State governments across the country have taken up what happens to a person's digital accounts after they die. Wisconsin is the latest state to do so.
The digital age has created changes for people in many aspects of life. This is certainly the case in estate planning, as estate laws were designed in a time when almost all property was physically present in the world. Those who created estate laws, for example, did so when a book was always a collection of bound paper and never a small digital file stored on a computer.
The problem for estate planners is that these older laws do not necessarily adapt well to digital possessions. This has left access to digital accounts up to the companies, such as Facebook and Google, that provide the accounts. Many state legislators are busy rewriting estate laws to take this new digital age into account. WMTV reports that Wisconsin is the latest state to do so in "Bill looks to help protect digital assets after death."
The legislation in Wisconsin seeks to treat digital accounts as much like physical accounts as possible. If a particular digital account has settings that allow for a post-death beneficiary, then those settings are respected. If the account does not make that possible, access to digital accounts would be given to a person designated in a will or a next-of-kin.
Regardless whether your state has laws concerning access to digital accounts after death, be sure to identify your accounts and what would happen to them. An estate planning attorney can help you to work within the framework of your state's laws to make sure your accounts are covered and accessible.
Reference: WMTV (Feb. 24, 2016) "Bill looks to help protect digital assets after death."
