Digital Legacy: How to Manage Your Online Accounts and Assets
In today’s world, our lives are increasingly lived online. We have social media profiles, email accounts, cloud photo storage, and even financial assets like cryptocurrency. But what happens to all this digital “stuff” after we pass away? This is your digital legacy, and without a plan, it can create a major headache and heartache for your loved ones.
Managing your digital legacy is a critical, modern component of estate planning.
What Are Your Digital Assets?
Your digital assets include anything you own or control that exists in a digital format. This can be broken down into two main categories:
- Digital Assets with Sentimental Value: These are things like your email accounts, social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram), cloud photo libraries (iCloud, Google Photos), and personal files stored online.
- Digital Assets with Financial Value: This includes online banking and brokerage accounts, cryptocurrency wallets, PayPal or Venmo balances, and any online businesses or domain names you own.
Why You Need a Plan
Without a plan, your loved ones may be unable to access your accounts. This could mean precious family photos are lost forever, your social media profiles remain active indefinitely, or valuable financial assets go unclaimed.
Steps to Manage Your Digital Legacy
1. Create an Inventory of Your Digital Accounts
Make a detailed list of all your important online accounts. For each account, include the website, your username, and instructions on what you want to be done with the account (e.g., “Memorialize my Facebook profile,” “Download all photos from Google Photos and then delete the account”). Do not write down your passwords on this list.
2. Use a Password Manager
The best way to give your executor access to your accounts is through a reputable password manager (like 1Password, Dashlane, or LastPass). These services allow you to store all your passwords securely and have an “emergency access” or “legacy” feature that can grant access to a trusted person after your death.
3. Appoint a Digital Executor
In your will, you can legally name a “digital executor.” This is the person you authorize to manage your digital assets according to your wishes. Choose someone who is tech-savvy and trustworthy.
4. Document Your Wishes
Create a formal document that outlines your wishes for each of your major accounts. This is the document where you can provide detailed instructions that your digital executor can follow.
Why Domidocs is the Perfect Place for Your Digital Legacy Plan
Your digital legacy plan is a sensitive and critical document. Domidocs provides the ideal secure environment to store and manage it.
1. A Secure Vault for Your Asset Inventory
The Domidocs secure digital vault is the perfect place to store the inventory of your digital assets and your letter of instruction. With bank-level encryption, you can be sure this sensitive information is protected from unauthorized access.
2. A Central Hub for Your Entire Estate
Your digital legacy plan doesn’t exist in isolation. In Domidocs, you can store it alongside your legal will, trust documents, and a list of your physical assets. This creates a single, organized source of truth for your executor, making their difficult job much easier.
3. Emergency Access for Your Digital Executor
Using our Emergency Access feature, you can grant your designated digital executor secure access to your Domidocs vault. This ensures they can access your instructions and asset inventory when needed, allowing them to carry out your final wishes efficiently and respectfully.
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