Welcome back to another Sci -Fi episode where
psychology and finances collide. We will wrap
up in today's episode digital assets and estate
planning. We have Emily Baggett, attorney here
at Redstone Arsenal. She's going to continue
to help us dissect and understand how to best
digitally plan our estate and our digital. assets.
So we're going to pick up where we left off with.
We started touching on social media, but I know,
Emily, you have to give your attorney disclaimer,
so go right on. This required disclaimer. Anything
that I state today are my views only, and they
do not necessarily represent the views of DOD
or its components. And if I do mention these
products or services during the podcast, DOD
does not approve, endorse, or authorize that
company as products or services. So as I look
at what we would talk about with social media,
I don't spend too much time with it. So I might
be thinking with my generation, why would anyone
want access to someone else's Facebook or Instagram
or X and the list could go on and on and we touched
on it a little bit. Some of that could have been
monetized, especially with YouTube and different
accounts there. But you also have other factors
involved where someone might have pictures that
were not yet downloaded and available for that
person. But Facebook has an interesting menu
where you can go and you can under personal details,
you can go in and select account ownership and
control. And then you can select memorialization.
where you can decide what's going to happen to
your main Facebook profile after you pass away
and then you just select that person to manage
the account. So that's just an example of one
social media account. So what would you say in
the digital estate planning with these social
media accounts? Well, I think Facebook is an
example of how it lets you go ahead and make
that decision and how that can kind of come about
sometimes is if you've used your Facebook, I
tell folks, have you used it? I ask folks, have
you used it as kind of a scrapbook? Are there
pictures there that maybe folks want to go back?
And I used mine for a time period that when I
was a... prosecutor, I wrote little court snippets
of funny things that happened in the courtroom
in the event I ever wanted to go back and write
a book or something. But that's, and my friends
thought they were funny of things that happened.
I kind of used it that way. And so sometimes,
yeah, I think about, yeah, I'd like to memorialize
that because some of that stuff was kind of funny.
That's a reason maybe I'd want to. Sometimes
people, you have to think, are you an owner of
another account, not just your personal? But
do you have another account that you maybe need
to not necessarily memorialize, but maybe your
homeowners association has one and you were an
admin or something. Do you need to make sure
you're off that and you need to make sure that
you've got somebody else on that? Think about
those things as well. Do you have any other accounts
that you maybe need to make sure that you're
going to be off of? Instagram is a meta company
as well, so they allow you to do the same thing
as social media. The big thing about the Facebook
and Instagram, it's allowing you to make that
decision point. Not allowing your family members
to make it for you, not allowing them. I have
some family members, we have this huge discussion
at a family dinner one time. Some family members
say it's creepy, that's why is it left up. Some
other family members were like, no, it needs
to be left up. That's where all of our memories
are. That's the person that took all the pictures.
Huge debate, but my discussion point was, well,
if you all go in right now and decide, then you
can make your own decision. It just wouldn't
be an adequate death. if family members aren't
left bickering, right? That's just the norm.
And it's sad to say out loud, but you bring up
some good points there that it's also about what
other family members could benefit from in that
manner as well. And it's the same with shopping.
We already talked about the store. accounts like
Chick -fil -A rewards, Lego rewards. Again, no
army endorsement implied. We're just talking
about things that we've both researched and see
how we could transfer some of those things. It's
the same thing with digital assets and shopping.
And again, no army endorsement implied. When
I mentioned Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Sheen, Walmart,
there are so many huge platforms where you can
rack up all of these member benefits or monetary
cash that is just waiting to be spent. I know
if I were to look at my Amazon rewards, my girls
are always saying, hey, I want to spend that,
you know, because they don't think of it as true
money, but I do. No, I'm not going to give that
to you because that is money. If something did
happen to me, I would want them to have access
to that. Why would anyone say, okay, it's just
$150. I don't need to go through all the rigmarole
and effort just to get that pulled over. Well,
what if you just listed that? Again, you have
your password organizer, your password manager,
whatever you choose to use. That's still $150
that can benefit someone. Right, and besides
just the $150 benefiting, you have to think that's
an online presence that you have. And any of
your online presence, like we talked about Facebook,
one of those social media, say you're like LinkedIn
and what I call your hobby -based social media,
any of those you need to list, they need to be
closed out. Again, with your shopping, some of
those as well because... Anytime you have a preference,
anytime you have any type of presence, as a prosecutor
I've seen this, there are some identity theft
issues potentially that can happen. And that
is one of the worst things when you have a family
member walk in and say, and file a police report
and say, We've had a family member die. Here's
the identity theft. And then you're sitting there
trying to figure all that about. I had a friend
whose mom's identity theft got stolen, but she
ended up on dating websites. And that's how she
kept getting recycled. And for the first couple
of years, it really hurt the family, obviously,
to keep seeing their mom used in that way. After
about year five, now it's just a family joke.
