What Has Become The Most Troubling Estate Asset? (Click any Image for More!)

Ask any knowledgeable attorney about what they know about settling an estate that has a bunch of Digital Assets. They will tell you that with the new laws being adopted by many states, the fiduciary liabilities are starting to emerge as one of the most significant considerations in taking on a new estate planning client. Almost all of the states have these new laws, and many, as indicated in the chart below, are about to adopt them.

It was only about 30 days ago, when I was adding many of my digital accounts to my LastPass function, that I realized that my wife, who had no idea of what I have on line, would have a terrible time dealing with over 120 different places where I have critical relationships on line. (Survey done by one organization says that we have an average of 130 digital accounts that have some significant asset or files that will need to be dealt with upon death.)

It was only a few days later that I ran across a notification of a meeting that was going to be conducted here in Pennsylvania with a group of 200 attorneys. (I'm not an attorney, I just help to facilitate the estate planning process). The speaker was going to present a solution to the problem. So I contacted the company, and learned that there is a way to prepare my estate, and my executor and trustee, for dealing with these matters in an amazingly easy manner. By the way, the speaker is Lee Poskanzer, President and CEO of Directive Communications Systems, and you can reach him at his web site.

I liked this idea so much that my attorney-partner and I have now integrated it into the Complete Estate Planning Package that so many of my agents, advisors and estate planning professionals are using. By inserting the appropriate language into a Last Will and Testament or a Revocable Living Trust, a personal representative or trustee will now have the authority to work with the various digital accounts and settle them based upon the clients instructions, i. e., close the accounts, retain them, or ignore them.

Before you do anything, you should familiarize yourself with what is going on in this arena. There is a great White Paper (actually multi-colors) available that will guide you through the menacing path of dealing with digital assets, and at the very least, it should frighten you for having given advice to clients, like telling them that they should share their passwords with their spouse, or their attorney or accountant. I don't want to scare you, but that is illegal (meaning possible jail-time!!).

Click on the image above and you will be taken directly to where you can download this amazing White Paper. If you wish, you can also spend some time on the web site, but my suggestion is that you become familiar with what's going on legislatively first.

If you want to know some of the benefits of a Digital Asset Estate Plan, here they are:

For those of you who would like to learn more about how you can incorporate this very important function into your planning, please drop me a line. I feel that this is a very serious issue, and everyone should be attending to it.