Understanding the Importance of Digital Estate Planning in Oklahoma

Estate planning in today’s digital world has expanded well beyond accounting for physical assets such as homes, automobiles, and cash.

Today, digital assets are a high priority for many individuals who are starting to think about estate planning. Handling things like social media accounts, cryptocurrency, and even online banking information is crucial. It is important to understand how these digital assets may be treated in your estate plan and how you can ensure that your wishes are carried out after your death.

An experienced Oklahoma City estate planning lawyer can help you navigate the complexities of digital estate planning and ensure that all of your assets, both physical and digital, are accounted for.

What Is Digital Estate Planning?

Digital estate planning is the process of organizing and planning for who will manage and inherit your digital assets upon your death. A digital asset is an intangible asset that exists only in digital form, but that holds value of some kind.

Some common examples of digital assets include:

Social media accounts
Cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
Other online accounts, such as email accounts or websites
Media and content, such as photos, blog posts, and more

One extremely important consideration during digital estate planning is ensuring that your loved ones or executor can access your digital assets. These assets are protected by passwords and other layers of security. Without the right access, these assets could be lost forever upon your death.

Working with an experienced estate planning attorney in OKC can help ensure that all of your digital assets are properly identified and accounted for.

Why Is a Digital Estate Plan So Important?

Many people already understand the importance of a traditional estate plan. Having an estate plan in place ensures that your assets are distributed according to your wishes after your death. This typically includes things like real property, jewelry, furniture, bank accounts, and other physical or financial assets.

However, a digital estate plan is becoming more and more important in today’s digital world. Some of the reasons why it is becoming crucial to have a digital estate plan are:

Financial Implications: Some digital assets have a substantial financial value. Proper planning can help ensure that these valuable assets are passed to your heirs or beneficiaries quickly and efficiently.
Access and Security: Digital assets have strong security measures in place as protection from hackers and other bad actors. Without a proper digital estate plan, your loved ones may have no way to access your digital assets. Additionally, they could fall into the wrong hands, and this could make a rightful transfer difficult or impossible.
Emotional Effects: Preserving the emotional benefits of your digital assets is important. This is especially true of your photos, videos, social media content, and other digital assets that may hold sentimental value for your family. A digital estate plan can help protect these assets and ensure that they remain in place for your family for years to come.

While many of these considerations were irrelevant just a few short years ago, these types of things are now becoming commonplace. An estate planning lawyer can help you understand the financial, security, and emotional implications of your digital assets and ensure they are protected. Without the proper digital estate plan, your digital assets might not be handled the way in which you wish.

Including Cryptocurrency in Your Oklahoma Estate Plan

A common digital asset that many people hold today is cryptocurrency. However, cryptocurrency presents some unique challenges when it comes to estate planning. Some of the most common challenges that arise when dealing with cryptocurrency in your digital estate plan include:

Market volatility: The cryptocurrency markets can be extremely volatile, and this can cause the value of cryptocurrency to rise and fall quickly. A proper digital estate plan can dynamically handle these market changes to ensure that your heirs are getting their fair share.
Access challenges: Cryptocurrency works on a technology called blockchain. This technology works on anonymity and high levels of security. Without your private access key, your cryptocurrency may be inaccessible and potentially lost forever.
Regulatory questions: Cryptocurrency is so new that the regulatory landscape is still evolving. This is why it is crucial to have an estate planning attorney who stays current on the latest laws and regulations affecting cryptocurrency in estate planning.

Steps to Include Cryptocurrency in Your Estate Plan

If you own cryptocurrency, there are some things that you should do to make sure it is handled according to your wishes upon your death. First, keep a detailed and thorough inventory of your cryptocurrency and other digital assets. An Oklahoma estate planning lawyer can help you compile this inventory and ensure nothing is overlooked.

Additionally, make sure that you maintain passwords and access keys in a secure location so that your loved ones or executor can access these assets after your death. The security of your access keys is absolutely critical, and some people even choose to use hardware wallets to store this information so that it remains secure but allows executors and heirs to access it when needed.

Next, choosing the right executor for your estate is crucial. Handling cryptocurrency and other digital assets requires special knowledge and skills. Be sure you choose an executor with the technical skills to understand and manage these complex assets. An experienced estate planning attorney can help you evaluate your options and choose an executor who is best suited to handle the unique demands of your digital estate.

Finally, be sure to include your digital assets in your estate planning documents, like your will or trust. You should thoroughly list all the details of how these assets should be handled. For instance, perhaps you want your executor to hold digital assets for a certain period of time, or maybe they should be sold right away.

Making your wishes clear through your estate planning documents is critical to ensuring that your digital assets are handled the right way.

Getting Help From an Experienced Oklahoma City Estate Planning Attorney

The world of digital assets can be complex and confusing, and many people have no idea where to even start when it comes to including these assets in an estate plan. This area of law is still evolving, so it is important to have an estate planning lawyer on your side with the knowledge and experience to handle these complex issues.

The team at Helton Law Firm has more than 20 years of experience helping clients in Oklahoma City and throughout Oklahoma put together comprehensive estate plans. This also includes digital estate planning and accounting for all your digital assets.

Contact our Oklahoma City estate planning attorneys today at (405) 754-2074 to schedule an initial consultation. We’ll put together a tailored representation strategy that allows you to move forward with your planning with confidence.