The Why’s and How’s of Digital Asset Protection for Your Clients

The Why’s

and How’s of

Digital Asset

Protection

for Your

Clients

Woodrow Levin

Founder & CEO, Estate Assist

The average person has 26+ online accounts!• And it’s growing – 25-34 year olds average 40+

• There are typically 15+ accounts to close or transfer upon passing.

State governments in the U.S. hold over $43 Billion in unclaimed property.

Do Your Clients Know Where Their Financial and Digital Assets

Are?

• What are digital assets?

• Problems with the stats quo

• Why do your clients care about them?

• Why do you care about them?

• What should you be doing?

Agenda

• Email

• Online Sales Accounts (eBay, Amazon, Etsy)

• Online Purchasing Accounts (PayPal)

• Online Storage / Cloud Storage Accounts (DropBox, Shutterfly, Google Drive)

• Webpages

• Domain Names

• Digital Media Collection (iTunes, Kindle)

• Blogs

• Social Networking Accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)

• Logins / passwords

What Are Digital Assets?


• Problems with the status quo




Agenda

State Laws Grant Fiduciary Access• Increasingly, state legislatures are providing express statutory

authority to allow Personal Representatives to access and control certain virtual assets of a deceased person.

• Eight states (Connecticut, Oklahoma, Idaho, Rhode Island , Indiana, Virginia, Nevada, and Delaware) have statutes which give the fiduciary limited access to certain digital assets and many other states are considering similar legislation.

Legal / Regulatory Changes

Hot off the presses:• In 2014, the Uniform Law Commission published a uniform act,

applicable to POAs, Trusts, Wills and Guardianships, that would allow a fiduciary to access digital assets. The act is called the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (“UFADAA”).

A Uniform Law Authorizing Fiduciary Access

What happens to a Digital Legacy?• Husband loses wife, fights Apple over

iPad.

• Families want access to deceased’s Facebook accounts to understand, remember loved ones.

• Widow didn’t know about husband’s eTrade account with significant money in it.

There Are Problems






Agenda

• A digital asset can be the key to unlocking other assets (“hard assets”) with financial value.

• Digital assets themselves can also have significant financial value.

Why Do Your Clients Care about Them?

Domain Names:• Investing.com sold for $2.45 million in 2012.

• Vacationrentals.com sold for $35 million in 2007.

Blogging:• In November of 2011, The Atlantic reported that America’s top 10

most valuable blogs have an estimated aggregate value of $785 million.

• Gawker.com alone was worth $318 million.

Financial Value of Digital Assets

Twitter Handles:• Naoki Hiroshima had been offered as much as $50,000 for his

username @N before it was eventually extorted from him.

Virtual Weapons:• A virtual sword from Age of Wulin sold for $16,000!

Financial Value of Digital Assets

Preserving the Decedent’s Story:• Online photo accounts

• Personal blogs

• Email accounts

• Twitter feeds

• Genealogical research accounts

Non-Financial Value of Digital Assets

Preventing disclosure of secrets / Reputation preservation

Protecting against identity theft• AARP estimates 250,000 deceased Americans are victims of identity theft each

year.

Non-Financial Value of Digital Assets






Agenda

Reinforce the human element• You, as the advisor, care about more than just profit and loss…

Take a holistic approach• Help to manage and protect ALL of your clients’ assets – financial and digital.

Create additionaltouch points• The right systems will

give you new reasonsto reach out to clients,and strengthen yourrelationships.

Stay Relevant

Extend Your Firm’s Brand• Co-branding opportunities allow you to extend your firms presence on the web and on

mobile devices.

Connect with multiple generations• Engage children and even grandchildren by facilitating digital sharing of accounts.

Offer More• Be innovative…stand out

from the pack, and gobeyond traditional moneymanagement.

Differentiate Your Practice






Agenda

Educate clients about digital asset protection and identity protection.

Work with clients to identify their complete asset picture.

Help catalog andorganize criticalinformation.

Check in frequentlyto keep clientsup to date.

What should you be doing?

The old way: paper documents in safe deposit box or safe

Identity theft protection services

• LifeLock

• Trusted ID

Storage services

• Box

• Dropbox

• Google Drive

Specialized service suchas Estate Assist

Solutions

Thank You!

Helping you prepare for tomorrow,

today.

Woodrow H. Levin – Founder & CEO

[email protected]

Economy & Finance

The Why’s and How’s of Digital Asset Protection for Your Clients