Estate Planning Lawyer

Please take a moment to think about all of the accounts you regularly and occasionally access online. You likely access personal bank accounts and other financial accounts in this way. Chances are that you also have at least one social media account and at least one email address. Do you also organize your life in other ways online? Do you create original work online? Do you conduct business via various accounts?

Once you have taken stock of all of the personal (and any family business) accounts you access online, ask yourself who will benefit from access to these accounts once you pass away? Who might want access to these accounts against your wishes? Who will manage all the data, assets and other elements of these accounts at that time? The answers to these questions may cause you to panic a little bit if you have not already established a digital estate plan. Thankfully, if you invest just a little time and effort in creating a digital estate plan with the help of an experienced attorney, you can ensure that your answers to these questions will be addressed in a respectful, legally-enforceable way whenever your digital estate plan becomes necessarily relevant.

Digital Estate Planning: The Basics

In preparation for consulting with an attorney about your digital estate plan, it will likely benefit you to draw up a formal list of all of your online accounts. Your attorney will be able to provide guidance as to how you should organize your digital estate plan in order to ensure that your loved ones entrusted with managing your estate can easily access your accounts when you can no longer do so. In addition, if you can write up a list of which loved ones may (or may not) have access to each specific account, you will save yourself time and effort later on. Please remember that estate plans are living documents and that your digital estate plan may be updated throughout the remainder of your life.

Estate Planning Guidance Is Available

If you have questions about estate planning generally or digital estate planning specifically, please consider scheduling a consultation with an experienced estate planning attorney today. Digital estate planning is an area of law that is still evolving and is often treated differently by various states. As a result, it is important not to assume that you know how your digital assets will be handled in the event of your death, simply because you have witnessed how another person’s assets were managed. Speaking with an experienced lawyer, like an estate planning lawyer in Fairfield County, CT, and updating your estate plan when necessary will help to ensure that your digital assets are treated with respect, managed according to your wishes and that digital elements of your estate plan are legally enforceable.

None of us knows when our estate plans will suddenly become truly urgent business for both our interests and the interests of our loved ones. Please do not wait to protect yourself and your family through the process of estate planning proactively. Please consider scheduling a consultation with an experienced attorney today.

Contact Sweeney Legal for more information about estate planning.