When making or changing your Will digital assets and information must be taken into consideration, and, on your death, will need to be accessed by your executors in order to administer your estate without complications or delay.
We may not become ‘bitcoin billionaires’ or invent an ‘App’ before we die; but we will probably acquire digital assets such as loyalty points, domain names, a business website, instagram account or offshore digital investment facility and use social media platforms and online banking with passwords or additional security.
The content of your website, iCloud storage, blogs, posts and photographs as well as your software and hardware and devices are all digital assets. If your lifestyle or business is largely ‘digital’ or ‘online’ it may be worth appointing a ‘digital’ executor able to deal with this aspect of your estate. This is particularly important as most online providers will not allow password sharing or let anyone access your digital accounts unless specifically appointed to do so in a Will or directly with your account provider.
Your Will becomes a public document when you die, so passwords and secure information should never be included in a Will and must be stored very securely elsewhere and updated as and when passwords are changed.
You may want to leave a detailed letter of wishes with your passwords explaining how to access secure devices and how you would like your digital assets dealt with. We use the STEP inventory to help you set out your digital assets.
