Article on Planning for a Digital Legacy

Sasha A. Klein (Bessemer Trust) and Mark R. Parthemer (Bessemer Trust) recently published an article entitled, Planning for a Digital Legacy, 29 Probate & Property No. 1 (January/February 2015).  Provided below is the introduction to the article:

Every 60 seconds over 168 million e-mails are sent, 695,000 Facebook status updates are posted, 100 people join LinkedIn, 320 new Twitter accounts are created, 600 digital videos are added to YouTube, and 6,600 photos are added to Flickr.

Digital assets are part of our everyday lives and are here to stay. Recent studies have found that among Americans, 85% of adults and 95% of teenagers use the Internet. Of those Americans, 80% of them (more than 120 million) engage in social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, which is more than 25% of all time spent on-line. More than 50% of American seniors are on-line. And a surprising 92% of children under the age of two have a digital presence.

The world of digital assets is broad, but planning for these assets is often overlooked. Further, digital assets have growning quickly, and perhaps too quickly because, unfortunately, the existing state and federal laws on digital assets are underdeveloped. Moreover, on-line service providers each have their own terms of service (TOS) agreements, and these agreements are not uniform. With the rapid growth of digital assets, lack of current legal guidance, and inconsistent service agreements, it is important for your clients to be aware of potential issues that can arise over their digital assets and plan accordingly. As a trusted and well-informed advisor, you should be well positioned to explore these issues with your clients and help them create an effective solution.