By Anna Hacker (AUT Legal Services Pty Ltd), Accredited Specialist – Wills & Estates, National Manager, Estate Planning, Australian Unity Trustees Ltd.

Social media accounts live on after their creators die, and their existence can create uncertainty for estate executors as well as distress for family members.

Digital footprints on death are an issue of growing importance as social media usage proliferates – not just with generation Z and millennials but more and more with older generations as well.

Just as we increasingly have digital images (rather than printed photos), gift iTunes vouchers, and trade in Bitcoin, so too will estate planning considerations move online.

We are already seeing legal cases involving next of kin attempting to access social media accounts, in the same way we currently see families fight over personal items, and this will no doubt increase over time.

As a result, the future of estate litigation will be in the digital realm.

The finding last month by a Massachusetts Court in the United States is a good example. In the case Ajemian vs Yahoo! Inc., the Court found that legal representatives of a deceased email account holder were able to access email messages of the deceased, despite there being no Will or direct instructions allowing this to occur. And despite it being against Yahoo!’s terms and conditions.

Taking stock of and itemising the social media accounts of the deceased is difficult enough. Add to the mix the fact that these platforms tend to operate in offshore jurisdictions means there is no uniform treatment, and not a lot of local legislative guidance, on how to gain control of content and close down accounts.

The different social media platforms have different procedures and actions that occur on a user’s death, and it is worthwhile being across the different treatments.

Depending on the platform, the options for family members are to have the account memorialised, or to have the account closed down.

Facebook, the most popular platform, allows users to nominate a legacy contact who can control what happens on the account on the user’s death. This could be a simple account closure, to downloading content, to establishing a memorial site with pinned content.

Instagram, similarly, will memorialise an account on the death of the user if a family member requests it. It will also remove an account on a family member’s request.

Despite being one of the most popular platforms, Twitter doesn’t offer any legacy contingencies, although family members can request an account of a deceased person to be deactivated.

For many professionals, LinkedIn is an essential communication and networking tool. While LinkedIn doesn’t provide any memoralisation options on the death of an account holder, it does provide functionality to request the removal of a user’s account.

Consideration of your social media accounts, and the ownership of your digital content in them, should not be ignored when making a Will.

Disclaimer: This article is not legal or personal financial advice and should not be relied on as such. Any advice in this document is general advice only and does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular person. You should obtain financial advice relevant to your circumstances before making investment decisions. Where a particular financial product is mentioned you should consider the Product Disclosure Statement before making any decisions in relation to the product. Whilst every reasonable care has been taken in distributing this article, Australian Unity Personal Financial Services Ltd does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information contained within it. Any views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views of Australian Unity Personal Financial Services Ltd. Australian Unity Personal Financial Services Ltd does not guarantee any particular outcome or future performance. Taxation Information in this document should not be relied upon without seeking specialist advice from a tax professional. Australian Unity Personal Financial Services Ltd ABN 26 098 725 145, AFSL & Australian Credit Licence No. 234459, 114 Albert Road, South Melbourne, VIC 3205. This document produced in August 2018. © Copyright 2018