Administering an estate today has many challenges that were not present even a decade ago. The world has changed a lot with the popularity of personal computers and the Internet. Today, estate administrators have to worry about the deceased’s social media accounts, such as Twitter and Facebook. The estate has to figure out how to gain access to these accounts and shut them down.
A few states have specific laws about these digital accounts that grant the administrator of the estate access. However, only a very small minority of estates have these laws and Texas is not one of them. In the future, Texas and most other states probably will have these laws. You can speed the process of enacting them up by contacting your state representative.
Until a law is passed, however, it would be a good idea to take care of the digital assets in your estate plan. You can make it a part of your plan to state who has access to your accounts after you pass away and for what purposes. You can even include in your plan where your account login information can be found. That will make everything a little bit easier on your estate. If you would like to know specifically about how to do this, then please visit an estate planning attorney to start the process.
Stephen A. Mendel, Estate Planning Attorney
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