Did you know that the Federal Government has a blog? It does, and it recently had a blog post here suggesting that everyone have a “social media will.” As the post explains:
Social media is a part of daily life, but what happens to the online content that you created once you die? . . . Just like a traditional will helps your survivors handle your physical belongings, a social media will spells out how you want your online identity to be handled.
It’s important to note that it is not (or at least should not be) suggesting that this “social media will” be the same as your other, legally enforceable Will. As this post at the Atlantic Monthly points out, Wills are usually public documents. In Pennsylvania, anyone can go to the Register of Wills and look at the probated Will of someone who has died. You wouldn’t want all of your social media accounts and passwords to be publicly accessible. However, there are some good suggestions in the post:
State how you would like your profiles to be handled. You may want to completely cancel your profile or keep it up for friends and family to visit. . . .
Give the social media executor a document that lists all the websites where you have a profile, along with your usernames and passwords.
While most people probably don’t need to go so far as to formally appoint a “social media executor,” it is still a good suggestion to keep a list of your online accounts–e-mail, social media, financial, etc.–and make sure that someone knows how to access that information if something happens to you. There are companies out there that will do this for you, but it could be as simple as keeping a piece of paper with the relevant information with your other estate planning documents.