Most people think about who will get their home, their money, their keepsakes. But these days, a big part of your life is online. And if no one plans for it, it gets complicated fast.
Emails, social media accounts, cloud photo albums, even your music library. All of it matters. Some of it is sentimental. Some of it is tied to real money. If no one has access, your family could lose it. Not because they didn’t try. Because legally, their hands are tied.
This is why you need to treat digital assets like any other part of your estate. You can start by naming someone to manage them. It might be the same person who handles the rest of your estate, or it might be someone else entirely. Either way, that person should be given written permission to access your accounts. They also need the information to log in—usernames, passwords, two-step authentication if you use it.
That’s only part of the picture. Different companies have different rules. One platform might let someone access your account after you die. Another might lock it permanently. Some allow you to set a legacy contact. Others don’t give that option at all. It’s not consistent, which makes it even more important to put something in writing.
And here’s the truth. The law still hasn’t caught up with the digital world. It’s a patchwork. Which means if you don’t lay it out clearly now, your family could be stuck trying to sort it out later with no real authority to do so.
At Fletcher Estate Planning, we help our clients in Georgia plan for all of it—property, paperwork, and digital footprints. If you want to make sure your online life is protected along with everything else, we’re ready when you are.
