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Estate Planning for Millennials

September 28, 2016/in Estate Planning /by Gina Policastri

While estate planning may sound like an activity reserved for the baby boomer generation, even Millennials can get in on the fun! Further, estate planning is not only for people with ample assets—planning for your future can extend to healthcare decisions and even your Facebook account. Of course, thinking about death—especially one’s own—is hard, but there are many benefits to be reaped from laying out a few guidelines for your loved ones.

To begin, estate planning at a young age may not involve complex financial considerations, but there are two key areas to focus on: healthcare and personal property.

First, once you turn 18 years old, family members no longer have the legal right to access your medical records, and should you become incapacitated, your family would not be able to speak to your doctors or make medical decisions on your behalf. Estate planning ensures that in the event of your incapacitation, your health is taken care of according to your wishes and by people you trust—

1) Advanced Healthcare Directive: A legal document in which you detail what medical actions should be taken if you are incapacitated or unable to make decisions on your own. This document can be used to record your preference (or not) for a “do not resuscitate” order.

2) Durable Power of Attorney: A legal document which, should you become incapacitated, gives power to a person of your choosing to make medical or financial decisions on your behalf. A durable power of attorney works in conjunction with an advanced healthcare directive to ensure that your health preferences are understood and heeded.

3) HIPPA Release Form: This form allows people listed on your advanced healthcare directive to access your medical records. Access to your records makes it easier for your designated caregivers to make informed decisions regarding your health.

Second, you may not have a lot of assets, but most likely, you do have some treasured possessions. To prevent your assets from being waylaid by intestacy (in which state laws determine how your property is distributed), consider making a will or trust—

4) Wills and Trusts: A will and/or trust details to where and to whom your assets will go after your death. While you may be content to let intestacy laws distribute your estate, creating a will or trust can streamline the process and assure your relatives that they are honoring your true wishes. Importantly, besides money, you should consider other cherished aspects of your estate. First, your pet—who will take care of your beloved fur friend? Second, consider family heirlooms passed down to you through grandma and grandpa—a will or trust ensures that those items fall into the right hands. Third, do you want to allocate any assets to a significant other? If you and your partner are not married, he or she is not entitled to any of your assets and will likely receive nothing through intestacy either. Whether you want to leave money or possessions—valuable or sentimental—a will or trust ensures your significant other receives a piece of your estate.

5) Digital Assets: Social media accounts and digital files need postmortem management, especially if you would like your family to shut down your various online accounts. Federal law does not require that websites permanently delete the account of a deceased user. Therefore, designating a digital “executor” and creating an inventory (with updated usernames and passwords) of your online accounts that details what you would like done with them can ensure your online presence is handled according to your wishes.

Death is a difficult subject, but estate planning ensures that your family is not left without direction for how your final wishes should be carried out. Therefore, if you are interested in learning more about estate planning, please contact the experienced attorneys at Lonich Patton Ehrlich Policastri. We can help determine what documents would best safeguard your assets and/or your medical wishes.

Lastly, please remember that each individual situation is unique, and results discussed in this post are not a guarantee of future results. While this post may detail general legal issues, it is not legal advice. Use of this site does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Have You Heard of Digital Estate Planning?

November 3, 2015/in Estate Planning /by Michael Lonich

In today’s increasingly technological world, leaving your digital accounts out of your estate plan can prove to be a big mistake. As of 2014, 84 percent of American adults own a personal computer and 64 percent own a smartphone.[1] As of June 2015, there were approximately 1.49 billion Facebook users, 300 million Instagram users, hundreds of thousands of videos uploaded on YouTube each day, and over 6 billion photos on Flickr.[2] Given the user increase, more and more people are challenged with administering a loved one’s digital assets.

Digital assets can include files stored on digital devices, email accounts, digital music, digital photographs, digital videos, social network accounts, file sharing accounts, online stores, and software licenses.[3] The entirety of these digital assets forms an individual’s digital estate. Due to the role technology has in today’s world, the deposition of digital assets has become a major issue in estate planning.

One of the biggest concerns necessitating digital estate planning is the emotional value of social network accounts. For example, in 2005 a dispute arose in which a mother, Karen Williams, turned to her twenty-two year old son’s Facebook account after his sudden death in hopes of learning more about him.[4] Ms. Williams found her son’s password and emailed the Facebook administrators, asking them to maintain her son’s account so she could look through his posts. However, within two hours, her son’s password was changed, essentially locking her out of the account. It was not until she filed a lawsuit that Facebook granted her ten months of access to her son’s account and after this period, his profile was removed.

