Are you familiar with the term terror management theory? Nearly everyone fears death. The very thought of death and the anxiety surrounding it drives people to adapt to rules that protect their self-esteem, self-worthiness and sustainability.
People ‘insulate’ themselves from the fear of living an insignificant life and sometimes these views can lead to troubling actions.
Traditional Estate Planning can be tiresome emotionally but we still build courage and start planning for the future of our loved ones, don’t we? Similarly, in this modern digitized world, it is important to plan for our Digital Estate too.
Jump ahead to the following sections:
Before we go into the details of how Digital Estate Planning can help secure your Digital Assets, let us have a look at some important Digital Estate Planning terms.
What is a Digital Estate Plan?
Digital Estate Plan is the process of organizing your Digital Assets and making arrangements for what should happen to them after you pass away. Digital Estate Planning is similar to Traditional Estate Planning except for one difference – instead of making arrangements for tangible properties, you are doing it for intangible properties.
What are Digital Assets?
Digital Assets are a collection of electronic information available on the internet or on devices.
Your Digital Assets include:
- Social media profiles
- Email accounts
- Online payment and subscription accounts
- Gaming profiles
- Cloud storage
- Cryptocurrency
- Websites and domains
- Digital art – pictures, videos, music, etc.
Importance of Digital Estate Planning
Helps you choose the right beneficiaries
One of the primary tasks of Estate Planning is to assign who receives your assets. Similarly, when you create a Digital Estate Plan, you are letting your next-of-kin know who’s to handle your Digital Assets. There are laws that govern the transfer of Digital Estate Plans. For example, if you are in the US, you might be aware of RUFADAA. If you are a Canadian, UADAFA governs the transfer of your Digital Assets.
Apart from these laws, you also have individual organization’s legacy policies. This means, you can assign a Legacy Contact for each of your social media profiles or other online accounts and let them handle your accounts after you’re gone.
By making use of these laws or policies, or even creating a Will exclusively for your Digital Assets, you can make sure your online accounts are handled properly after your death.
Helps you plan for uncertainty
There is no doubt the ongoing global pandemic has thrown a wrench in our plans. We have also seen many families lose their loved ones to the dreaded virus.
Life is unpredictable. We never know what the future holds for us. Hence, it is always recommended to prepare and plan ahead – this is especially true when it comes to Estate or Digital Estate Planning.
By creating a Digital Estate Plan for your Digital Assets, you are making sure your loved ones have access to your photos, videos and other digital data. Also, certain options like memorializing social media accounts can help them reminisce about the happy moments spent with you.
Not to forget, by creating a Digital Estate Plan, you are giving your beneficiaries a way to handle your accounts and keeping them secure from identity thefts.
Keeps your Online Accounts safe from identity thefts
Every year, many online accounts of the deceased fall prey to hackers and internet frauds. The family members can do nothing about it as the deceased user did not make arrangements to handle their online accounts.
By arranging your Digital Assets, you can let your beneficiaries handle your online accounts – you can instruct them to memorialize, delete or close your accounts.
You are now familiar with Digital Estate Planning and its importance. So, start planning for your Digital Estate today! Sign-up with Clocr and get all the help you need in creating your first Digital Estate Plan.