But you have to think about it like that. Identity
theft occurs with... Do you want to see your
mom or dad pop up on a dating website and their
picture being used in that way? Because can that
happen? Absolutely, it happens to people all
the time, but you have to think where are ways
that people can get those identities. Also, like
the Etsy's and Ebay's, did you sell things on
those websites? Were you of, you know, maybe
even you just sold like a little, your hobby
Etsy sold little things or maybe on Ebay you
went to garage sales and pick things up and resold
them or whatever you did. But you have to think,
is there money sitting in those accounts potentially?
Right. I love how you really pulled in the concept
of online presence because sometimes those things
really just need to be cinched up. and left alone.
You gave a hilarious example in the financial
symposium and let's just say it, we're all adults.
Some people will have some accounts that Whether
you view them as acceptable or unacceptable or
morally or immorally gaining or profitable, those
platforms do exist. And so, yes, it would be
nice for your family member to close down. some
of those sites so that your dignity can be maintained
even upon your death. And that also includes
subscriptions and memberships. We don't want
more money coming out of your accounts before
everything goes through probate and all those
things. That's just less money in the estate
that's left there. There is a way through the
inactive account manager, and one of the examples
you gave was through Google. where you could
go and plan what would happen to your data if
you didn't need to use your Google account anymore.
And that's a big storehouse of information. Right.
When you think about, like, as far as Google
and then when there, because a lot of people
do use Google when you use, because I mean, who
doesn't use like Google, Google Photos, for example,
Google Docs. A lot of people do use Google Photos
as a popular one. where people do store their
photos and that is such a huge family legacy
for so many folks where the photos are stored
because used to we would have photo albums sitting
around and that is the number one thing family
members start looking for after someone passes.
Why? Because if there's going to be a funeral
the funeral home is going to say do you have
a picture that you would like for us to put on
our website or in the when they walk into the
funeral home on the screen for when folks walk
in or on the guide for the funeral, the program
for the funeral or whatever. That's the first
thing. Are they used to them when they had newspapers
for the obituary? Do you want a picture of the
obituary? And then folks are gonna be like, where
are the pictures? And we had a family member
die. We knew we had the pictures, but it was
calling everyone in the family, the three cousins.
Did you take that picture? Who took that picture?
Well, where is it? Who has it on which? everybody
had Google Photos. Which family Google Photo
Drive is it on? Because we have a shared Google
Photo. Which family, which one is it? So we're
all in there trying to find it. But think about
that for your family. Going back to Google, you
can go. They have what's called inactive account
manager. You can set that up. That way a person
is assigned to be the person that in the event
that you pass away, you've already assigned someone
there. So they go in and log in and say that
you are that person. You provide the death certificate,
and then you're allowed access to anything as
far as what's on those Google accounts, which
relates back to also if you have any type of
Android device as well. Right? And so going from
Android to Apple, there's a legacy contact. within
Apple and I am proud to say I don't know proud
is the right word but I've I actually have transitioned
from an Android to an Apple phone and as I was
setting up my phone the legacy contact came through
and it was quite simple to assign my daughter
as the legacy contact and it also gave you the
option let's say you don't have a close family
member with an Apple phone and you want to still
be able to provide that to an Android user, you
can print the QR code for that ability to have
that. So it was a really neat experience to see
firsthand. It just requires a little bit of work,
and total time that it took me to do that, two
different things within my phone, it took me
a total of one minute to complete that process.
And listen. For those who may be technologically
challenged, grab your six -year -old granddaughter
or six -year -old niece or nephew and they will
show you how to get there. Maybe not six. Maybe
you want to find a teenager, but you would be
surprised. We could probably have a six -year
-old that could show you how to get to your legacy
contact information. They actually at my nephew
at five could actually do it But the one thing
about the legacy contact that you don't think
about that most folks want off the phone are
Usually folks use it as an address book I think
my dad's the only person in America that still
has used it uses the Rolodex and he literally
cuts the address when someone changes their address
and then staples it to their old Rolodex card,
but anyway most normal people use your contacts
and your phone so If someone passes away and
say it's your spouse, do you really know your
spouse's second cousin's address and phone number?
