Who gets your digital assets: heirs or hackers?

guest · Sep 8, 2019

Who gets your digital assets: heirs or hackers?
Online photos and videos, frequent-flier miles and cyptocurrency could disappear into thin air if you do not leave proper directions
September 7, 2019
http://www.startribune.com/who-gets-your-digital-assets-heirs-or-hackers/559402462/

A bank or brokerage can’t just take your money when you die. If you don’t have a will or other estate plan, the laws of your state determine who gets the value in those accounts.

Your digital assets are a different story. Your online photos and videos, frequent-flier miles, cryptocurrency and other digitally stored files may well disappear without a trace if you don’t make a plan to pass them along.
Conversely, some stuff you may prefer to shut down or keep private — e-mails and texts, social media accounts, dating app profiles — could be shared or hacked unless you take steps to secure the information.

Estate-planning experts recommend creating an inventory of your online accounts and digital files, along with your login ID, passwords, the answers to any security questions and what type of two-factor authentication, if any, is in use.
Start with a list of your devices — smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktop computers — and their passwords, along with passwords to any important apps (such as that code generator).
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Appoint your ‘digital executor’
Your digital executor could be the same trusted person who settles the rest of your estate, or you might want to choose someone who is more tech-savvy. Talk to the person first to ensure they are willing and then let them know how to access the documents they will need, said Jason Largey, senior estate-planning strategist at Personal Capital in Denver.

Your digital assets, and how you access them, are likely to change even faster than your financial and physical property, Prangley says. She makes it a point to review and update her digital estate plan annually, at the same time she’s updating her passwords.

“It’s something I do like spring cleaning, once a year,” she says.
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