When making an estate plan, you need to consider all of your assets. Some of these assets may be digital. There are ways to incorporate a digital estate plan to ensure that you pass assets—or access to them—on to the correct individuals. This is especially important with some financial assets, such as digital currency.
But one important thing to keep in mind is that you may not actually own all of your digital products. This means that you can’t necessarily pass them on to the next generation the way that you may anticipate.
Ownership or access?
The difference lies in what you’ve purchased. Many people think that they have purchased a video game, a movie, an album or something else of this nature. But all they’ve actually purchased is a license that gives them access to that material whenever they want to use it.
This could be true of movies that you have purchased through an online service, for instance. In previous generations, people would buy movies on tapes or DVDs. In more recent years, they would buy Blu-ray discs. Some people have collections worth thousands of dollars that they would then pass on to their beneficiaries.
But if you bought digital versions of these movies, there’s a very good chance that you didn’t purchase the content at all. All you have is a license, allowing you to access that movie whenever you want, through the service that you’ve chosen, for the rest of your life. But you can’t actually pass the asset on because you don’t own anything, and you’re not allowed to pass the license to anyone other than yourself. When you pass away, this asset simply disappears.
Estate planning has certainly gotten complex in the digital age. Take the time to carefully consider all of your legal options.