Have you ever wondered what happens to your Facebook account when you die? What happens to your domain names, other social media accounts, websites and blogs? It’s complicated. If you died tomorrow, most heirs would have no idea how to log into your tablet or smartphone, email account(s), Amazon account, or Google Play or iTunes account. This happened to an advisor friend of mine whose father passed. She had no idea how to log into his computer, let alone his Facebook account. If nobody knows your login, your Facebook account could live on forever, as is the case with a high school classmate of mine who passed to disease a few years ago. He was still listed as a friend the last I checked.
Anyway, there is a service called Everplans that created a listing of these and other digital assets that you might consider in your estate plan. You share your logins and passwords with a digital executor or heir(s). If an account like airline miles, hotel rewards, etc. have value, they should be transferred to specific heirs. Include this bequest in your will. Many accounts should be shut down.
Everplans can help shut down accounts like Facebook. Digital executors log into the site first to avoid having to submit your birth and death certificates and proof of authority under local law that they are your representative. Another neat thing is an executor can “memorialize†your account, freezing it from outside participation.
So the next time you check Facebook, or post a blog like this one, you might consider what you’re going to do with Your Digital Estate.
