VIDEO - The top two reasons wills are challenged - Part 2

VIDEO - The top two reasons wills are challenged - Part 2

December 31, 2007

Social media is not going away. As it continues to evolve and grow, it's becoming even more difficult to make it go away. While we all have finite life-spans, the Internet can be forever, and as such, our social media can survive well beyond our few years on this Earth.  

What happens to your "digital assets", or more particularly, your social media accounts when you die? Perhaps one of the best indicators of the changing technological world that we live in is that social media sites have now instituted various "death policies" that apply upon passing.

One pattern that has now been followed is the ability to appoint a close contact to administer a user's accounts after death. In other words, there is now a concept of an "electronic Estate Trustee"; who is essentially tasked with being in charge of a user's profile. That said, because the social media platforms remain in the custodianship of a third party, the "electronic Estate Trustee's" powers are limited, which means that some foresight and planning on the part of each user would be prudent. This is especially so if the user is particularly weary of what appears in public, or what is associated with their name, after their death.

This is an excerpt of an article that appeared on the The Ontario Bar Association Web Site.  Please click here to read the complete article.