I recently read an article by Naomi Cahn, titled "Postmortem Life On-line," in the July/August 2011 publication of "Probate & Practice" by the Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section of the American Bar Association. The article discussed what happens to a deceased's digital assets and pointed out that many people store photos, records, maintain financial accounts online (i.e. PayPal, eTrade), and maintain social media sites like Twitter and Facebook through online accounts. These intangible assets can easily be forgotten but you can assure that they aren't by addressing them in your estate plan. At Varnum, our estate planning information questionnaire asks each client where he or she stores a list of all of his or her online accounts' usernames and passwords. This will allow loved ones to know what accounts exist, and allow a trustee to either manage the account or transfer it to your trust, or allow your agent to manage the account. It is important that the right people have access to your online life; with identity theft of the deceased a costly and potentially extremely damaging incident, it is important to that these online accounts are properly monitored and handled. Consider if you have a credit on your PayPal or online stock trading account; you want your beneficiaries to benefit from those accounts, and do not want them hacked and which could result in large bills being run up that your family members would have to sort through. In addition, do not forget all of the photographs or videos you may have online through Snapfish or Facebook or other such accounts online – if you no longer have these albums on your hard drive, or backed up anywhere, this may be the only record of many important memories. Finally, you may or may not want certain people to have access to certain accounts – consider the documents you have stored digitally, and if you want certain individuals excluded from accessing them. All of these considerations can be addressed in a thorough estate plan.
(Editor's Note: Attorney Jessica DesNoyers authored this post while working in Varnum's Grand Haven office. Jessica is currently with another firm.)