Online platform takes on overlooked estate planning challenge by helping protect online legacies
Canada’s only online estate-planning solution to be founded by estate planning lawyers is helping people protect a much-ignored aspect of their legacies.
A free online service, the platform’s new Social Media Will was developed in consultation with Sharon Hartung, a leading expert in Canada on the subject of estate planning for digital assets. Hartung is also the author of Your Digital Undertaker – Exploring Death in the Digital Age in Canada.
“For all that is good and convenient about the digital age, it poses real challenges for your estate planning, and eventually for the executor who has the huge responsibility of wrapping up your life,” Hartung said in a statement.
In a survey conducted by Epilogue with Your Digital Undertaker, over 83% of respondents who use social media said they do not know what will happen to their social media accounts after they pass. In addition, only 8.2% said they’ve used legacy planning tools offered by Facebook, Google, and other digital service providers.
“One of the worst things you can do is not leave a will or make one hard to find,” Hartung said. “The next worst thing is leaving your executor and beneficiaries in the dark about your digital life and digital assets.”
With the Social Media Will, users will be guided through a series of questions to help document their wishes and facilitate the use of pre-planning tools offered by each platform. From there, Epilogue generates a custom social media will that can be shared with loved ones.
“For hundreds of years, a traditional Last Will and Testament was all that was needed to wrap up someone’s affairs, but that has changed in a significant way,” said Epilogue co-founder and CEO Daniel Goldgut. “Dying in the digital age means leaving behind a digital legacy. Having a Social Media Will helps someone shape that legacy for themselves.”
