Interesting Article

PROTECTION FOR DIGITAL ASSETS

Do heirs need to know your online passwords?

Monday, November 16, 2009 5:23 AM

BY TIM GRANT

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

After an American soldier died in Iraq five years ago, his father wanted to save copies of his son's e-mails sent through a Yahoo account. But the Internet company's privacy policy allowed access by only the soldier, triggering a legal fight.

The case highlights a growing discussion concerning what happens when the owner of a password-protected online account dies. To whom does the account belong? Can digital assets be passed on to heirs?

"If you use a computer, you need to have an estate plan that deals with digital assets and paperless transactions," said Lawrence H. Heller, an estate lawyer in Santa Monica, Calif. "People need to think about how to give their heirs access to information that may be stored online, but without the risk of unauthorized access."

Many important documents and personal treasures once kept in file cabinets and safe-deposit boxes are now stored electronically. Photographs, videos, music, letters and book manuscripts that might have monetary value -- or be priceless to loved ones -- often are saved exclusively on computer drives.

Legal disputes involving digital assets are relatively rare, but as the computer-literate population ages, after-death lawsuits are likely to become more common. "What we are trying to do is anticipate and avoid the problem," Heller said.

Until now, estate planning has primarily focused on tangible assets such as real estate, autos and jewelry and intangible assets such as stocks and bonds.

In exceptional cases, artists and musicians face issues involving copyright, trademark or patent law. But now, anyone who owns a computer could end up dealing with those issues, too.

"If I have created something in the digital universe, it's not free game. I may have a hard time protecting it, but I own it," said Steve Seel, an estate and trust lawyer in Pittsburgh.

Sometimes, heirs don't even know these things exist. As more companies move away from paper, online bank accounts, investment accounts, insurance polices, time shares and frequent-flier miles might become trickier to locate and access if someone dies without telling heirs of their existence.

According to a recent study by HSBC Direct, 49 percent of the online population conducts most of its banking via the Internet.

Meanwhile Internet blogs, as well as MySpace, e-mail and Facebook accounts, could be owned by an even greater percentage of the population.

In a growing number of cases, checking a deceased person's computer or other digital devices is becoming a crucial step in executing an estate.

Executors of estates often get special privileges giving them access to most assets. But privacy laws might prevent Internet companies from releasing username and password information to executors.

If a digital asset is stored on someone else's server, ownership becomes especially complicated. Yahoo mail, for example, has a provision in its user agreement that gives the account owner no right to transfer the ownership. All rights are terminated with the owner's death, and all content can be deleted.

The rules were tested in the high-profile case involving the father of Lance Cpl. Justin Ellsworth, a combat engineer with the Marine Corps who died in Iraq in November 2004. The two men were in constant e-mail contact during the deployment, and when the son died, the father wanted the e-mails from his son's account for sentimental reasons.

But the son had changed his password a few weeks before his death and had not shared it with his dad, who lives in Detroit. It took a five-month legal case to work out an arrangement to release copies of the e-mails.

Asset Protection Seminar

Presented by

Stephen J. Lacey, Esq.

McClelland, Jones, Lyons, Lacey & Williams, LLC

1901 S. Harbor City Blvd, Ste. 500 Melbourne, FL 32901

Workshop presented in the law office conference room

Wednesday, December 9th (10:30 am to noon)

There is no charge. But since space is limited, reservations are required. (So R.S.V.P. A.S.A.P.!)

Please call (321) 984-2700 for reservations or email slacey@mjlandl.com.

Visit us on the web at www.mjlandl.com for more information.

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU NEED AN ESTATE PLAN

There is a common misconception that estate planning is only for the rich. So let’s do a test to determine whether you need an estate plan.

Now imagine you have everyone you care about in your left hand, your family, friends, maybe a charity or even if it is only your dog and in your right hand, you have everything you own, all of your stuff. Now imagine someone has a gun to the head of someone in your left hand and tells you give me all of your stuff or I pull the trigger. What do you do? You give him all of your stuff. Congratulations, you need an estate plan. The reason is that you just said that you care more about the people that matter, then about your stuff. Now, let’s consider what matters to you:
Do you want to make sure you give your stuff to whom you want, when you want and the way you want?

Are you concerned about your assets going to a second spouse’s family after you have passed away? We have all heard stories of one spouse passing away, getting remarried then passing away without an estate plan. All of your assets are now passed to second spouse. Who do you think is going to benefit from her estate plan?
Do you have a child or relative with special needs? The loss of governmental benefits can devastate an estate. Moreover, designating someone (and their successors) to ensure that the child always has someone assisting him or her throughout their lifetime.

Do you want to safeguard your stuff for your spouse in case you must join the millions of residents in nursing homes at $75,000 per year? Unfortunately, nearly half of people over the age of 65 will need nursing home care during their lifetime. Proper planning is essential to not only preserve assets but also to create the most choices for your care.

Do you want to protect your stuff from your children’s creditors or divorce after your passing? Make sure your stuff is inherited by the people you want, not by their ex-spouses, creditors or the IRS.

Do you want to avoid the “lottery Winner Syndrome” whereas your beneficiaries spend all the stuff that you spent your whole life building within 18 months? Giving a child more money is not going to make them more happy, it seems that often it makes them less productive and less happy. Encourage and reward your children for making smart life decisions and not depleting all of your stuff.

Do you want to designate someone to manage your affairs if you become disabled? Without a Power of Attorney, Health Care Surrogate or sometimes a Revocable Trust, if you become disabled and unable to make decisions for yourself, someone will be forced to open an expensive and lengthy guardianship proceeding so decisions may be made for your benefit.

