Wealth Law Blog : Oregon Asset Protection Lawyers & Attorneys : Samuels Yoelin Kantor Seymour & Spinrad Law Firm : OR Estate Planning, Fiduciary Litigation

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SYKS&S partners Victoria Blachly and Jeff Cheyne were recently interviewed by reporter Kerry Tomlinson for a KATU-TV (ABC affiliate) news story about “virtual assets” such as internet domain names, online content such as photos and videos, and personal accounts for email, banking, brokerage and social media sites such as Facebook. Increasingly, personal information and content is being stored online — and few people know what happens to these assets when a person becomes incapacitated or dies.

In other words, who can gain access to our “virtual existence” when we’re gone?

As previously discussed in a two-part “Estate Planning and Virtual Assets” blog post by SYKS&S partner Michael Walker, the answer can be quite complex. For more detailed information, read Part I and Part II of Michael’s post. You can also view the KATU-TV story on the station’s website. 

As part of the KATU-TV news segment, our estate planning team prepared avirtual assets checklist, which is posted on KATU.com. 
 

Also in the news… partner Steve Seymour was quoted in a recent Portland Business Journal article about the Oregon State Bar’s proposed mandatory mentoring program for new attorneys. The state bar’s mentoring committee is drafting a proposal that could be in place as soon as May 2011.

SYKS&S already has an organized mentoring program in place for new attorneys joining the firm.
 

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In Part 1 of my last article, Estate Planning and “Virtual Assets,” I discussed the complex issues relating to estate planning and “Virtual Assets,” which include financial accounts, email accounts, social media sites, and other personal or family information. All of these assets are typically accessed over the internet with a username and password. Here are two additional recommendations with respect to Virtual Assets:

1.   Consider Who Should Receive Your Virtual Assets. If a virtual asset is a bank or investment account, your will or trust should (presumably) control who will receive these assets at your death. However, what about access to family photos or genealogical information? One might want to specifically instruct your executor or trustee to replicate and distribute these items so that they pass to multiple intended beneficiaries.  

2. Use Caution in Using Commercial Services to Hold Your Virtual Assets. A new cottage industry has sprung up to provide a type of “online safe deposit box” to store your virtual assets and provide a means by which designated individuals can gain access to your virtual assets. A few words of caution are in order. First, be careful and make sure you’re dealing with a reputable company. Giving someone the keys to your digital existence would be a goldmine for someone bent on stealing your identity. Second, remember that giving someone access to information about an asset is not the same as giving that asset to that individual. Your will or trust should ultimately control who should inherit your assets, not an online service provider. There may be complex legal and tax issues that need to be taken into account in designating beneficiaries of virtual assets. For example, one online service provider refers to an “electronic will.” In most states, a will requires certain formalities (typically a written instrument signed before two witnesses), and the absence of these formalities can render one’s good intentions legally invalid.

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