Indiana Estate Planning & Elder Law

Friends Of The Firm Friday - RHEA Services

 

 

 

 

 

All too often, families who have lost a loved one find themselves overwhelmed by the myriad responsibilities that come along with finalizing someone’s affairs. There are payments to be made or stopped, appointments to cancel, accounts to close, services to discontinue, people to notify, and paperwork to file. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to focus on handling these many details while still having the room to grieve the loss of a loved one.

This is the reason Sarah Kendrick founded RHEA Services; to be able to step into this gap and bring assistance to people in the bereavement process. Her team at RHEA Services are able to work alongside people who manage some of these many tasks, so that families can focus their minds and hearts on what matters most during this difficult time.

While doing the work of helping families finalize their loved one’s estates, it became clear how often people are unprepared and how difficult it can be to find the appropriate information after a loss. Understanding how overwhelming and challenging it can be to gather all the most important information, Sarah created the RHEA Services Pre-Planning Guidebook and developed a system of guided pre-planning sessions to walk families through filling it out. Working together, they record, consolidate, and secure one’s essential information, including the areas of: financial, insurance, medical, dependents, pets, social media, and more.

Sarah and RHEA Services are glad to be able to provide support and care for life’s transitions. You can find more information at www.RHEAServices.com or speak to someone today by calling 317-732-5181.

Facebook: RHEA Services

Instagram: @rheaservices

Phone: 317-732-5181

E-mail: [email protected]

Digital Assets ... What you Need to Know

Online financial accounts ... Email accounts ... Social media accounts ... Picture storage ... Reward points from credit cards ... all which are types of digital assets. Nowadays, we live in a world where individuals rely on smartphones and computers for work and their personal lives. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly more common that clients have digital assets in their name – whether they realize that they are legally considered “digital assets” or not.

The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act took effect in Indiana in mid-2016. This new law allows specific individuals – like Power of Attorney, a Personal Representative, Trustee, or Guardian – to access your digital property should you become incapacitated and upon your passing. For example, say you have an online savings account and have the monthly statements sent to you via email. If you were to become incapacitated or upon passing away, the appropriate individual would be able to “step in” for you to handle the financial affairs associated with the account and be able to access your email to gain needed information from the statements.

So, what does this mean for you? You may need to update your estate plan to include specific provisions which will grant your Power of Attorney, Personal Representative, Trustee, and/or Guardian the power to access your digital property upon incapacity or death. Updating your estate plan to include such provisions will likely prevent a roadblock, delay, or headache down the road. Though, inevitably not everyone will get their existing estate plan updated – at that point, what would happen?

Well, it depends.

Some digital property assets, like online financial accounts, will allow the owner (of the asset) to designate specific individuals which the company can disclose asset information to. However, if the company does not provide this option, there are “default” rules that apply.

First, if an individual has not updated their estate plan to include specific digital asset provisions and the company does not provide an option to designate standby individuals, the “terms of service agreement” controlling the account will govern. Of course, this agreement is the tiny print that very little people read, but yet agree to whatever-it-says.

Second, if an individual has not updated their estate plan and the company does not provide an option to designate standby individuals and the terms of the service agreement does not address non-owner access to the asset – then the “default” rules depend on what “role” (like Power of Attorney, Personal Representative, Trustee, or Guardian) is requesting access to the digital asset.

In general, the “default” rules for serving as a Power of Attorney, Personal Representative, and Trustee are quite similar. If the respective document naming individual(s) to serve in these capacities lack the digital asset provisions, the individual will be allowed to access digital assets for “purposes of carrying out their duties” – however, they “will not have access to electronic communications like emails and text messages.” Therefore, some access to digital assets is granted, but not complete access – as such, it leaves some gray area which could cause the previously-mentioned roadblock, delay, or headache. For example, what specifically falls under the “purposes of carrying out their duties” and what does not?

Our recommendation is to, first, take a couple of minutes and think about whether or not you have digital assets. Do you have an online investment or savings account? Do you have a personal email account? Do you store your pictures on your computer and/or an online database? Have you accumulated reward points from using a credit card? Our second recommendation is if you have accumulated one or more “digital asset” it is important to consider updating your estate plan to appropriately reflect your wishes in regards to your Power of Attorney, Personal Representative, Trustee, and/or Guardian accessing your digital assets.

If you want to learn more about estate planning and elder law for your family and loved ones, we are offering a FREE educational workshop on Tuesday, November 21st at 1:00 pm.  Just click here to reserve your spot and we'll give you the details!  We'll see you there!

