The world is an ever-changing place. In the past couple of decades, this is truer than ever, with the rise in popularity of the digital world. But did you know that you can leave digital assets in your Will?
Digital assets can be a way for your loved ones to remember you when you have passed away, through your online documents and social media presence. You can choose who to leave access to these to.
A survey commissioned by the Law Society found that 93% of those who have a will have not included any digital assets in it. Meanwhile, just a quarter of the 1,000 respondents knew what will happen to their digital assets after they die – with only 7% saying they fully understand.
This is why it is important that you fully understand all the assets you may have, including digital ones.
What Counts as a Digital Asset?
Digital assets include all of your online investments. Examples include:
- Online accounts such as PayPal
- Email accounts
- Social media accounts
- Blogs or websites in your name
- Credit on sites such as points or vouchers
- Virtual currency such as Bitcoin
- Anything stored online such as Dropbox or the cloud
- Virtual objects you own such as ebooks
With the rise in paperless statements digital assets will only get bigger and more documents will move online, so making sure you include these in your Will is important.
Why Are They Important?
With the growth of technology, more documents will undoubtedly move to a more online format, so naturally these assets will become more important as time goes on. As emails have become more widely used, there may be important documents that are stored in your emails, so someone would need access to your account to see the important documents.
They are also important in the process of probate. The first step of probate is your Executor valuing your estate. If your digital assets are not included, then they may not get an accurate value of your estate to give to your beneficiaries.
What Can you Do?
As your digital assets make up part of your estate, you should make a note of these when thinking about writing your Will. This can be anything from writing down all your accounts and passwords, to noting any accounts you have online which you may have accumulated points for.
Once you have done this, you can then decide if you would like to leave them to anyone in your Will. Due to the online world evolving, your solicitor can also help update your Will if you add or change any of these assets.
Contesting A Will Based on Digital Assets
If your Will is contested on the basis of digital assets and they are not recorded anywhere, then it may not be possible for your loved ones to receive everything you wished them to. This is another reason that adding them is important.
If you are contesting a Will based on the digital assets and you do not know where to turn for advice, then we may be able to help. The solicitors we work with have years of experience dealing with contesting Wills, and so may be able to assist you.
How We Can Help
Here at The Inheritance Experts we work with solicitors who deal with all manner of inheritance cases. This includes cases involving Will writing, updating, and assets. Contact us today by filling in our contact form, or by calling us on to speak to one of our friendly knowledgeable advisors.