How To Organize Your Digital Assets

Transcription

1 Documents Passare and Evan Carroll rom TheDigitalBeyond.com How-to Manage Your Digital Assets ebook #10

2 How-to Manage Your Digital Assets ebook #10: How-to Manage Your Digital Assets Like millions o people worldwide, you probably have stored on your personal computer, smart phone or in the cloud. You might have one or more social media accounts. You likely have many photos stored in online photo albums. , photos, multimedia, online banking transactions, and social media accounts are just some examples o your digital lie or identity. Having a digital lie or digital proile leads to a natural, important question: What happens to all o that online content when you pass away? As part o our ebook series, Passare, and Evan Carroll rom TheDigitalBeyond.comTM, share our recommendations or how to organize and manage your digital assets, how to create your digital estate, and how to protect your digital legacy ater you ve passed away. You Will Learn: 1. What are Digital Assets? 2. Why are Digital Assets Important? 3. What Happens to Digital Assets Ater Your Death? 4. How to Create Your Digital Legacy 5. How to Create Your Digital Estate 6. How to Preserve Your Digital Aterlie 7. How to Protect Your Digital Estate in Your Will or Estate Plan 8. What Happens to Your Digital Assets i You Become Incapacitated? 9. What Happens to Your Digital Assets i You Don t Have a Will? 10. How Will New Technology Aect Your Digital Legacy? The ebook includes: A. Digital Asset Management Checklist B. Digital Assets Sample Will Authorization Language Estimated Time Required: 30 minutes in 1

3 1. Digital Asset Types Digital assets can be organized into several categories: Computers and devices: content rom desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones content rom incoming, sent, and stored messages Content rom social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and others Online businesses including online stores, blogs, and websites, including PayPal, ebay and Etsy Multimedia content or other digital mementos rom Shutterly, Snapish, Flickr, Instagram, and other digital content sites 2. Why are Digital Assets Important? Your online content orms a rich collection o inormation that relects who you are. That makes it valuable. Some digital assets, like PayPal accounts or online businesses, have distinct inancial value as well. As you create more photos, movies, messages, blogs, and make online inancial and business transactions, you create a personal and inancial online portolio that becomes a uller relection o you. When others respond with , comments, or photos, they add value and depth to your collection. As your digital presence grows, your online content becomes more valuable to you, and to the people with whom you share it. 3. What Happens to Digital Assets Ater Your Death? Unless you act to preserve it, your digital identity may be at risk o extinction. Until recently, digital content was created and stored without much thought to its long-term availability to others. However, as the shit to digital continues, it is increasingly essential to consider how to manage and preserve your digital assets, and those o your deceased loved ones. The technology or how to manage and preserve your digital aterlie is still evolving. in 2

4 4. How to Create Your Digital Legacy When you create End-o-Lie documents such as a Will or a Living Trust, you consider how to preserve your identity or uture generations by passing on heirlooms, photos, videos and journals, and other assets o inancial and emotional value. You can now preserve many o these items online to create your digital estate or digital legacy. When you pass away, you will leave behind your own digital identity. Passing on your entire digital legacy will become more important as the cultural and technological shit to digital continues, and as your digital content becomes a richer relection o all aspects o your lie. With technology evolving at such a rapid pace, there is now an opportunity to create a permanent online archive o your lie or your digital estate that could exist well beyond your physical lie. The Internet can t make you immortal, but with planning, your digital legacy could have a rich, lasting aterlie. 5. How to Create Your Digital Estate Like preserving anything o value, good organization, identiication, secure storage, and planning are the keys to creating your digital estate and securing your digital legacy. You can then make inormed decisions about your inal wishes or your speciic digital assets. To organize your digital assets, ollow the steps in this section or each o your digital asset types, including: Computers and devices that contain personal content, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones content rom incoming, stored, and sent messages Content rom social network channels like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and others Online businesses including accounts rom online stores, blogs, and websites, including PayPal, ebay and Etsy Multimedia content rom Shutterly, Snapish, Flickr, Instagram, and other digital memento-sharing sites in 3

