If you have any questions about any Estate Planning, Labour or Land issues, contact McCarthy & Associates Attorneys on (033) 266 6170 or via email
If you have any questions about any Estate Planning, Labour or Land issues, contact McCarthy & Associates Attorneys on (033) 266 6170 or via email
When you look at the material possessions around you in deciding what should become of it all when you pass, your eyes pass right over the very thing you were almost certainly occupied with at that moment, the same thing you are occupied with right now … the digital world!
When you are gone, whatever digital footprint you have left remains and would continue to operate and be interacted with in various ways. This is why digital property must be taken into account in your estate plan. The first thing you would think of would be your social media accounts.
Interestingly, it is estimated that by 2070, the number of deceased Facebook users are expected to outnumber the living. So what should happen to your social media accounts? Should they be deleted, or would you rather have one final post in the form of a memorial?
Besides the obvious social media platforms, other digital assets include cryptocurrencies, cloud storage, all data on your digital devices, website domain names, copyrighted electronic works such as music or literary works, and income-generating electronic means such as a YouTube channel. This list is inexhaustive.
Remember, however, that your wishes cannot be carried out unless you authorise access to your digital content and provide your account details with their passwords in a safe and secure manner.
Furthermore, due to the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA), this authorisation will need to be expressly given. Otherwise, access to your digital data by your loved ones could be deemed unlawful. You may further be uncomfortable for others to access all of your electronically stored data, so you may thus select the data to which you give access.
A secure online safe deposit box could be used to store what data is most important or valuable to you, such as scanned copies of original documents and your treasured pictures. This will make access to your electronically stored assets easier for your loved ones. Backing up this information to a local computer or other personal storage device is also an option.
Whatever digital assets you may have, think carefully of what you “own” electronically and how you would like these things dealt with when you are no longer there to do so yourself.