Does My Fiduciary Need Access To Digital Assets?

Federal laws as well as many state privacy laws prohibit the unauthorized disclosure of someone’s digital access information to third parties. This means you must be prepared to create a digital asset inventory and have a plan for how this will transfer on to your fiduciary. A fiduciary is a term that refers to many people who are responsible for various aspects of your estate.

A fiduciary can include an agent under a power of attorney document, a trustee or an executor. This person should be provided with all details needed to access your digital assets, such as passwords and usernames. You may want to provide additional instructions especially if your fiduciary is not digitally savvy.

Start by making your own list of all the digital assets you own. Depending on what you use as an individual and for any side hustles or businesses, this could be a much bigger list than you expect.

This might include things like:

Email accounts
Social media platforms
Websites/domains
Banking and online financial accounts
Photo or online storage

Once you’re ready to incorporate digital assets into your estate plan, it’s a great time to meet with a qualified estate planning attorney in New Hampshire. We can discuss which of these may have tangible value, but also those accounts that you want to be passed on to your loved ones because of sentimental value. As you add digital assets or change details like your login, make sure you update your estate plan or the list of login information.