Facebook doesn’t die …

Social media sites, for some years now, have attracted millions of people. Some sites have become “storage” for a tremendous amount of personal information.

What happens when an account holder dies? Well, nothing automatic necessarily.

An online account can be an asset (for example, a business website). A Will can include gifts of “digital assets” or even a direction to close accounts (there is no legal prohibition of this).

But digital assets now warrant some consideration in Estate planning. One way to handle them at the planning stage is to prepare a written list of accounts/websites and passwords.

That list can be given to the Will maker’s personal representative for safekeeping, or can be attached to a Will. The information is important, and should not be ignored.

This ad ran in the Richmond Review on July 11, 2014.