Wisconsin can sometimes be in the forefront of estate planning legislation and they have done it again this month in passing new laws regarding the handling of digital property. Digital property would be such items as an email account, facebook, linkin, or twitter account. The Wisconsin law governs the disclosure of digital property in a person’s estate to a personal representative or special administrator, to an agent under a power of attorney, to a trustee of a trust, or to a conservator or guardian of a protected person. Instructions can be made for disclosure to such representatives through a will, trust, power of attorney, or other governing instrument.
The ability access such accounts and modify them or cancel them is an important one in this day and age of highly utilized technology. The new law does not change or impair the rights of the digital provider under the entity's service agreement, but it does advance the cause of the user's representative to handle matters for or on behalf of the user.
Perhaps it is time to review your documents to ensure that that you have provided such authorization in your documents and your digital assets can be controlled along the same manner as your physical assets.
The ability access such accounts and modify them or cancel them is an important one in this day and age of highly utilized technology. The new law does not change or impair the rights of the digital provider under the entity's service agreement, but it does advance the cause of the user's representative to handle matters for or on behalf of the user.
Perhaps it is time to review your documents to ensure that that you have provided such authorization in your documents and your digital assets can be controlled along the same manner as your physical assets.
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