5 ! Important Note: Providing computer and mobile device access to your digital executor or heir including physical location, usernames, and passwords - is essential to your digital asset estate planning. Step One: Identiy and Inventory Your Assets You likely access your digital assets using a variety o desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. These devices serve as master keys to your , social presence, business, and inancial accounts. As you create your digital estate, identiy your devices and the content on those devices irst. Begin by making a thorough inventory o your computers, mobile devices, , social websites, and other important online accounts. List the physical location o each, and provide the name o your intended heir, username and password access, and your inal wishes or each asset. For a template to help inventory your assets, go to: Consider both personal devices and Internet accounts: Until recently, most o your personal content was likely stored on your home and/or work devices. Today, more data is stored on the Internet in the cloud. This shit to cloud-based storage services makes locating digital content more challenging i there is no clear inventory to guide your executor or heirs. So list all digital content accounts and sources in your inventory. Allowing access to your personal devices remains essential, since they may contain important iles that do not exist anywhere else. Consider both devices and iles: Devices and the digital iles on them are two separate things. The iles on a single device are part o your digital estate and can be shared with many people. This means that you can separately consider the uture owner o the device and the iles stored there. Communicate and provide access to your heirs: When making your inventory, record to whom you will give your speciic digital assets. Your digital executor and/or heir will manage your digital assets and ensure that your inal wishes are carried out. In the simplest situation, you have only one heir who is also your digital executor. Be sure to clearly communicate your wishes or your devices and digital content to your digital executor and heirs, so they know it exists and where. Provide access including the physical location, usernames, and passwords to all computers and mobile devices. in 4

6 ! Important Note: Access to data and preservation are dierent concepts. Even i your heirs have access to your digital content ater you pass away, this does not ensure that it will be preserved in the uture. Keep personal iles o your business computer: We recommend that you keep personal iles on your personal devices, not on your business computer. Although your employer may allow you to keep personal content on your work device, they may deny your digital executor access to it ater your death. Or, they may simply erase the content to prepare the device or another employee. Step Two: Archive Your Content It is essential to back up your computer and all personal devices to properly saeguard your data. Keeping your digital content in more than one place helps keep it sae. Storing digital content online can prevent a complete data loss i your hard drive ails, your computer is stolen, or your home destroyed. You can easily automate the backup process to occur regularly and automatically. Back up methods or hard drives and personal devices include using the ollowing: Storage media, like CDs and DVDs Optical media Additional hard drives, then using sotware to synchronize all o your hard drives together to store large collections o digital iles Online backup services that work with your existing Internet connection, including: Digital estate planning services; or example, SwissDNABank.com allows you to store both your data, and a sample o your DNA, indeinitely. in 5

7 ! Important Note: Providing computer and mobile device access to your digital executor or heir including physical location, usernames, and passwords - is essential to your digital asset estate planning. For a template to help inventory your assets, including any backup drives or services, go to: Step Three: Document Your Final Digital Asset Wishes The next step in creating your digital estate plan is to decide what instructions you want your digital executor and/or heirs to ollow or your speciic digital assets. Common choices include: Archiving you may choose to have your digital executor or heir create a copy o all, or some o your content, using CD, DVD, USB drive, or external hard drive(s). Keeping multiple copies o digital content helps keep it sae. Sharing you may choose to provide access to more than one person or group. You can store portions o your data on the Internet, or on separate media, which can then be distributed according to your inal wishes. Deleting you may choose to delete either a portion, or your entire digital content, rom all or some o your computers, devices, or cloud-based accounts. Be speciic about what you wish to have deleted. Doing nothing you may choose to do nothing and let your digital executor or heir decide what to do with your digital content ater your death. Step Four: Choose How Your Wishes will be Carried Out Finally, you should choose a way to ensure that your inal digital asset wishes will be carried out in the event that you pass way. You can select rom the ollowing choices: Document your inal digital asset wishes in your Will, or as an addendum to your Will or Living Trust. Use digital estate planning services to manage your inal instructions. Communicate your inal wishes to your loved ones, like your spouse, children, or other loved ones. in 6

8 6. How to Preserve Your Digital Aterlie The technological process or how to preserve your digital aterlie continues to evolve. Here are some o the ways you can preserve your digital assets or the digital aterlie o a deceased loved one: Check the laws in your state. Several states now have laws to manage digital assets i you or a deceased love one has no Will; many others have proposed legislation to protect a person s digital identity i there is no Will. Check the, Terms o Service or your online service providers to conirm access privileges to your executor or heir. Policies or managing digital assets ater death vary according to provider(s) or , multimedia and digital memento-sharing and social websites, and online business and inancial platorms. Incorporate your digital assets into your estate planning documents. You can use online digital estate planning services, or do it yoursel in writing or by direct communication to your executor or heir. Use online services to organize and pass on your digital accounts to your heirs. Communicate and provide access to your executor or heirs about your digital assets, and provide them with the physical location, usernames, passwords, and usage rights to access your devices, data, and online accounts.! Important Note: Read the section, Choosing a Digital Executor in this ebook or more inormation on appointing a digital executor, and passing on your digital legacy to your heirs. For a template to help inventory your assets, including any backup drives or services, go to: For more inormation on current laws aecting digital assets, go to: Limits to Preservation Preserving digital content has limits. Maintaining it orever in its current state is impractical, given rapidly changing technology. For digital content to remain, you will need someone to act as caretaker or curator o your data to ensure that multiple copies are maintained in current ormats that are accessible. The main challenge in curating digital content is not the technical ability, but the human or technological resources, to do so. in 7