I mean, they're probably close, maybe they are
close to them, maybe you do, but they're probably
family members of your spouse that you don't
know. How do you get in touch with those folks?
I mean, if you don't have access to their phone,
I mean, if you do have access to their phone,
but if you... If they're for some reason you
don't, then you've got to be able to get into
that phone. And the legacy contacts allows you
to have the data on that phone. So you can contact
folks. and allowed that to happen. And that is
the easiest way with Apple, and we all know that
Apple has very high privacy rights, is to have
that set up. And I just recommend for any Apple
product that you have, set it up for all your
devices. Right, because I understand they are
pretty staunch and hard -nosed when it comes
to privacy. And we want that, right? So we do
have to follow the rules and, as you say, the
terms and agreements of anything that we're doing.
And so to kind of sum it all up, Emily. You talk
about this digital estate plan and you provide
five different points on deciding what to do
with your digital estate plan. So do you want
to transfer the digital asset? Do you want to
distribute them, preserve them, disrupt them,
or neglect them? And these are options. These
are all choices that we have. So could you talk
a little bit more about that as we close up as
well as the executor? On the digital estate plan,
obviously if you do nothing with it, some of
these things, that's the neglect. It's just gonna,
it'll just sit there. By some, again, terms in
the agreement, it's gonna destruct itself. If
you don't do anything with it and you pass away
by virtue of your death, it's gonna destruct.
That goes to where, like I said, some of those
hobby -based social medias especially. Some of
the things you do want to preserve. What kind
of things do you want to preserve? Those again
are those especially like photos, anything like
that that you do want to make sure that they
are around. The distribution. Are there ones
that you want to distribute so that they can
be around for others? You think about again that
kind of goes to what I call about that online
digital property. Do you want to make sure it's
just distributed to? a family member or someone
that can handle that for you and then the transfer
of maybe are you going to transfer the the asset
to someone so that they can have it or you know
that again goes back to what we talked about
in episode one again with the hotel points maybe
kind of the airline miles something like that
how are you going to manage that the executor
as far as how you can actually The executor in
Alabama is called personal representative when
you have one as far as your will. Lots of times
it's a family member and we kind of touched about
that. Most of the time family members can handle
most of this. It's not that it's one of those
kind of things that at this point in life I think
most folks that serve as executors or personal
representative deal with this. We all deal with
kind of digital components daily in our own lives.
So I think it's something that most folks can
handle. But If you get into things that we talked
about previously, like the folks that have a
heavy influence with digital things, that you
might want to think about considering someone
that does specifically deal with digital things
and having a separate digital executor. That's
something, you know, you just have to make those
decisions for yourself. What are those things
you really have to consider? And that's where
I always say when you have an estate plan, it's
not just an attorney. It's your attorney, it's
your financial planner, like obviously great
folks like you. It's the people that you trust
in your circle of friends. All those folks come
together to help you make the best decisions.
And that's who your trusted circle of friends,
those are the ones that are gonna make you make
the best estate plan. And estate plan is not
just after death. Estate planning documents do.
you know, help your life as well. Right, and
what a great way to close out this series because
you are essentially assisting your family members
with having access. And access is what folks,
especially in a state of grief, it seems so simple.
to say okay well all you have to do hey mom all
you have to do is just get into his account right
I mean surely you'll be able to pay my tuition
just just get into his account and then all of
a sudden oh my goodness the realization that
password has changed and now we have to wait
or maybe that tuition is due in three days but
you don't have the three days there could just
be a number of issues there but what you were
saying is it takes a village to give you that
access. It's not just one individual person.
So number one. tanking it upon yourself to take
some level of action with your digital asset
estate plan today. Maybe just starting the conversation
with all your family members. If you all own
iPhones, getting out where the first time at
the dinner table you will allow phones, everyone
gets out their phones and creates the legacy
contact. I'm sure your kids would appreciate
that, that one time that you get to bring out
your phone at the dinner table. or just starting
the conversation with those friends and family
members that you do trust. And hey, what are
some ideas to go with this? But you closed up
in the financial symposium, you said not only
is the digital asset estate plan simplifying
access for family members, but it's preserving
your legacy and it's helping you avoid legal
complications. So with that, thank you, Emily,
for being our guest through this three -part
series. And if you found this helpful, please
remember to rate and review wherever you listen
to the podcast.