Digital Estate Planning Guest Post by Wayne Buckwalter
By Jesse Davis on Mar 8 th, with 0 COMMENT
Wayne C. Buckwalter, Partner, Cohen, Seglias, Pallas, Greenhall & Furman
How Do I Make Sure My Online Business Is Preserved?
As a wealth preservation attorney, I find it particularly important to review digital assets with all clients, especially those with online businesses. The question I routinely get is “what happens to online businesses if the owner passes away? Do they just disappear?” To prevent the businesses from “disappearing”, I recommend that my clients gather in one place all of the information regarding the domain name registration for the business, making sure to include:
· Vendor contacts
· Logins for websites
· Domain name providers
· Access to means to transfer funds for the online business
Almost routinely, when I suggest compiling the above information, the next question I am asked is “Gee, how would I do that?” One way to do this is via an electronic repository, such as Entrustet.com’s Account Guardian service. Another way is through your attorney. Your estate plan documents will instruct your fiduciary where to find an up to date inventory of your online information. An example of which could be a memory stick or removable hard drive, kept in a secure location.
I have also suggested to several online business savvy clients that they establish a side business to assist other online business owners in preserving and transferring a valuable asset.
Don’t let this become a daunting task and prevent you from performing this asset preserving strategy. Carefully preserving your electronic assets will make the transition much easier for your family.
There are a couple of avenues to turn to for help in getting started with the preservation process. A good place to start is with your estate planning attorney. He or she can help to build a succession plan and strategy for your online assets, and make sure everything is in order. Rather than only having your attorney shoulder the expense and potential liability exposure for providing and maintaining your asset preservation, it might also be wise to consider using a digital asset service for added protection.
If you own any online assets, don’t wait to get a plan in order. The more time you give the better, so you can make sure that everything is in order and accounted for properly.
Wayne C. Buckwalter is Chair of the Wealth Preservation Group at Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman, PC. He can be reached at wbuckwalter@cohenseglias.com or 215.564.1700.
