68 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE^ 02/2020REWARDS
DA
VIDE^ BONAZZI68IN OUR INCREASINGLY DIGITAL
age, much of our social and
financial lives are played
out in the ether. That means
that our digital footprints
will eventually outlive us,
leaving family and estate
executors to sift through
the virtual remains—photos
and videos, social media
accounts, subscriptions,
online bills—to access items
of financial and personal
value, pay final bills, and
close accounts.
What happens to your
online accounts after you
die depends on the laws
in your state, the types of
accounts involved and the
terms of service governing
the accounts. An executor
does not automatically gain
access to the accounts unless
the deceased person has
made specific arrangements.
And heirs often find that
they don’t have clear au-
thority to access or manage
a family member’s accounts.
But with a few simple steps,
you can increase the odds
that your digital footprint
will be handled according
to your wishes.Make an inventory. You ’l l
need to make a list of what
you have, name someone
to act on your behalf, and
provide your designee with
access and instructions.
Start by creating an inven-
tory of your digital assets,
including all of your onlineaccounts. “You don’t have
to make arrangements for
every account, but it’s worth
putting thought into which
ones are important to you
so you can make sure people
you care about have (or don’t
have) access,” says Betsy
Hannibal, senior legal edi-
tor for estate planning at
Nolo, the publisher of con-
sumer legal guides. As you
create a list of the accounts
and their passwords, note
your wishes or instructions
for any you would like han-
dled in a specific way. For
example, you may request
that your social media ac-
counts be deleted or that
digital photos stored in the
cloud be shared with spe-
cific people.
But despite your best
efforts, complications may
still arise. “Providing a list
for a trusted person can be
a precarious way to provideaccess to your accounts,”
says Sharon Hartung, author
of Your Digital Undertaker.
Passwords expire, people
forget to update their lists,
and many sites require two-
factor authentication that
could go to a cell phone or
e-mail address that is no
longer accessible, she says.
Or a website’s terms of ser-
vice agreement may pro-
hibit anyone other than the
original user from access-
ing the account. Many sites
delete accounts upon re-
ceiving notice that a user
has died.Solving the glitches. In recent
years, most states have ad-
opted the Revised Uniform
Fiduciary Access to Digital
Assets Act, which allows
you to designate a legal rep-
resentative to access your
digital assets after death.
You can provide that accessthrough a will, power of at-
torney or trust, but you will
need to update your docu-
ments and work with an
estate planner so your plans
conform with the law.
A small but growing num-
ber of online services have
started to offer users a way
to allow access to their ac-
counts after they die. Face-
book, for example, allows
users to have their accounts
deleted upon death or to
designate a digital heir with
the right to manage por-
tions of the account, which
will be turned into a memo-
rial page. (Visit the general
account settings page and
select “Memorialization
Settings.”)
Google will let you select
up to 10 trusted contacts
who can access your Gmail,
photos and more if your
account is inactive for sev-
eral months. So far, other
services have been slow
to roll out such features,
but more will likely create
their own tools, says Nolo’s
Hannibal. Even so, she says,
the feature may be buried
in the settings menu.
KAITLIN PITSKER
[email protected]Create a Digital Estate Plan
Think about what will happen with your online accounts after you die.
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