Digital Assets and Your Will

The digital asset is a fairly new category of personal property. With advances in technology, many people now store information and documentation in digital form. This can be on hard drives, or increasingly through online storage options such as Dropbox and Google Drive. It’s not just individuals that are storing data online, either - businesses all over the world are also turning to the digital sphere to store business and financial information, secured only by usernames and passwords. As new digital assets are constantly created, it has become clear that the law governing these intangibles is lagging behind. If you have any digital property or data that you consider valuable, it’s vital to include them into your will to ensure that after your death they will be in good hands. Lawyer and solicitor Glenn Duker explains.

What is a Digital Asset and How Do We Manage It?

A digital asset is anything you have rights over that is in a digital form, or exists online. These include:

• Hard storage devices
• Online banking
• Social networking accounts – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.
• Email accounts
• Online shopping accounts – eBay etc.
• Financial accounts – PayPal etc.
• Electronic libraries

Many people neglect to include these items in their will as traditionally this document is concerned with estates and other physical possessions and they can forget that digital data has value, too.

To manage your digital assets as well as online presence after your death, ensure to make a detailed list of instructions for how each asset should be handled, and the people you would like to handle them. Then, record the usernames, passwords and access codes to each asset. This sensitive information can be stored in a safe, or a safety deposit box at the bank. To make your instructions legal, have you lawyer draft your will professionally.

If you’re looking for a trustworthy and experienced lawyer to please contact solicitor Glenn Duker today!

For more information visit:- http://www.glenndukerlitigationlawyer.com.au/glennduker.html