Your Growing Digital Estate - why we worry

A good article from The Student Lawyer website www.thestudentlawyer.com 

(The choice for aspiring lawyers and us) 

Read the entire article here

Digital Estate Planning-Is Google your Next Estate Planner?

This article picks up on a discussion with Jamie Hopkins who is Assistant Professor of Taxation at New York Life Center for Retirement Income about the challenges facing traditional estate planning in relation to the disposition of digital electronic assets

…”the unique nature of digital assets, coupled with the fact that many digital assets will long outlive their owners, presents new challenges to traditional estate planning techniques…”

While many people do not have an estate plan in place for the disposition of their traditional assets, even fewer have a specifically designed digital estate plan to manage their digital assets upon death. By the end of 2012, almost 30 million Facebook accounts had outlived their owners, but only three million had been memorialised [4] for their deceased owners. This leaves millions of photographs, private messages, and other digital assets stored on the deceased’s Facebook account, which is inaccessible to his or her family and friends.[5] These forgotten pages become a virtual shrine, creating ‘a pixilated Dorian Gray, colored by iPhone photos, ‘pokes’, and ‘LOLs’ — possibly for an eternity.’[6] As such, the unique nature of digital assets, coupled with the fact that many digital assets will long outlive their owners, present new challenges to traditional estate planning techniques, requiring more complex planning techniques than previously used for the disposition and management of traditional estates.

What will happen if you or one of your loved ones sets up all of their accounts online but the access information is not shared? A family already grieving is subject to even further distress. The last thing you or your family need is a time of grief is the frustration and potential financial loss because proper digital estate planning was not considered especially in light of the fact that there are unique issues that plague digital assets like ownership and transferability.

Read on and make a plan

PS LegacyTracker provides for digital estate planning

Life is Complicated; Death More so; Get yourself organized

Life is.... complicated but death is even more so...


Get your stuff together (please)....

This is a poster I have kept from the Wall Street Journal since it was published in 2011  (WSJ/ Saabira Chaudhuri)

It was a fascinating poster and a fascinating story which talked about the financial consequences that befalls your family and loved ones if you fail to keep all your documents and important papers in order. In the US where they track, report and actively look for owners of unclaimed funds they know that the toll is great. $33B approximately in unclaimed bank accounts and other assets like paid up insurance policies.

Read the full article here:  Organize your documents

Dying without a will is no way to die

My spouse works for an insurance company but one of his responsibilities includes managing a property with 100 or so residential units.  Last week, the superintendent of the property called him to tell him that he had entered the apartment of an elderly tenant who had lived in the building for some 20+ years to find that he had passed away while he was taking a bath.

Despite outliving 2 wives and a girlfriend, a search of the elderly gentleman’s apartment by a close relative did not uncover a will; although it did uncover some $5,000+ in cash.  That’s no way to die and I am not talking about passing away in a bathtub but more importantly, dying without a will.

What happens when someone dies without a will?

Dying without a will means that there is no executor which means there will be a delay and most likely additional costs and much frustration along the way in dealing with the estate. There’s also a much higher chance of conflict amongst potential heirs. Here’s why:

Dying without a will is legally referred to as dying ‘intestate’ which is another way of saying the Province you live in will be in charge. If a family member steps forward to administer the estate, they must apply to the Province and the Province if satisfied will provide a certificate of appointment.  If no member of the immediate family of the deceased is willing to act as administrator, or able to take on the task, then the Court will administer the estate via a third party.

Dying without a will means that the province you live in will determine who your legal beneficiaries are and how much each of them will receive. Most provincial intestacy rules do not recognize common-law spouse status, so he or she may be left out of the estate entirely or they may petition the courts for support (read extra costs/extra delay)

Dying without a will means that no provision has been made for guardians for minor children as the Will is the place where one would make such provisions. Nor would there be provision made for setting up a trust fund so the rules of the province by way of the Public Trustee will determine how much your children get and when they get it.

Dying without a will means that details over final wishes are also not provided for so it’s a ‘best guess’ kind of decision made by family .No family member wants to guess whether their loved ones wanted to be buried versus cremated? Many have made the decision and found out years later that it was not what the loved one would have wanted.  

Solution

For a reasonable cost and small effort an entire family can be saved additional grief in all ways by ensuring a will is in place, up to date…and and found when needed.

 

 

 

Estate Mistake-Where’s your stuff?

Such a great Olympic Athlete, sprinter Florence (Flo Jo) Griffith Joyner died too young at age 38 in 1998. Subsequent to her death, her husband couldn't find her original will, and was not able to file it within the 30 days required in California…

As a result, lots of family issues came about between Flo Jo’s husband and her mother,  as to whether or not Flo Jo had promised  her Mom that she could stay in the house for the rest of her life.  The original will was either never found or never filed and the judge eventually appointed a third part to administer the estate.  Who wants to argue and grieve at the same time? 

Legacy Tracker helps families and individuals better prepare themselves for emergency situations that all happen to be on the rise including death, incapacity, Identity Theft, Natural and Physical Disasters. More generally, Legacy Tracker will also help facilitate important family discussions that many families have put off, concerning estate planning and final wishes.