Access to Digital Assets

We have recently included forms to provide digital access authorization to those persons the clients would like to appoint. Many of our assets are in digital format in today’s age. With banking becoming almost exclusively online, there is a concern that those that have been appointed as Trustee, Agent or Personal Representative in your estate plan, may not have access to any online accounts you may have. In 2016 Michigan adopted a law allowing someone to give written consent to allow another person access to all digital assets they own. We have recently incorporated a Consent and Authorization to Access Digital Assets form within the estate plan documents we draft and provide. If you have a number of digital assets or are moving assets to a digital format, it should be beneficial to give legal authorization to someone to access those assets if you were to become incapacitated or upon death.