Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites have become virtual storage units for personal information — including pictures, thoughts and messages between friends — and estate attorneys are already preparing for a new generation that wants to bequeath their online presence to their loved ones.
"My clients want their loved ones to have access for the purpose of taking care of the account, whether it's closing the account down, saving pictures or other things that would be of value," said Tiffany O'Connell, an estate planning attorney. "It's not so much to keep it going, it's to wrap things up."
The social media phenomenon is relatively new in the realm of estate planning, and there are currently no laws on the books to guide attorneys who are trying to do their clients' bidding. In an attempt to stay ahead of the curve, attorneys are carefully writing wills to include "digital assets."
"This is a pretty new area of estate planning. It's not just social media accounts, it can be blogs or financial accounts or other things that you can access on your phone or computer," said Elizabeth Volney, an estate attorney who recently gave a lecture on the subject. "We have tried to adapt our documents to provide access to these accounts both during life — when someone is incapacitated — and death."
A tricky part of the new legal landscape is adjusting to the policies of the digital asset service providers. Some haven't yet taken into consideration what happens to a user's information once they pass away, Volney said.
"Some companies don't even allow access to an account, even if you have a court document. They'll just automatically delete the account, and everything will be lost forever," she said.
Another issue is determining who gets access, and how much. This can be done via a virtual access instruction letter, which is a sheet that lists all accounts a person has online and supplies the user name, password, security questions and how much information should be disposed of, Volney said.
There's also the old-fashioned way to pass on your virtual presence: Simply hand over the password to your loved one, and let them take care of things when you pass away.
"The best way to do it is to make sure they have your password information, but shy of that, if someone has to go and approach the company and say 'We need to get access,' those companies will typically say no, unless it's in their written agreement," O'Connell said. "Generally it isn't, unless they are authorized by a court."
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