As I have previously discussed, it’s becoming more and more common among financial advisers to incorporate digital assets into their client’s estate plan. However, people may not realize how digital assets can comfort and overwhelm you without proper management. Courtney the caregiver lost her mother and had confided in only a few close relatives about her mother’s death. She was shocked and upset when she found several people had posted facebook updates of her mothers condition she had not spoken to who were informed of the death through a flurry of social media updates. Additionally, she began receiving text messages referring to her mother in the past tense. Courtney became overwhelmed. She decided that managing her mother’s and her own digital assets were too much to handle. As a result, she asked her best friend to step in as an informal digital proxy to screen some of the messages.
See What Does Managing a Loved One’s Digital Legacy Look Like?, Huffington Post, Jun. 2013.
