More than 90 per cent of Australians have social media accounts plus lots of digital files but have we thought about what happens to them when we die?
With our digital footprints expanding it is something NSW Trustee and Guardian – which has been making wills and administering estates for 100 years – people should consider.
Anyone with a will knows it is designed to offer a legal plan about how their assets are distributed once they are gone.
But what about your digital assets?
Things like your files stored on your computer, photos and music collections, loyalty club membership programs, frequent flyer points and your social media accounts.
According to NSW Trustee and Guardians you can create a list all of your digital assets, where they are all stored along with instructions for the beneficiaries you’d like to have access to them.
This document would have a list of usernames and passwords, answers to security questions and should be made known to the executor of your estate.
Wills written before the explosion of technology and the dawn of the digital age obviously didn’t take these digital assets into consideration.
But digital music and movie collections gathered over many years will obviously have a certain monetary value and, like a physical version of those products, can be given to others after we die.
There is no charge to create a will with NSW Trustee and Guardians when you appoint them as executor. Fees are only charged upon administration.
