Does your social media profile belong in your will? Why Canadians should plan their ‘digital inheritance’ now

Your social media accounts, text messages, and photos are probably important to you. But are they significant enough to leave in a will?

When you think about drafting your will, what valuable items immediately come to your mind?

Your house? Car? Financial savings?

What about your social media accounts, emails, or search history?

Experts say planning your ‘digital inheritance’ may have never crossed your mind, but its imperative you do it before you pass.

“When I’m doing estate planning and I ask questions about digital assets, I find that my clients are often a little surprised but very pleased to be asked about it,” said Andrew Higdon, senior associate and estate and trusts planning lawyer at KPMG Law LLP.

“There will be a moment of recognition where they’ll realize, ‘Oh, as a matter of fact, that is important to me.'”

Digital assets can be anything from your emails, private messages social media accounts, cloud storage, and photos  to things like search histories, cryptocurrency, an online business, loyalty and reward programs, and even digital art.

With the increasing hold that digital technologies have on our lives, and the boom in cryptocurrency, the president of the Association for Media Literacy says the need to plan who gets access to your digital estate after you die has grown exponentially in recent years.