What Happens To My Digital Assets After Death?

What Happens To The Digital Inheritance We Often Forget To Mention In Our Will? Many service providers' standard terms and conditions stipulate that data will be automatically terminated on death. So, valuable emails or an online music collection could be lost, and loved ones will be deprived of the ability to inherit something that could be meaningful and comforting at a sad time. As online data is not a physical asset, it is unlikely that it can be gifted in a will in the same way as, say, a CD collection.

However, Google has recently started allowing users to stipulate in their account settings certain 'trusted persons' who are to be allowed access to the account after their death, or alternatively rule that the account should be deleted. Google is the first of the large internet service providers to offer such a facility. Facebook, by contrast, stands by a policy of customer confidentiality and allows executors to close a Facebook account or turn it into a memorial page but not to access it.

Given this uncertainty and to avoid what can become an upsetting issue for loved ones, the best way of leaving a digital inheritance is to create a list of your online assets, and the relevant usernames and passwords, together with the names of those you wish to have access after your death. This applies to email accounts, social networking accounts and devices such as mobile phones, tablets and MP3 players, web photo albums and gaming.

Such information should not be listed in the will itself, as this becomes a public document after death, but in a separate letter of wishes, drawn up to accompany the will, or in a separate spread sheet annexed to the will. The information can then be passed...