With careful digital estate planning, situations like Ms. Williams’ are less likely to occur. Digital estate planning can also serve a variety of purposes aside from the emotional value. It can make things easier on executors and family members, it can prevent identity theft, it can prevent financial losses to the estate, and it can prevent unwanted secrets from being discovered.[5] However, the current state of the law is uncertain and changing in regards to digital estate planning. Currently, federal law addresses privacy concerns and regulates the unauthorized access of digital assets under the Stored Communications Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which can create limitations for those attempting to plan for their digital assets. But recently, the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (UFADAA) was created and nearly half of U.S. states have introduced legislation this year to enact the Act.[6] The UFADAA is an inclusive law that would remove obstacles that prevent fiduciary access to digital assets and would also give access to a wide range of digital assets. In California, a bill has been introduced known as Assembly Bill 691 or the Privacy Expectation Afterlife and Choices Act (PEAC). PEAC would deny relatives access to electronic information of their loved one, unless the court finds that the person had previously agreed to pass them onto a fiduciary. This bill was unanimously passed by the House of Representatives and as of September 10, 2015, it was sent to the Senate floor with the instruction that it not be voted on until January 2016 in order for further negotiation among parties and amendment.[7]

Our daily lives have changed from sending letters and keeping photo albums to emailing and using social networking accounts. While the state of the law is uncertain, technological use increases each day, emphasizing the importance of digital estate planning to carry out an individual’s wishes.

Estate planning is a highly complex area of law. If you are interested in digital estate planning or have any questions regarding your current estate plan, please contact the experienced estate planning attorneys at Lonich Patton Ehrlich Policastri for further information. The attorneys at Lonich Patton Ehrlich Policastri have decades of experience handling complex estate planning matters, including nonprobate transfers, and we are happy to offer you a free consultation. Please remember that each individual situation is unique and results discussed in this post are not a guarantee of future results. While this post may detail general legal issues, it is not legal advice. Use of this site does not create an attorney-client relationship.

[1] Michael Rosen-Prinz, The Uncertain Future of Estate Planning for Digital Assets in California, 21 Cal. Trusts and Estates Quarterly 37 (2015).

[2] Number of Monthly Active Facebook Users Worldwide as of 2^nd Quarter 2015, STATISTA, http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/.

[3] Evan Carroll, Sample Will and Power of Attorney Language for Digital Assets, THE DIGITAL BEYOND, http://www.thedigitalbeyond.com/sample-language/.

[4] Karen Williams’ Facebook Saga Raises Question of Whether Users’ Profiles Are Part of ‘Digital Estates’, HUFF POST TECH (Mar. 15, 2012, 5:57 PM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/15/karen-williams-facebook_n_1349128.html.

[5] Gerry W. Beyer, Web Meets The Will: Estate Planning for Digital Assets, 42 Est. Pln. 28 (2015).

[6] States Struggle to Adopt Uniform Access to Digital Assets Act, ARMA INTERNATIONAL, http://www.arma.org/r1/news/washington-policy-brief/2015/04/08/states-struggle-to-adopt-uniform-access-to-digital-assets-act.

[7] Michael Rosen-Prinz, The Uncertain Future of Estate Planning for Digital Assets in California, 21 Cal. Trusts and Estates Quarterly 43 (2015).

What Happens to Your Facebook Page When You Die?

August 2, 2013/in Estate Planning /by Michael Lonich

Have you ever wondered what will happen to your Facebook page after you die? Or any of your other social media outlets, for that matter? Who can “retweet” from your Twitter account when you pass away? Who can access your Flickr photo albums? Who can look through all those old emails you saved? What about those photos you set on private – can that content still be downloaded?

Facebook has over 650 million users, Flickr hosts over 6 billion images, and Twitter users collectively “tweet” over 95 million times per day.* Although the executors of wills and estates have been around for centuries, digital will executors are also becoming more popular, as our lives now heavily involve (and often, revolve around) social media and technology. With an ever-increasing internet presence during our lifetimes, a new concern arises: our internet presence after our lifetimes. Just as a traditional will dictates where our property is dispersed following death, a social media will is a useful tool to help our loved ones determine how to dispose of our digital assets after we pass.

The United States government’s blog** suggests the following steps to consider when creating your social media will:

First, compile a list of all your digital accounts. Your digital accounts include email accounts, social networking accounts, photo accounts, bank accounts, and video accounts. You will need to provide enough information for an executor to access these accounts – this includes sensitive information including usernames, passwords, and pin numbers.
Second, write a clear statement of how you want your online identity to be handled. Your social media will operates much like a traditional will by allowing an executor access and power to handle your digital assets in the way you choose. For example, perhaps you want a certain account closed entirely, another account partially accessible, and another placed on private settings.
Third, appoint your digital executor. Find a trustworthy individual to be responsible for closing or maintaining your accounts. This individual also needs to have access to a copy of your death certificate because many websites will need to verify the executor’s power to act on your behalf.

Unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately), nobody knows when they will need their digital assets managed for them. Therefore, much like a traditional will, the best time to put things in order is now – so that when the time comes, your executor will be able to carry out your “digital after-life” in precisely the way you want. If you are interested in managing your digital assets or appointing a digital will executor, please contact our experienced estate planning attorneys at Lonich Patton Ehrlich Policastri. Our attorneys have decades of experience handling complex estate planning matters, including wills and living trusts, and we are more than happy to offer you a free consultation.

Please remember that each individual situation is unique and results discussed in this post are not a guarantee of future results. While this post may include legal issues, it is not legal advice. Use of this site does not create an attorney-client relationship.

* http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-growth-of-social-media-an-infographic/32788/

** http://blog.usa.gov/post/22261234875/social-media-will

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Estate Planning for Millennials

Have You Heard of Digital Estate Planning?

What Happens to Your Facebook Page When You Die?

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