Incorporating Digital Assets Into Your New York Estate Plan
While no one likes to contemplate the fact, it is the truth that our digital footprints will likely be around long after we have gone. Digital assets have become a bigger and bigger part of many estates, and it is important to plan appropriately for how digital assets may be handled after a person’s passing. From online accounts to social media, estate planners in Westchester County must take care to include their digital assets, to ensure that they are distributed according to their wishes.
What Is A Digital Asset?
Many people hesitate to make provisions for their digital assets in the beginning simply because they do not know what qualifies. The answer is that almost anything of a digital nature can be called an asset – even items that have no real monetary value, such as your email accounts, fall under the umbrella. Other online mainstays that count are social media profiles, online gaming accounts, cryptocurrency accounts, digital rights to pieces of media like songs, and photos in the ‘cloud.’
Until recently, companies were able to simply lock a user’s account after their passing, with no recourse for surviving family to access whatever might be contained within. In 2016, New York adopted an amended version of what is known as RUFADAA – the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act – which gives more flexibility to a person planning their estate, but also to surviving family in some cases.
A Priority System
In theory, an account holder may share the password with another person if they wish – but by law, most online services restrict access to a person’s account so that their privacy is protected. As a result, the right to access these things must be passed down in a person’s Last Will & Testament or other estate planning document, with rare exceptions – for example, Facebook has what is known as a “Legacy Contact,” who can be given your login information if you have chosen them for that responsibility.
What RUFADAA does is to essentially create a priority system, in terms of how a digital asset will be distributed. If a person has used a tool like Facebook’s, or has specifically willed a digital asset to a potential beneficiary, that disposition will be allowed to stand, particularly if the estate planner has explicitly written out permission for the beneficiary to access the account. If no disposition of these assets has been made, the decision of each individual company will stand – so, if a company simply destroys an online account after a user’s passing, nothing can stop that.
Contact A Pleasantville Estate Planning Attorney
In this day and age, digital assets are just as important to most people as those with a tangible form. A Pleasantville estate planning attorney from Meyer & Spencer, PC can help you ensure that your digital accounts and items go to the right people, so that you can rest easy going forward. Contact our office today at (914) 741-2288 to schedule a consultation.
Source:
law.justia.com/codes/new-york/ept/article-13-a/part-3/13-a-3-1/
