Don’t forget your digital assets.

By Tresp, Day & Associates · February 10, 2021

Modern life generates a large and growing digital footprint, and much of it has real financial or sentimental value. Yet traditional estate plans rarely address it, leaving families locked out of accounts, unable to find assets, or facing platform rules that don’t recognize an executor.

Legal authority

Fiduciaries need authority to access digital assets. Modern estate documents can grant powers over digital property, and laws now give fiduciaries some rights, but platform terms of service and privacy rules can still block access. Using providers’ legacy-contact tools, and drafting documents that explicitly address digital assets, closes the gap.

Practical access

Authority is useless without access. Maintain an inventory of your important digital assets and accounts, and a secure method, a password manager, sealed instructions, or a fiduciary arrangement, for a trusted person to obtain credentials when needed. This is especially critical for cryptocurrency, where lost keys mean lost assets.

Bring it into the plan

Digital assets deserve the same deliberate treatment as any other property. Tresp, Day & Associates helps clients incorporate them into estate plans so nothing valuable is left inaccessible.