It’s the year 2016 and the majority of our world citizens today live digitally through online social media platforms, gaming environments, websites, chat rooms, shopping sites and more. The virtual world has become an undeniable reality of our modern lives and one can only philosophize over when physical reality will start to play second fiddle to your digital life! The growth of our digital world however also gives rise to new legal questions relating to your digital ‘assets’. What will happen to my online gaming profile, Facebook account, online banking account etc. upon my death? The reality is that these digital assets also need administering and what happens to it after you’ve passed away may in fact, be up to you.
So what is a digital asset you may ask? Is it something I paid for and which may have resale value? In fact, it’s much simpler than that. Your Gmail and Twitter account are two examples that are regarded as virtual assets in addition to your digital music libraries, e-book collections, domain names and online photo galleries etc. stored on an array of digital platforms.
However, South African legislators have yet to attempt to classify what would comprise digital assets and as a result, digital inheritance remains largely undeveloped. But should these assets then as a consequence be overlooked in the administration of wills and estates? Definitely not. In the USA, five States already have draft legislation in place to introduce the regulation of digital assets and the rest of the world will soon catch on, South Africa included.
Now that digital assets are becoming a material part of who we are and what our asset base is, a few aspects of estate planning and the estate administration process must be considered to ensure the validity of the entire process and to protect the sensitive nature of the information divulged:
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