Planning permission has recently been granted for a digital memorial garden in Fife – BBC news article. This is an interesting and innovative development in a fast moving area. It also poses some questions about ownership of digital assets after death, and as always it’s worth reiterating some key points to note.
It’s not clear how the memorial garden space will be allocated nor how the owners of the garden will package the various elements, such as QR codes. However, if the space is “booked” prior to death it gives rise to the usual questions about how ownership of digital assets passes on after death.
As we increasingly live our lives online, there can be few people who do not use any aspect of online shopping, banking or social media. This in turn poses some problems for those dealing with a person’s assets after they have died if no instructions have been left to allow access to accounts or to carry out particular wishes.
The people charged with the responsibility for dealing with your assets will be the Executors. To choose whom you wish to take that role you must make a Will. In the Will you can give directions about what to do with online assets if you wish, and this would appear to now include your chosen digital memorial space.
We all need to think about how our Executors will know about our digital assets
The difficulty lies in balancing the need to keep information up-to-date so that someone can step in and deal with it after you have gone, with the (very sensible) advice to maintain security over passwords. Obviously, such information must be kept in a secure place. Some people do ask for it to be stored along with their Will – the key there is to keep it up-to-date if you do not review your Will regularly. There are also some online services available which offer to keep your information safe.
Dealing with online accounts soon after death is important to avoid hacking or scamming, which can lead to much more distress for the family. Social media is an area which gives rise to particular issues. Some families don’t wish to maintain any sort of profile post-death but for others keeping a presence for sharing memories helps with bereavement. Difficulties can arise when there is no consensus amongst those affected. Facebook now offer you the chance to choose a “legacy contact” but otherwise making your wishes clear in a Will is the best way to ensure the right people can make appropriate decisions.
It would be interesting to hear more about the digital memorial garden and how some of these issues will be addressed. What is clear is that this won’t be the last example and there’s no doubt that people should think now about how their digital assets are dealt with when they are gone.
