What About Your Digital Assets And Digital Estate? Here Are Five Suggestions
A growing number of individuals and businesses are accumulating sizable digital estates. Participation in Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, your own Blogs and Websites, even email all create digital property that is expanding dramatically every year. What happens to those assets and information after you are gone?
Unfortunately, if you don’t take the appropriate measures to secure these assets or make them easily transferable to your heirs, it can be a long and involved process to get them properly handled after you are gone. So what are you supposed to do?
Five Suggestions To Consider:
Digital Executor: First, along with your financial estate plans, you need to appoint a “digital executor’ to carry out your wishes related to this rapidly growing area of technology. This person should be someone who is very comfortable with online activity and new technology as a whole. They may or may not be the same choice as you have selected for your financial executor, but it is a good idea to make sure that if they are different individuals, they have a reasonably good working relationship.
Online Inventory: Second, you should take an inventory of all your digital or internet related accounts. This should include the account name (eg, Facebook, YouTube, website, email etc.), account number if applicable, user ID, password and the specific URL for logging in. I recommend keeping a digital copy on an encrypted flash drive as well a printed copy kept in a safe deposit box or other secure location.
Reasons to Hire a California Probate Attorney for Estate Settlement
Although retaining a California probate attorney for estate settlement isn’t a legal requirement, it is a wise idea. The Golden State has very complicated and rigid probate laws. Most people find it nearly impossible to endure estate settlement proceedings without legal counsel; particularly when heirs contest the Will.
People can also hire a California probate attorney to establish estate planning strategies to ease burdens of the settlement process. Several methods are used to keep assets out of probate court so they can be transferred quickly to heirs and beneficiaries.
Probate lawyers are especially helpful in handling estates of people that pass away without writing a Will. This kind of estate is referred to as ‘intestate’ and is more involved because it has to be settled in accordance with California probate laws.
When a person writes a Will they can bequeath their property to whomever they desire. Wills can also be used to disinherit direct lineage heirs or to provide a no-contest statement prohibiting heirs from contesting the document. Without one, estate assets are given to the surviving spouse and other relatives that are entitled under state law.
Nearly all property can avoid probate through proper estate planning. Titled property, such as motor vehicles and real estate, can be gifted to beneficiaries by setting up a joint title. Funds kept in bank accounts can be transferred by establishing payable on death beneficiaries. Financial investments, retirement accounts, and life insurance proceeds can be gifted using transfer on death beneficiary forms.
Estate planning strategies have to comply with California probate code which consists of eleven divisions. Each division includes chapters and parts which are further categorized into over 21,000 sections. Few people have the legal knowledge to understand the vast amount of information, let alone know if they are in compliance.
What Happens If You Become Incapacitated Without A Durable Power Of Attorney
A General Durable Power Of Attorney is an estate planning document that is meant to be in place for if you become incapacitated or disabled and are no longer able to speak for yourself or carry on your financial affairs. The durable nature of the power of the attorney comes into play when a trusted person that you name in the document steps into place for you to manage your assets and handle your affairs for you until you recover or for the rest of your life. What happens if you do not have this important document in place and you become disabled or incapacitated and are no longer able to act on your own behalf?
If you become incapacitated in most states without a General Durable Power Of Attorney in place for yourself then the Probate Court in your county steps in and decides who would be the person to handle your affairs that would have named in your power of attorney if would have properly made one. The probate court in your county of residence most likely must appoint both a Guardian and Conservator for you. A Guardian is appointed to look after your health and well-being and make decisions that are in your best interest of your person. A Conservator is appointed by the Probate Court to look after your money and make sure that you are not being taken advantage of financially. The conservator must file strict accounting reports with the Probate Court and will most likely have to post a bond in case any money is mishandled. This process can be extremely costly and drain your assets before you get to enjoy them again after you regain capacity or pass them on to your loved ones.
In Most States It Takes Work To Disinherit a Spouse
The goal for some in a marriage is to make sure that the person they marry gets no inheritance from them when they die. This goal may seem harsh at first glance, but there may be good motivations behind it such as already having kids from previous marriage, a significant age difference in spouses, or wanting to give everything to charity. Whatever the reason it takes work to leave a spouse with nothing in most states and cannot be done with a simple will.
If you live in one of the community property states, Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin, there is little that can be done to disinherit someone you are married to. In these states the spouse will most likely receive half of the estate regardless. If you live in one of the forty other states you can disinherit, but it will take some work. In most states you may disinherit your children or other family members very easily by just making a simple will, but your spouse is a different story. In these states just because you name your spouse in a will and do not leave the spouse anything or set up a revocable living trust and leave the spouse out of it does not necessarily mean the spouse will not get any of the estate. In most states there is a statutory elective share that allows the spouse to claim a percentage of the probate estate and maybe even assets in a revocable living trust.