I’ve written many times about the importance of including digital assets in your estate plan. It is something I discuss with all of my clients, because there is currently no law in Canada dealing with what happens with digital assets on the owner’s death. These laws are slowly moving across the United States, with some states allowing an executor to access digital assets if no instructions were left and some only allowing an individual to permit access, but denying access if the deceased did not specifically allow for it.
Many people don’t get the importance of this, as they think, who needs to see my Facebook account anyway? However, it’s more than just social media: it’s paying your gas bill online, or managing your online banking, or finding people who might want to know of your death but with whom you only have contact through your email.
If you have digital assets, and that is most of us, you need to think about what is going to happen when you die.