9 Digital iles are only as reliable as the physical disks on which they reside. Redundancy and backups are essential to maintain ile integrity. Storing multiple copies on separate devices helps keep digital content sae. Convert older media to help manage changing ile ormats: To ensure that your digital content is preserved, you will need someone to either convert it rom older-to-newer ormats, or to preserve the technology needed to read the older ormats. Suggestions or maintaining your digital content include: Convert all data to a single ormat so your executor or heir can manage things more easily later. Maintain regular backups, as described in the section, How to Create Your Digital Estate Plan earlier in this ebook. Transer your most important digital assets onto a hard drive that your digital executor or heirs can access easily at a local location, like in your home or oice. Consider printing photos hard copies can last more than 50 years or more. 7. How To Protect Your Digital Estate As with preserving and protecting tangible property, you can state your preerences or your speciic digital assets in your Will or in an addendum to your current Will or Estate Plan. Then, choose a digital executor or heirs to carry out your inal wishes.! Important Note: Providing computer and mobile device access to your digital executor or heir including physical location, usernames, and passwords - is essential to protecting your digital asset estate. in 8

10 State Your Final Digital Asset Wishes in Your Will When stating your inal digital asset wishes in your Will or Estate Plan, do the ollowing: Be speciic about your intentions or your all o your devices, online accounts, and personal iles. Choose and name a digital executor and/or heir who will manage all o your digital assets. Communicate to your digital executor(s) and heir(s) the physical location, username and passwords, and the permission to control your digital assets - including devices, iles, and online accounts. Understand the current laws or managing digital assets in your state. Laws vary by state, and are evolving quickly to keep pace with technology. Review Terms o Service policies or all o the online accounts and applications you use. Never put usernames and passwords in a Will or Estate Plan. Think o access to a computer or account as a master key that may provide access to other accounts. Consider both the emotional and inancial value o your digital assets; consider what may be valuable to your heirs, not just what s valuable to you. Remember that inancial value may be hidden in many dierent places like online games, virtual currency, PayPal accounts, and etc. Choose a Digital Executor Both physical and digital assets need to be curated and cared or over time. Both types remind us o our loved ones and help us preserve their memory. However, without a conscientious curator to protect them, both physical and digital objects would quickly vanish. The person you choose to be the legal executor o your estate may not have the technical understanding to protect your digital assets. Your digital executor will be a person or online service that you choose to act on your behal relative to your digital assets ater you are gone, and should be able to understand and manage the technical aspects o associated with them. They will also distribute or delete your digital assets according to your wishes. in 9

11 I your legal executor is capable, consider making that person your digital executor as well. Or, i you choose to name a separate digital executor in your Will, consider adding instructions to direct your legal executor to obtain the help o your digital executor when managing your speciic digital assets.! Important Note: The legal executor deined in your Will is the only person with legal authority to settle your physical estate. Choose Your Heirs You may choose one or more heirs to whom you will leave your assets. Your heirs are the people who will receive your assets ater you pass away. Without your help, they may not even know about your digital content. I you have a simple estate, appoint one person, like a spouse or other amily member, to be your legal executor, digital executor, and sole heir. Common choices or whom to choose as your digital executor or heir include: Spouse or children Groups o people, like your parents, close amily, or riends Everyone leaving access to your digital content online or anyone to access No one you may choose not to leave your digital content to anyone It is important to understand that some content on your device(s) may not be transerable to your heirs. Digital Rights Managed (DRM) music is an example o nontranserable content. You bought the rights to listen to the music, not the music itsel. Edit Your Data Collection When you consider leaving behind your digital legacy, consider that your digital content may be a burden to your heirs in that it may simply be too voluminous to be uniquely valuable. For example, i you leave behind 10,000 photographs, they will have less value to your heirs. Edit, tag your avorites, delete duplicates, and keep the important content separate rom the vast collection. in 10

12 8. What Happens to Your Digital Assets i You Become Incapacitated? To protect your digital assets in the event you become incapacitated during your lie, do the ollowing: Appoint a Durable Power o Attorney (POA) to manage your estate. Communicate to your POA your inal wishes or protecting and preserving your digital legacy. Be speciic about your intentions or your all o your devices, online accounts, and personal iles. Communicate your inal wishes to your loved ones or heirs. Ensure that your loved ones know the physical location, and have the usernames and passwords, to access your accounts. Review your online service sites Terms o Service policies or transerring access to others in the event you become incapacitated during your lie. 9. What Happens to Digital Assets i You Don t Have a Will? I you do not create a Will or an addendum that speciically addresses your digital assets, your entire estate will be subject to the speciic laws o the state where you live at the time o your death. The Terms o Service or cloud-based services will apply according to the contract or the speciic accounts you held. 10. How Will New Technology Aect Your Digital Legacy? Good news is on the horizon or digital estate planning. We can expect greater awareness in the coming years that will address issues like managing changing ile ormats and limits to preservation. We can also expect new legal and technical standards to be established. Technological research and development are creating new tools to create your digital estate plans, send inal notiications, create online memorials, and secure your digital legacy ater your death. Using current technology, you can only pass on your digital content to your heirs. In the uture, we may have the opportunity to create a permanent archive that is relevant or history and uture generations to appreciate. in 11

