So many of us have an ‘on-line life’ but few think about what will happen to that digital existence after our death.
You probably have an account with a few social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. You probably have on-line banking and credit cards as well as your PayPal account plus a membership of eBay and a few Google Groups. This list goes on.
What is the Problem?
Very few internet organisations have developed a policy for dealing with deceased customers and even fewer publish their policy.
Imagine that you have recently lost one of your parents. You know that your parent had a lot of useful information in their Goggle account. You might think it would be helpful to email your parent's contact book to let his or her friends and colleagues know of their death. You ask Google what you can do.
They tell you that Google needs your full name and contact information, a verifiable email address, the full header and content of an email you have received from the deceased person's account, a copy of the death certificate and a copy of the document that gives you power of attorney over the email account.
And, by the way, after less than a year of inactivity, Google is likely to delete an email account completely.
What is a Digital Will?
You can solve all these problems by creating a digital will. This can also be known as an Internet Will.
Digital wills contain a list of websites each with user names and passwords and other information needed to access the site. For each you ask someone you trust to deal with your account. You might have many digital wills securely stored in your Last Messages Club personal vault each addressed to a different person
You could ask someone to email your friends and colleagues to report your death. You might give a son access to your online bank account. Perhaps you want give a daughter rights to your online savings or pension.
Unlike a paper document, a digital will or Internet will – stored on a secure service such as Last Messages Club – is safe from prying eyes, and can easily be kept up-to-date.
Incidentally, you might also find this information useful during your own life as a way to store login usernames and passwords in one secure place ready for those times when you access some rarely visited site.
Finally, do remember that a digital will does not replace a Last Will and Testament.
In the UK, only a Last Will and Testament on paper signed in ink by appropriate witnesses will be legally recognised. You digital will might mention where your Last Will and Testament is stored and might even contain a copy of it but it won’t stand up in a court of law.
