Holy cow do I have a lot of online accounts.
Over the past 2 weeks, in transforming Black Dress Consultants to AfterLight, I realized how many things needed to be changed from my old digital presence to my new one.
This untethering included switching email addresses, moving our Google drive, changing the name with banks and credit cards, updating our social media handles, alerting vendors, etc.
In the age of the internet, our lives have become intricately entwined with our online presence. From social media accounts to online banking and shopping, our digital footprints grow larger by the day. But have you ever considered what happens to these digital lives when we pass away?
All of our electronic information, including sentimental items like digital photos, is considered a digital asset. In serving countless executor clients as well as personally serving as an executor, I’ve experienced an all too common problem: access to a decedent’s digital assets.
This problem has come in the form of accessing smartphones and email addresses, closing social media or subscription services, knowledge of cloud storage, banking accounts, life insurance, etc. The list goes on and on.
When someone dies, the responsibility often falls on the shoulders of an executor to handle the deceased’s affairs, including their digital assets. However, given the fact that less than half of American adults don’t have a will, even less have a plan for their digital estate.
Protecting your digital estate requires intentional pre-planning, careful organization, and a detailed checklist. It not only has immediate benefits but also has future benefits such as preserving memories and safeguarding your identity. It can also aid in estate administration by reducing the amount of time executors and fiduciaries spend figuring out the digital afterlife of their loved ones.
Organizing your digital estate can also help prevent recurring services, subscriptions, and payments from draining accounts, provide guidance on what to do with your online presence, and prevent life insurance policies, investments, and cash from being unclaimed, forgotten, or lost.
If you don’t know where to begin with your digital estate planning, we have good news for you. Tomorrow evening, on Thursday, May 18th at 7pm, I’m teaming up with Weinstein Hospice for an informative and entertaining webinar where we will explore the importance of digital estate planning and how to organize and safeguard your digital assets.
Don’t leave your loved ones in the dark about your digital afterlife. Let’s plan ahead together.
I look forward to seeing you there!
P.S. In honor of this webinar, I’m offering a new Digital Estate Organization package at a discounted price of $745 ($150 off) to help as many people get digital as possible. Click here to gift yourself control over your digital life today in order to leave behind a well-organized and secure digital legacy tomorrow.
