What Happens To My Online Accounts When I Die?
Have you wondered what would happen to your digital accounts when you die? Wills & Probate Legal Executive Sara Hilliard discusses this in her latest blog…
If you use a computer or smartphone, you are more than likely to have Digital Assets. Examples of these would be social media accounts, cloud storage and online bank accounts.
Whilst some have no monetary value, there can be a sentimental aspect to them. Here are a few things you could do to assist your Executors (people you appoint to organise your affairs on death) when dealing with digital assets in your estate.
Digital Assets – Apple Account
https://memories.step.org/update-your-legacy-settings/#apple
If you follow this link, you can name a legacy contact to have access to all of your iCloud data in the event of your death. You have the option to either share the access key with your legacy contact, notifying them of the appointment, or to print a copy of the QR access code, which you can store alongside your Will and other important documents. Without a legacy contact, the Apple account would be deleted after a period of time has elapsed and the iCloud account subscription has been unpaid.
Digital Assets – Google
https://memories.step.org/update-your-legacy-settings/#google
Google, unlike Microsoft, has an option to give legacy contacts access to data with their “Google Inactive Account Manager”. Clients can choose to give their legacy contact access to their photos on their Google Drive, but not their Gmail account for example. Clients may consider sharing their emails as they can hold valuable information that Executors may not otherwise know about, which could save their estate money and Executors’ time.
Digital Assets – Facebook
https://memories.step.org/update-your-legacy-settings/#facebook
You may wish to appoint a legacy contact to manage your loved one’s memorialised account. The legacy contact will be able to set up a tribute section to allow people to share comments, pictures, and posts on a separate page.
Digital Assets – LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Microsoft
None of these companies currently allow anything to be done during one’s lifetime. The Executors will need to provide proof of death to close the accounts down.
If you decide to utilise these legacy tools, it would be wise to review every 3 to 5 years in case you wish to change your legacy contact.
In addition, we, at Timms have prepared a Digital Asset Log which we hand out to our clients when they are making Wills. This is really a prompt for them to note down and keep up to date, their digital account holders such as Utility Providers and Amazon accounts. We of course do not encourage noting down passwords as this could be a breach of the service user agreements.
Please feel free to contact me at s.hilliard@timms-law.com or by telephone on 01332 364436 regarding these and any other issues concerning Wills, Probate and Lasting Powers of Attorney.
June 2023