Pass on and protect your digital assets

Thanks to a stream of new gadgets and technology, social networking and websites, many of us live a majority of our lives online. From online banking to blogs, emails and social networking to storing documents, digital photo albums, films and music.

A recent survey by Goldsmith’s College London of 2,000 adults found that over half had possessions stored on the internet and ‘cloud’ devices and over 25% held more than £200 worth of films, videos and music online.

This means that, increasingly, your digital assets should be a consideration when making a will in exactly the same way you would consider who you should receive your offline assets. How to do this is difficult as Gareth Wisdom, Head of Volume Wills at Involegal, explains:

“Protecting digital assets is something that is increasingly important for many of our clients. It is certainly something that should be considered when so much information is now online. We advise clients to keep a record of accounts held and who should have access to them in future, it’s also important to keep this up to date as things like passwords and websites used change on a regular basis.”

Another consideration is your living online legacy such as social networking affairs, email and internet banking. It is estimated that 1.78 million Facebook users will die this year, 200,000 of them will be over the age of 55. This highlights that it is not only the younger generation that need to consider their digital footprint in their wills but the older generation too, many of whom may already have made a will and should now consider revising it to include their digital wishes.

Web-based service providers have varying policies on what they require for someone other than the account holder to gain access. Although there have been recent calls to regulate online industries in this area, there remains a vast discrepancy between the policies of different websites. To make it easier for executors to tie up such affairs, it is advisable to make a list of usernames and passwords to be stored safely with your will. It may also be worth noting in your will how you wish for your social networking assets to be dealt with. Many providers offer not only the option to delete accounts after death but to memorialise them, preserving them indefinitely for friends and family.

Hugh James Involegal LLP provides volume will writing services for clients in the financial services sectors, including major high street banks.
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