Together with The Link, SYK Partner, Victoria Blachly is presenting on recent Oregon and national legislation regarding digital assets and how to plan accordingly.
Do you have bank or investment account statements delivered to you online because businesses are encouraging or even pressuring customers to go paperless? Do you have hundreds if not thousands of photographs of your charming family or adorable pets stored online? Do you post to any online social media accounts that tell part of the story of your personal or professional life? What happens to those accounts or assets when you die or become incapacitated? Does the personal representative have the authority or ability to access those accounts and try to put the pieces of a financial picture back together? Can those photographs be copied and delivered to the grieving family left behind? Should certain accounts or information be deleted, particularly if a protected person is being targeted online or identity theft is an issue? Even if an authorized user has the password to access an online account, is that a fraudulent cybercrime by misrepresenting to the end user who you are? All of these questions lead to one inescapable issue: The internet is outrunning the law.
It’s a policy decision: It’s about CHOICE. Do US citizens want large corporations to decide what happens to their online accounts when they die or become incapacitated or do they want the freedom to plan and pick options for what happens to their online accounts? And if people decide to ignore the problem and assume someone will put the pieces together when they die, then there needs to be a way to do that, because currently the large online companies hold all of the cards.
Register for the March 11, 5:30 PM event at SYK through The Link for Women or contact mrobinson@samuelslaw.com