Does Your Will Make Provision For Digital Assets?
In her latest blog Jo Robinson discusses digital assets and why it’s important to make provision for them in your Will?
In recent years there have been a number of horror stories regarding the loss of digital assets. For example, James Howells from the UK who accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 7,500 bitcoin, worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
James began mining bitcoin in 2009 when it was first invented, accruing thousands of them when they were worth next to nothing. In January of this year, prices were peaking at around £30,000 for a single unit!
James believes that the laptop was buried in a rubbish tip when he mistakenly threw out the wrong device. James even offered the Local Authority one quarter of the fortune if they granted him permission to try and dig it out. Sadly his request has not yet been granted.
There was also Stefan Thomas from the USA who was given 7,002 bitcoins as a payment for making a video explaining how cryptocurrency works. Again, at the time, bitcoins were worth pennies but Stefan’s haul would now be worth around 175 million pounds!
Stefan stored the bitcoin in a digital wallet but he has lost the password to the wallet. After 10 failed attempts, the password will encrypt itself making the wallet impossible to access.
Stefan and James are not alone, it is believed that there is currently about 101 billion pounds worth of bitcoin that cannot be accessed.
The Law Society has recently been stressing the importance of including digital assets in Wills and a recent survey commissioned by them revealed that 93% of those who had made a Will had not included any digital assets in it. Further, out of 1,000 people, only a quarter knew what would happen to their digital assets after they die, with only 7% fully understanding the importance of including their digital assets in the Will.
Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency is not the only form of digital assets. Digital assets can include any of the following:
- Bank accounts including PayPal, Inland Revenue accounts or Credit Union accounts
- Share trading accounts
- Online gambling accounts eg the National Lottery
- Social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat
- Email accounts such as Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail
- Music or literacy accounts such as iTunes, Amazon, Spotify
- Online auction sites such as E-bay
- Domain names and websites
- Cloud storage such as Drop Box or Live Drive
It is essential that you keep a list of your digital assets, the passwords to access these assets and, most importantly, consider including your digital assets in your Will.
If you would like to make a Will or require advice regarding Wills and Probate related matters then please telephone me on 01332 364436 or e-mail me at j.robinson@timms-law.com.
Jo Robinson
April 2021