Category: Must Read

Memorandum of Digital Assets

Eleanore

Clients should be encouraged to catalogue all of their digital assets and services, and provide access information in a centralized Memorandum or file for the executor. The Memorandum should also express wishes with respect to how the assets should be handled after they die, for example whether accounts should be deleted and closed, or contents passed on to others. Obviously it will be key to maintain tight security over such a list.

The Memorandum may be kept in a safety deposit box, or sealed and stored with the Will in the lawyer’s file. Alternatively, the client may store the information in a password‐protected electronic document and keep the password for the file separate from the file itself. A Memorandum of Digital Assets is sometimes referred to as a “digital will” or “social media will”. However, since such a document would likely change frequently and many assets would not have financial value, in most cases this document will not be constituted as a formal will. Any assets having significant value should be dealt with specifically under the will, or incorporated by reference in a binding memorandum executed as a testamentary document. A sample Memorandum of Digital Assets is set forth in Appendix I.

Texts from the dead: Post-mortem digital communication has arrived

Powers of executor (or digital executor)

Eleanore

Section 142 of the Wills, Estates and Succession Act provides that a personal representative is granted all of the authority over the estate that the deceased person had while alive, subject to the Act and any contrary intention in the will of the deceased person. In many cases, this general power should be sufficient to give the executor all the legal powers they need to deal with digital assets.

Setting out more specific or expansive powers to deal with digital assets may be warranted where (i) the digital assets will be held as part of a trust (since section 142 confers general powers only on personal representatives and not on trustees), or (ii) the client has extensive digital assets and wishes to have specific powers enumerated. Some professionals have recommended that individuals name a “digital executor” in their will, separate from their primary executor, who is given the power to deal with digital assets. In the author’s view, appointing a separate digital executor will rarely, if ever, be advisable.

Unless the powers of the primary executor are carefully limited to exclude digital assets, it is likely that the primary executor will also have authority over digital assets, raising the possibility of conflicts between the primary executor and the digital executor. If a client wishes someone other than their executor to manage some of their digital assets, it will usually be preferable to authorize the executor to engage that person to assist in dealing with digital assets. Having the third party engaged by the executor in this manner makes it clear that the executor retains authority over and responsibility for the management of digital assets.