Going through a loved one’s photos, books, music collection and possessions after they’ve passed away can be an emotional process. But with any luck, the deceased will have left a will detailing what should happen to smaller possessions such as childhood toys and their record collection, as well as major assets like property or investments.
But not many people think about what will happen to their digital assets when they die.
We live our lives online these days and future generations won’t remember a time when this wasn’t the case. As well as using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, we also buy digital music and video files, and back up our digital lives to various cloud services. On top of that, many people do their personal admin on the web too, managing everything from their bank accounts and investments to energy and telecoms accounts online.
Dying Matters, a coalition of companies which aims to persuade people to talk more openly about dying, death and bereavement, is encouraging people to plan their ‘digital legacy’.
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