inactivity. Others like LinkedIn will
remove the account without transferring data to related family members.
Facebook gives you two options—you can either delete your late family member’s
account or to memorialise it. It will not transfer the account to anyone.
Making
a plan for digital assets
Many
states in the US have enacted laws incorporating certain online accounts or
information into the probate process and are taking steps to enact specific
laws relating to digital assets. In India, however, this seems some time away.
A number of online companies have also started which allow you to indicate who
can access your online accounts when you are no longer alive.
Given
the lack of legal clarity in this area, it just makes practical sense to get
organised now and to take care of your digital assets, to the extent possible.
So, here is how you can do it:
1.
Make a plan for your digital assets; you may wish to back up data in an
external hard-drive to store photos, e-mails, documents, and other work
product.
2.
Take inventory of your digital accounts and assets, assemble a list of
passwords.
3.Store
details in an easy to reach location.
4.Give
trusted family members information, instructions and authority so that they
know what you have, where it is located, and how you want to dispose of it.
The
truth is that today more and more of our lives are online and this will only
increase. It is imperative to understand what you keep online and what will
happen to it once you are no longer there. Careful planning and organisation
increases the likelihood that digital assets are handled in a manner consistent
with your wishes.
Gautami
Gavankar, principal advisor-estate planning, Kotak Mahindra Trusteeship
Services Ltd
Source | Mint –The Wall Street Journal | 12
October 2015
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