Estate Planning for Online Accounts and Digital Assets in South Carolina
When most people think about estate planning, they think about homes, bank accounts, investments, vehicles, and personal belongings. But today, some of our most important—and sometimes most valuable—assets exist entirely online.
For families throughout Horry County, estate planning increasingly means thinking beyond what is stored in a safe or filing cabinet. Your digital life may include online banking, social media accounts, family photographs stored in the cloud, cryptocurrency, email, websites, and even an online business.
Without proper planning, your loved ones may face significant challenges trying to locate, access, preserve, or manage these assets after your death.
At The Floyd Law Firm PC, we help South Carolina families plan for the future, including the digital assets that have become an important part of modern life.
What Are Digital Assets?
Digital assets can include almost anything you own or maintain electronically. They may include email accounts, Facebook and Instagram profiles, online banking and investment accounts, cloud-stored photographs and documents, websites and domain names, PayPal or similar payment accounts, cryptocurrency and digital wallets, online businesses, intellectual property, digital subscriptions, and more.
Even a password manager containing the information necessary to access your accounts can become an important part of your estate plan.
For many families, these accounts contain more than financial information. They may hold years of family photographs, personal correspondence, videos, important documents, and memories that cannot be replaced.
South Carolina Law and Digital Assets
South Carolina law provides a legal framework for fiduciaries and personal representatives seeking access to certain digital assets after someone’s death.
The South Carolina Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act addresses the circumstances under which a personal representative may obtain digital assets and certain electronic communications belonging to a deceased person.
The law also recognizes that an individual’s own instructions can be important when determining how digital assets should be handled. Depending on the circumstances, those instructions may be provided through an online tool offered by a service provider, a will or trust, a power of attorney, or another legally recognized record.
There is also an important distinction between the content of electronic communications and other digital assets. A personal representative may be able to obtain certain information about an account or a catalogue of electronic communications, but obtaining the actual content of private emails, messages, or other communications may require additional authorization.
Service providers may also require documentation such as a death certificate, proof of the personal representative’s authority, and information identifying the account.
SOUTH CAROLINA PROBATE CODE ARTICLE 2 Intestate Succession and Wills
SECTION 62-2-1040. Disclosure of other digital assets of deceased user.
Unless the user prohibited disclosure of digital assets or the court directs otherwise, a custodian shall disclose to the personal representative of the estate of a deceased user a catalogue of electronic communications sent or received by the user and digital assets, other than the content of electronic communications, of the user, if the representative gives the custodian:
(1) a written request for disclosure in physical or electronic form;
(2) a certified copy of the death certificate of the user;
(3) a certified copy of the letter of appointment of the representative or a small estate affidavit or court order; and
(4) if requested by the custodian:
(a) a number, username, address, or other unique subscriber or account identifier assigned by the custodian to identify the user’s account;
(b) evidence linking the account to the user;
(c) an affidavit stating that disclosure of the user’s digital assets is reasonably necessary for administration of the estate; or
(d) a finding by the court that:
(i) the user had a specific account with the custodian, identifiable by the information specified in subitem (a); or
(ii) disclosure of the user’s digital assets is reasonably necessary for administration of the estate.
HISTORY: 2016 Act No. 260 (S.908), SECTION 2, eff June 3, 2016.
Why Digital Estate Planning Matters
Imagine that a family member passes away and you know they had important photographs stored online, but you do not know the password or even which service they used.
Or perhaps they owned cryptocurrency, maintained a website, operated an online business, received payments through an online account, or had automatic subscriptions charged to a credit card every month.
These situations can create unnecessary complications during an already difficult time.
Social media accounts can present similar questions. A person may want an account preserved, memorialized, transferred, or deleted. Many technology companies provide their own tools for users to establish preferences regarding what happens to their accounts after death.
Making these decisions in advance gives your family clearer direction and can help prevent uncertainty later.
Creating a Digital Estate Plan
Creating a digital estate plan can be as simple as taking inventory of the accounts and assets that matter to you.
Start by identifying important email accounts, financial accounts, social media profiles, cloud storage, photographs, websites, domain names, subscriptions, cryptocurrency, online businesses, and other digital property.
Keep this information secure. Passwords generally should not be written directly into your will, since estate documents may become part of the public probate record. Instead, consider using a secure password manager or another protected system for maintaining account information.
You should also review the legacy or account-management tools available through the services you use. Some providers allow you to designate a person who can receive certain information or take specific actions after your death.
Most importantly, talk with your estate-planning attorney about your digital assets. Your will, trust, power of attorney, and other estate-planning documents can be reviewed to ensure they address your wishes as effectively as possible.
Don’t Overlook the Memories
Not every digital asset has a financial value. For families here on the Grand Strand, some of the most treasured possessions may be photographs from family vacations at the beach, videos of grandchildren, digital family histories, personal correspondence, or years of memories stored on a phone or in the cloud.
Those memories can be just as important to your family as the assets listed in your will. Taking the time to identify where these memories are stored and providing appropriate instructions can make it easier for your loved ones to preserve them.
Estate Planning for Today’s Families
Our lives are increasingly connected to the digital world, and estate planning needs to reflect that reality. A comprehensive estate plan should consider not only your home, bank accounts, investments, and personal property, but also the digital assets you have accumulated throughout your life.
At The Floyd Law Firm PC in Surfside Beach, we assist clients throughout Horry County and the surrounding Grand Strand communities with estate planning, wills and trusts, probate, and estate administration.
If you have not reviewed your estate plan recently, or if you have accumulated significant digital assets since your last plan was prepared, this may be a good time to revisit your wishes.
Planning for your digital life today can help give your family greater clarity, protection, and peace of mind tomorrow.
