Last Wills Must Address Digital Assets
By Evelyn Sylvester
[Bluffs Monitor]
As life becomes increasingly digital, so do our assets. From photos stored in the cloud to cryptocurrencies, from email accounts to monetized YouTube channels, our lives are stitched into the web in ways that didn’t exist a decade ago. Yet, many Toronto residents overlook these ‘digital assets’ when planning their estates. In doing to, they risk leaving behind a confusing and sometimes inaccessible digital legacy.
What are Digital Assets?
Digital assets encompass a broad category of online accounts. digital files, and electronically stored content. These include:
- personal accounts such as email. social media. cloud storage. and subscription services.
- financial accounts such as Online honking, investment portals, PayPal, and cryptocurrency wallets.
- business assets such as blogs and websites.
Why Include Digital Assets in your Will?
The primary reason to include digital assets in estate planning is for the Estates Trustees to have access to these assets. Without clear instructions. your Estate Trustee may be unable to retrieve. manage. or close your accounts. It can lead to financial loss or even identity theft. Consider this: In a recent Ontario case, a widow waited nearly five years to access her late husband’s Apple account – a preventable hardship with proper planning.
The Legal Gap in Ontario
Unlike Saskatchewan’s Uniform Access to Digital Assets by Fiduciaries Act of 2016. Ontario’s Succession Law Reform Act. and federal statutes like the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), do not automatically grant Estate Trustees the right to access your digital information.
Final Thoughts
It’s time for Tomato residents to modernize their Estate plans. Your digital lift deserves the same care and foresight as your physical one.
