Digital Estate Planning: What You Need to Know

As the legendary inventor and infomercial icon Ron Popeil once said, “Set it and forget it.” While that philosophy might be perfect for rotisserie chicken, it’s not ideal for estate planning, especially when it comes to your digital assets. Taking a moment to revisit and update your documents can make all the difference.

The good news? A few minutes now can save your family months of confusion later. Let's walk through it.

What Is Digital Estate Planning?

A digital estate plan is a strategy for organizing and managing your digital assets like email accounts, social media profiles, online banking, digital currencies and even home utilities to ensure your loved ones can access and handle them after you pass.

Why Digital Assets Get Lost

Here's an example that plays out more often than you'd expect. A man in Pennsylvania built up several hundred thousand dollars in cryptocurrency. He kept it in a secure wallet behind a private key known only to him. He passed away unexpectedly.

His family had nothing to work with. No record of the key. No instructions. No mention of the holdings anywhere in his will. They hired digital forensics specialists and contacted the wallet provider. Neither could help, so his wealth will not transfer to the people that matter most to him.

Digital assets get lost in plenty of other ways, too:

• • Subscriptions and auto-payments keep draining a checking account for months after a death.
  • Years of photos vanish when a cloud account hits its inactivity limit.
  • A small business's customer list and domain name expire because nobody could log in to renew them.
  • A frozen email account blocks password resets on every other account tied to it.

Hunting down these digital assets adds extra stress to your family members on an already difficult time. And sometimes these assets aren’t recoverable — unless you have them written into your estate plan.

What Wisconsin Law Says About Digital Property

The Wisconsin Digital Property Act lets you authorize a fiduciary, a personal representative, a trustee or an agent under a power of attorney, to access your digital property. It also sets out how providers must respond and what a fiduciary is permitted to do.

Here is the part that most people miss: Without your affirmative authorization, your fiduciary can obtain only a catalog of your electronic communications (a log showing who you corresponded with and when). To give them access to the actual content, the subject lines and the body of your messages, you must affirmatively consent in your estate planning documents.

Let’s run through how to build a digital estate plan so you can pass down your wealth, memories and assets to your loved ones.

How to Build Your Digital Estate Plan

1.Inventory your digital assets

Start by listing all your digital assets and how you access them.

This includes:

• • • Devices like computers, smartphones, tablets and external drives
    • Email accounts, starting with your primary one
    • Social media profiles and app subscriptions
    • Financial accounts, including online banking and investment platforms
    • Digital currencies and wallets
    • Cloud storage services
    • Utility and household accounts managed online
    • Domain names and websites
    • Loyalty programs, airline miles and rewards balances

2. Store the list somewhere your family can reach 

Use a password manager with an emergency access feature, an encrypted file or a physical copy in a fireproof safe. Then tell your executor which one you chose and how to get in.

Pro Tip: Never put passwords or private keys in your will. A will becomes a public record once it enters probate.

3. Appoint a digital executor 

A digital executor is someone you designate to manage your digital assets according to your instructions. Choose someone trustworthy and tech-savvy who understands the complexity of your digital footprint and have a candid conversation with them to confirm they're willing to take on the role. It doesn't have to be the same person handling the rest of your estate.

4. Turn on the platform tools 

Providers offer built-in settings (legacy contacts, inactive-account managers, etc.) that work faster than any court process. Use them. They're free, they take five minutes and they're often the most effective thing you can do.

5. Put your wishes into writing

Decide what happens to each account — delete, memorialize, transfer or archive — and document those wishes clearly. Work with your estate planning attorney to formally appoint your digital executor in your will or trust and make sure your instructions are legally binding and up to date.

A quick example: Take a Facebook account. You have two main options.

• • Permanently deleting: Removes all posts, photos, comments and messages and the profile itself disappears from Facebook. You'll typically need proof of death (and, for some requests, proof of authority such as executor documentation). Once deleted, the account can't be recovered.
  • Memorializing: Turns your account into a tribute space. The word "Remembering" appears next to the person's name, their existing content stays visible and no one can log in. A legacy contact (if one was assigned before death) can manage tribute posts, update profile and cover photos and respond to friend requests.

Most other major platforms offer similar choices. The specifics vary, so check the settings on the accounts that matter most to you.

Digital assets aren't always top of mind and that's precisely why they get lost. By proactively planning for your digital legacy, you're not just protecting your online presence. You're easing the burden on your loved ones and preserving the integrity of your broader financial and estate strategy. Digital estate planning isn't a luxury. In today's world, it's a necessity.

To learn more about how you can protect your legacy and digital assets, connect with your Johnson Financial Group advisor or find one today.