it's your legacy... Entrustet HIWI Blog

Jen Santini, Sykora & Santini (full bio at bottom)

Guest Post by Jen Santini

Probate attorneys are hired to provide services to help administer an estate and allow for the decedent’s family members to focus on the more important matters, such as grieving and spending time with one another. The services range from handling the “legal” aspects of a probate to assisting with the organization of the decedent’s affairs. To truly serve the needs of a probate client – the personal representative – attorneys need to be cognizant of all aspects of the estate and ensure that all details, whether big or small, are tended to.

Recently I realized that these services needed to include handling decedents’ digital assets. In a perfect world all individuals would properly prepare for his or her death and have an estate plan in place.  Furthermore, in a perfect world, that estate plan would include provisions for digital assets. However, we all know this is not the case. As attorneys, we need to be the ones who recognize the importance of planning for digital assets and going forward we need to incorporate these assets into our practices. Until such time that these assets are provided for in standard estate planning documents, and as we continue to retain probate clients, we need to be mindful of these assets when probating an estate.

I have used Entrustet’s Digital Property Search to help provide complete and thorough assistance to a probate client.  Without the use of this report, the personal representative and I would not have been aware of all the decedent’s digital accounts. Knowing of these accounts allowed us to properly close and access the necessary accounts to ensure the decedent’s personal information was protected.

The Digital Legacy Report can provide information on whether a decedent had certain “financial” accounts such as PayPal accounts or other web-based financial management services. While these accounts should ultimately be closed, you may actually need access to these accounts while you are still probating the estate.  At the very least, you will want to ensure the company is aware of the decedent’s death in case of any unauthorized activity with these accounts. People fall victim to identity theft often because they are not diligent about verifying the activities under their accounts. Yes, a decedent is deceased and so identity theft may not have as much of an impact on that individual. However, if actual monetary assets are at stake, you can be certain that the beneficiaries will want to confirm those assets are protected.

Additionally, the Digital Property Search Report helps identify any digital assets that may be of actual monetary value, such as photographs or domain names for businesses.  Some people are extremely private and therefore their personal representatives and/or family members may not even be aware in what the decedent was involved. If you are not aware of an estate’s assets, beneficiaries may not receive all that is entitled to them.

As individuals accumulate more and more digital assets, it will be even more imperative that they properly plan for those assets.  Attorneys need to incorporate this practice into their estate plans to proactively protect these assets.  Likewise, attorneys need to consider researching decedents’ digital assets to retroactively protect them and can do so by utilizing a service such as Entrustet’s Digital Property Search.

Bio:

Jennifer Santini is a founding partner of the law firm Sykora & Santini, which focuses on business law and estate planning. She is also a co-founder and contributor to Epilawg, which is a collaborative blog by four lawyers providing all the pieces to complete your estate plan.  Before becoming an attorney, Jen worked in the legal departments of two investment management companies in Boston, MA.

Tags:

Digital Estate Planning · Digital Property Report · Digital Property Search