13 Your Digital Asset Management Checklist To create and manage your digital estate, we suggest you do the ollowing: Identiy and make an inventory o your digital content on your personal, remote and cloud accessing devices. Include , social websites, and other important online accounts. Provide the name o your intended heir, access rights, and your inal wishes or each asset. For a template to help inventory your assets, go to: Back up your devices and data. I you use online backup service websites, remember to add these accounts to your inventory list. State your inal digital asset wishes in your Will or in a digital addendum to your Will or Estate Plan. Use digital estate planning services, posthumous services, or ask your digital executor or heirs to carry out your inal wishes ater your death. Ensure that your loved ones have the permission and access credentials to access the accounts you choose by reviewing your online account sites Terms or Service or transerring access to others ater your death. Communicate your inal wishes directly to your loved ones, digital executor, or heirs. in 12

14 Digital Assets Sample Will Authorization Language Power O Attorney Digital Assets. My attorney-in-act shall have (i) the power to access, use and control my digital devices, including but not limited to, desktops, laptops, tablets, peripherals, storage devices, mobile telephones, smartphones, and any similar digital device which currently exists or may exist as technology develops or such comparable items as technology develops or the purpose o accessing, modiying, deleting, controlling or transerring my digital assets, and (ii) the power to access, modiy, delete, control and transer my digital assets, including but not limited to, my s received, accounts, digital music, digital photographs, digital videos, sotware licenses, social network accounts, ile sharing accounts, inancial accounts, domain registrstions, DNS service accounts, web hosting accounts, tax preparation service accounts, online stores, ailiate programs, other online accounts and similar digital items which currently exist or may exist as technology develops or such comparable items as technology develops. Wills Your Will should include speciic powers to handle digital assets and a deinition o digital assets, such as, Digital Assets. My executor shall have the power to access, handle, distribute and dispose o my digital assets, as deined below. Digital Assets. Digital assets includes iles stored on my digital devices, including but not limited to, desktops, laptops, tablets, peripherals, storage devices, mobile telephones, smartphones, and any similar digital device which currently exists or may exist as technology develops or such comparable items as technology develops. The term digital assets also includes but is not limited to s received, accounts, digital music, digital photographs, digital videos, sotware licenses, social network accounts, ile sharing accounts, inancial accounts, domain registrations, DNS service accounts, web hosting accounts, tax preparation service accounts, online stores, ailiate programs, other online accounts and similar digital items which currently exist or may exist as technology develops or such comparable items as technology develops, regardless o the ownership o the physical device upon which the digital item is stored. Optionally you may want to speciy another individual who is more technologically savvy to assist the executor in handling digital assets. I authorize my executor to engage distributing and disposing o my digital assets. to assist in accessing, handling, Finally it may be desirable to reerence an external list o digital assets and relevant user names and passwords. I have prepared a memorandum with instructions concerning my digital assets and their access, handling, distribution and disposition. I direct my executor and beneiciaries to ollow my instructions concerning my digital assets. in 13

15 ! Important Note: Note: This Digital Assets Sample Authorization language is courtesy o Jean Gordon Carter in collaboration with Evan Carroll and John Romano. It is available or estate planners to include and adapt in their documents. Please go to: or more inormation. The inormation contained in this booklet is or educational purposes only and is not intended to be construed as legal advice. For legal advice, consult an attorney. The inormation contained in this booklet is subject to change and does not purport to be a complete statement o all relevant issues. In certain jurisdictions this may constitute attorney advertising. in 14

16 From birth to death, lie is a series o passages. Passare provides an online service that connects people to trusted End-o-Lie management experts and resources. With Passare, you can explore, plan and prepare or end-o-lie management, simpliying the process while honoring ensuring the speciic needs and wishes o you and your amily. Passare gives you control over one o lie s most important passages. Evan Carroll is a user experience designer, author and speaker rom Raleigh, NC. He is co-ounder o The Digital Beyond, a blog and think tank devoted to digital aterlie and legacy issues. Evan is the author o the book, Your Digital Aterlie: When Facebook, Flickr and Twitter Are Your Estate, What s Your Legacy? (New Riders Press, 2011). Evan has appeared in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR s Fresh Air, CNN, PBS News Hour, Popular Science, Fox News, CNN and The Atlantic. Evan holds MS and BS degrees rom UNC-Chapel Hill s School o Inormation and Library Science.