Protecting Digital Assets Becomes More Complex Every Day

As technology continues to play a more important role in our day-to-day lives, the question of protecting your digital assets when you create an estate plan in Colorado becomes increasingly complex. Digital assets include everything from financial information you have on your computer, to personal photos on your cellphone, and more complicated properties such as online financial accounts or online businesses. Even if you only have a handful of these types of assets, making sure to address them in your Colorado estate plan is absolutely essential. Though we have talked about this issue in the past, it is important to go over some vital aspects of creating an estate plan that protects each and every one of your digital assets.

Have a digital asset plan ready

One of the best ways to start a digital asset protection plan is to inventory all of your important digital items. Whether it’s photos you store on your computer, phone, or tablet, financial records, or access information to your social media accounts, e-mail, and online business or website, you need to have all this information prepared and, ideally, collected in a single place. A simple spreadsheet can be a great way to do this, but printing out the spreadsheet so that it contains a rundown of all your digital assets is essential if someone else might need to access those assets in the future.  

Don’t forget security information

Once the inventory is in place, you can then determine what, if any, access information you need to include. For example, if you only have an e-mail account and don’t have a password for your computer, you can probably just write your personal password and access information on your digital asset inventory.

On the other hand, more extensive digital assets will require you to include a lot more information. Not only will you need to include passwords, for example, but you also might need to include personal identification numbers (PINs), answers to security questions, and anything else your online or digital assets might require.

Decide on who gets to access your assets

With the inventory and access information assembled, you can then begin the process of deciding who you want to be able to control or access to your digital assets. For example, if you have important family photos stored on your computer, you will want to notify your family, or your estate administrator and let them know how to access those photos. For other assets, you might need to create powers of attorney or other tools that allow easy access.

Depending on the complexity of your digital holdings, your digital asset plan might require you to spend some substantial time gathering information and making access choices.

Using Docubank to store documents

If you are a client of Hammond Law Group, you may have heard of Docubank.  Docubank is a trustworthy place to store your trust (and other documents if you so chose).  Contact us for more information on Docubank!