You have to consider your digital afterlife when you are planning your estate in the 21st-century. Just about everyone uses the Internet, and invariably you’re going to have to address how your online accounts should be handled after you pass away.
The digital afterlife is an interesting concept. It would be possible to leave behind quite a legacy online, and it would also be quite possible to have much of the information that you have created that exists in cyberspace deleted. Exactly how you want to proceed is a personal decision.
On the monetary level you must take stock of your online accounts and make sure that the person that you have selected to administer your estate is aware of them. You are going to want to provide the appropriate access information.
When it comes to e-mail and social media accounts each different company has their own perspective policies concerning the digital afterlife. Google has just announced its own response, and it exists in the form of the new Inactive Account Manager.
The way it works is you go through your Google account settings to reach the Inactive Account Manager. You can select a period of inactivity that would be a trigger for Google to consider the possibility that you may have passed away.
Google will attempt to notify you once your period of inactivity has been reached before action is taken so that you have a chance to react if you are in fact still alive.
When you are using the tool you have the choice of opting for deletion of your account. Another option would be to have the data passed along to a person or persons of your choosing.
Mark S. Eghrari, Estate Planning Attorney
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