Do you want to designate someone to care for your minor children if something happens to you? In Florida, if a minor child receives money from an inheritance (this includes designated beneficiaries) exceeding $15,000, then a guardianship must be created for the benefit of the child until they reach 18. Moreover, do you want to designate who is raising your child? Do you want to designate someone who has similar values, religious views, educational goals, etc. as you do? Or do you want to leave it to chance?

Are there specific charities that are near and dear to your heart? If you do not create an estate plan to assist such beneficiaries, then those charities will not benefit from your estate.

If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then raise your hand, you need an estate plan.

Stephen J. Lacey, JD, LLM-Tax is a partner in the law firm of McClelland, Jones, Lyons, Lacey & Williams, LLC. Mr. Lacey concentrates his practice in the areas of Estate Planning, Asset Protection, Medicaid Planning, Probate and Real Estate. To contact Stephen call (321) 984-2700 or visit www.mjlandl.com.

Lessons from the Rich and Famous

Lessons from the Rich and Famous

It was a sad day in June when two legends passed away, Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Both under completely different circumstances, one died unexpectedly while the other succumbed to a long battle with cancer. So what lessons can we learn from these two tragedies?

Guardianships for Minors

While it may be questionable whether Michael Jackson was biologically responsible for his three minor children, we are certain that those children were legally his. According to his Will, Jackson named his mother as guardian over the children. While the mother of the children apparently gave up any parental rights some time ago, it would not stop her from trying to contest it. Still, the court would give great deference to the wishes of Jackson because of his Will. Therefore, it is very important that anyone with minor children should have a Will designating who they want to take care of their children if something were to happen to them.

We are not aware whether Jackson established a Trust for his minor children. In Florida, a minor cannot receive more than $10,000 as an inheritance. If any amount is passed to minor children in excess of that amount, then the law requires that a guardianship is set up. A requirement of a guardianship is that an annual accounting is filed with the court along with a fee that is calculated by the amount of assets in the guardianship account. This can be an expensive process which would deprive that child of money that would otherwise be left to them.

Asset Protection Trust/ Special Needs Trust

Unfortunately, Farrah had a different set of issues. Her son Redmond was incarcerated in LA County Jail at the time of her death. This was due to a possession of heroin charge. Obviously, Redmond has a horrible addiction problem as this prevented him from being at his mother’s bedside when she passed away. Without any knowledge of Farrah’s estate plan, let’s hope she received quality advice. So how does one provide for their child but “save them” from their addiction problem rather than feeding it? Or sometimes, a drug problem progresses so far that it leads to a disability, how does a loving parent plan?

Sometimes, despite a parent’s best efforts, their child does not turn out the way they had planned. Maybe their son has a problem with addiction. Maybe their daughter has declared bankruptcy three times despite making over $100,000 a year. Or maybe they are good kids but are involved in a bad marriage or an unlucky car accident. With proper estate planning, a parent can plan around these types of foreseen and unforeseen events and still protect and provide for their children. If that child has cognitive impairments or other disabilities whereas they are provided with government assistance, proper planning is required so that the child is well taken care of without losing such valuable assistance.

Many of us procrastinate, minimize our personal need or the legal importance of drafting wills, trusts, living wills, and durable powers of attorney. The complexities of combining and coordinating diverse assets such as individual assets, jointly held assets, retirement plans, life insurance, annuities and business interests seem just too daunting for some. For others, they do not realize the importance of looking at all of their assets from an overall perspective; namely, when all is said and done who ends up with what.

Estate planning is not only for the wealthy. As you see in these two examples, Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett faced real life problems that we all may face. Estate planning is about family and making sure that you are passing on your assets to whom you want, when you want and the way you want. Protect yourself, and your family.

Asset Protection for Florida Residents

While people in financial trouble often resort to bankruptcy to protect their assets and stop collection harassment, new federal laws take effect later this year that will limit that option. Florida law provides Florida residents with other options.

Following is a brief description of the major exemptions and other ways Florida residents can protect their assets:

1) HOMESTEAD PROPERTY – the Florida Constitution provides that the homestead property of Florida residents is exempt from attachment by creditors. This protection does not apply to mortgages or liens that are recorded against the homestead or most contents in the homestead. Only homestead property one-half (1/2) acre or less inside a municipality and 160 acres outside a municipality is protected. The new federal bankruptcy law will restrict this exemption for some future Florida residents.

2) JOINT MARITAL PROPERTY - real estate, bank accounts, investments and other property owned jointly by a husband and wife as “tenants by the entirety” cannot be attached to satisfy the debts of only one spouse. This protection may not extend to taxes owed the Internal Revenue Service or to jointly owned property that does not qualify as tenants by the entirety or includes additional joint owners.

3) RETIREMENT PLANS AND IRA ACCOUNTS - both federal and Florida law protect a debtor’s retirement account assets. This protection may be lost if the retirement plan is not qualified under federal law or has been established to defraud creditors.

4) ANNUITIES AND LIFE INSURANCE - Florida law provides Florida residents with creditor protection for the cash value held in annuity contracts and life insurance policies. Death benefits paid on the life of a debtor are also exempt. This protection may not apply to the annuity and life insurance beneficiaries themselves.

5) WAGES AND WAGE ACCOUNTS – both federal and Florida law provide some protection from garnishing the wages of a Head of family. Certain types of wage only accounts established in financial institutions may also be protected.

6) LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANIES AND PARTNERSHIPS – Compared to corporation stock or general partnership interests, attachment of a Debtor’s interest in these type of legal entities is restricted under Florida law and in many other states.

Readers are cautioned that the asset protection options described above are in general terms only. Exceptions and pitfalls exist that will be discussed in a future article. Readers who are debtors and creditors alike are encouraged to recognize these options and to work together toward settlements that avoid bankruptcy.