All the Best,

Jennifer Rozelle

Source: Kissel and Olimb: New Law Affects Estate Planning for Digital Property, Indiana Lawyer Newspaper.

Grieving Mother Loses Access to Deceased Daughter’s Facebook Account

19-year-old daughter Becky loved sharing her life on Facebook. When she fell terminally ill with a brain tumor, and lost speech and movement, her mother Louise would log in with Becky to help her stay in touch with her friends. Becky died in 2010 but Louise continued to access her account to feel close to her daughter. But then Facebook locked or 'memorialised' Becky's account.

When 19-year-old Becky was diagnosed with a brain tumor, she could no longer maintain her Facebook page on her own. Instead, her mother Louise helped her and together the two of them used Becky's account to let people know how she was doing.

After Becky passed away, Louise continued to access the account to read what people had to say about Becky and how they spoke with her in private communication. Louise found it comforting and it reassured her that her daughter would not be forgotten.

Unfortunately, Facebook memorialized the account without notice. They made it so that Becky's account could not be accessed publicly and that no one could make changes to the account.

Louise was locked out without warning.

All of the precious memories that comforted her were denied to her. BBC News has more on this story in a story titled "How do we protect our digital legacy after death?"

This is becoming an increasing problem for grieving families.

The issue is not just isolated to Facebook. Other social media companies do similar things after an account holder passes away. It highlights the need for options if you want your family to be able to access your social media after you pass away.

In the end, you really need to engage an experienced estate planning attorney who can help you navigate the applicable laws and specific policies of the various technology companies.

Reference: BBC News (April 6, 2015) "How do we protect our digital legacy after death?"

Illinois Bill Proposal Would Treat Digital Assets Like Physical Assets

A bill in the General Assembly would treat individuals' Facebook, Twitter, email and other online accounts the same as physical assets after death.

By default, the law does not treat digital assets the same way that it treats physical assets. After a person passes away, physical assets become part of the estate. Executors and loved ones are given access to the physical assets to dispose of them in accordance with an estate plan.

However, treatment of digital assets is determined by the terms of service of online companies.

This creates problems for executors who often need access to the digital assets to properly administer the estate as many technology companies make that access incredibly difficult to get.

Throughout the country state legislatures have debated this problem in an effort to reach a solution. The latest to do so is Illinois.

Its legislature is currently taking up a bill that would treat digital assets as physical assets, which would allow a court to appoint a trustee to access them. The bill is strongly opposed by technology companies and privacy groups who think the bill would be a violation of the deceased's privacy.

The State Journal Register has more on the debate in Illinois in an article titled "Bill would treat deceased's online accounts like physical assets."

This is not a debate that is going away soon.

It will likely take years for any sort of consensus to develop throughout the country. In the meantime, it is important to talk to your estate planning attorney about what you can do to ensure that your digital assets are handled appropriately in your estate.

Reference: State Journal Register (April 5, 2015) "Bill would treat deceased's online accounts like physical assets."

Digital Estate Planning Conundrum: You Can Still "Like" Robin Williams on Facebook

Search for the late actor and comedian Robin Williams on Facebook and you'll quickly come to an invitation to "connect" to him. That could be difficult, to say the least. The much-beloved Academy Award winner departed this earthly realm four months ago. His page is now set up to receive tributes from his considerable fan base. Could someone do the same for you if you suddenly died? Apparently not. Read on ... 

 Wait, you can still connect with Robin Williams on Facebook? As strange as it seems since Williams passed away several months ago, you can still "like" his Facebook page according to The Ledgerin an article titled "Access Bill: Clarify Online Life After Death."

It appears that someone else had access to Williams' account when he passed away and has left the page open for fans to express sympathy for Williams' family and pay tribute to Williams himself.

Most people, however, do not share their Facebook passwords with other people.

When they pass away, their families have a difficult time accessing the accounts.

Under current privacy laws and Facebook policies, no one can access the account without prior approval of the account holder. The obvious problem is that if the account holder has passed away, approval to access the account cannot be given.

Many states are attempting to change laws to allow access to digital accounts after the owner has passed away. However, changing laws is often a slow process.

Until the laws in your state do change, it is important to plan for what will happen to your Facebook page and other digital accounts after you pass away.

Reference: The Ledger (December 13, 2014) "Access Bill: Clarify Online Life After Death"