Digital Vault for Digital Assets.
Modern estates contain countless digital assets. For example: phones, computers, online photo storage, bank statements, tax-preparation accounts, cryptocurrency, and certain intellectual property (among many other things!) can be “digital assets”.
Actual law dealing with digital assets in the context of estate planning is really still in its infancy. However, it is quickly evolving. Anyone who has worked with me, has likely heard me say, that I can almost guarantee that the “digital assets” clause in your Will will look completely different when we update your Will in a few years’ time.
I am always trying to ensure that the service provided by Modern Wills is comprehensive, efficient, pleasant, and “modern”. I have been struggling with hearing “there are no good options for digital assets right now”, and I have also been struggling with telling clients they are on their own to find a solution that works for them.
Digital assets, and lack of access to them can cause huge problems for an estate – from a frustrating delay, to a loss of valuable property (whether monetarily valuable or sentimentally) . You may have heard stories of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency being locked in a digital wallet after the owner’s death, treasured photos and videos being trapped in an iPhone that cannot be accessed, or significant time delays when a Personal Representative (executor) is unable to access the deceased’s email account (where most important documents end up these days!).
Some companies offer “succession planning” of sorts, where you can, for example, name a successor to get access to your email account after a period of inactivity. But this is not an ideal nor fulsome solution.
Which is why I am excited to introduce you to our new platform – the Modern Wills Vault.
Modern Wills Vault is a new platform that is an optional way for our clients to organize their digital assets. It is powered by BePrepared (an Australian company focused specifically on addressing this issue through law firms worldwide) and uses military-grade security to protect your digital assets. Any account created through the Modern Wills Vault stores all data on Canadian servers. You can upload anything you like (we can only see those files you give us access to, if any). You can also invite other advisors and family members, if you would like to share files with others. You can set it up so it will deliver copies of documents, letters, notes, passwords, whatever you would like (and whatever you are comfortable storing online in this manner) to specific people, who you designate in advance, on death. This has been such a big gap in estate planning law with how much of our assets these days are technically digital ... and this does not fix all of the issues, but it is an option available that could be very useful!
Whether clients are comfortable making use of the vault and, if they do, what they are comfortable storing there (or whether they feel they have a need for the vault at all!) is, of course, for them to decide. However, we are excited to have this option to offer to our clients, at no additional cost. We are really trying to live up to our name.
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Feel free to reach out any time using the Contact Us form on this page. Or see the links provided below.
We offer free consultations where we can discuss your personal circumstances and provide a personalized quote – with no obligation to move forward. You can click here to schedule a free consultation.
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The post contains legal information of general applicability. It is not legal advice to any one person. It does not account for your personal circumstances. Do not rely on the information above; seek personalized legal advice. We do out best to ensure this information is accurate as of the date of publishing however, we will not update this information going forward.
