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SALT LAKE CITY — In a last will and testament, most people will outline to whom they will leave their most valued possessions. Financial experts are finding that in the digital age, virtual assets are not part of these wills, but they should be.
"The data that you have could be lost or not be able to be recovered by (family) when you pass away," said Stephen Johnson, branch manager of Raymond James Financial Services.
That's because family members don't have usernames or passwords to their loved ones' virtual assets, Johnson said.
Pew researchers found 80 percent of people over 45 use online banking and other financial services. Also, Americans store many precious assets on the Internet via online photo storage, blogs, email, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.
Most of us haven't thought about what happens to that information once we pass away.
–Stephen Johnson
Financial experts say once a loved one dies, it can be devastating for family not to be able to access and retrieve online accounts and information.
"There was a soldier who passed away in Afghanistan and his family lost the ability to get his information on one of the websites," said Johnson. "It had a lot of personal data on it and that data was wiped out."
Proper documentation is the key to accessing virtual assets. Johnson suggests treating it like any other legal document.
"Record that information and let someone know where it is," said Johnson, "whether it's in a will or listed on a piece of paper and put in a safe-deposit box."
Johnson also said there are companies that document online accounts, complete with an updated list of usernames and passwords. The information is released to authorized individuals only. Experts say people want to avoid information being lost in a "cybercemetary."
"Most of us haven't thought about what happens to that information once we pass away," said Johnson. "So clients need to be thinking about ‘where's the data and if I pass away who can get to the data?'"
