Digital Estate Essentials: Understanding and Planning Your Digital Legacy

The online world evolves rapidly, and with so much of our lives now digitally driven, our digital assets can change just as quickly.

That's why it's crucial to understand how to manage and organize your digital assets as part of a comprehensive digital estate plan. Keep reading to learn what a digital will is, why it's important, and the steps you need to take to create one.

Key Takeaways

• A digital will includes an inventory of all your digital assets, access credentials, and clear instructions.

• When you create a digital will, it’s important to appoint a digital fiduciary (or executor) to follow your instructions.

• Your digital will can be included as part of your traditional will or stored and maintained separately.

What Is a Digital Estate? 

Before we dive into how to plan your digital legacy, it’s worth taking a step back to cover what a digital estate is and why it’s so important.

A digital estate is effectively the sum of all your digital assets. It is anything that is created or stored digitally and possesses some sort of value — whether it’s monetary, sentimental, or a combination of the two.

As you might expect, that umbrella covers a dizzying range of assets.

Ben Michael, an attorney at Michael & Associates in Dallas, explains: “Some of the most obvious include those related to digital finance, like online banking and brokerage accounts, crypto, and online payment accounts (Venmo, Zelle, etc.).

“It also includes things like digital accounts, such as emails, social media accounts, library accounts, and more, as well as documents stored digitally like photos.”

Considering just how many components unite to form your overall online presence and digital wealth, organizing and managing digital assets can be exceedingly difficult. That’s where digital estate planning comes to the rescue.

“Digital estate planning is important because most people have so many of their earnings and belongings held digitally these days,” Michael says.

“Failing to do proper digital estate planning can lead to major complications down the line, from not being able to access important online accounts to not knowing a person’s wishes regarding who can access what.”

There are a variety of strategies and online tools you can call upon to manage your digital estate, but the foundation of your online legacy is a digital will.