A Mind Blown Monday Meandering

I attended some work training last week for my day job, and one of the classes touched on something I had never considered.

What happens to your digital rights when you die?

1. What happens to all those songs or movies or books you've downloaded iTunes?
2. What about the HUGE library of ebooks and audiobooks you've downloaded from Amazon and Audible and B&N or Kobo?
3. Does your husband--or the grown child who will be the executor for your wills in the event you die at the same time--have access to your passwords? 

Number 3 above poses all kinds of questions that can come back and bite you.

• If there's royalty money in your authorly PayPal account when you die, how will your spouse or significant other get the money out if s/he doesn't have your password?
• Would your spouse be able to access your webpage account to keep it going if s/he doesn't have your password?
• What about what you have on your blog or Facebook or Twitter or Google+ or any other of the myriad social media outlets folks have their fingers in these days?

The instructor suggested that we do the following:

• Create an inventory of our digital assets--store it in a secure way.
• Provide instructions about disposition.
• Obtain competent estate planning advice.

He also counseled everyone to read those terms of service/usage that we automatically click agree to just so we can move on to actually using the site.

And did you know you can keep on tweeting after you die?

Click here to find out how.

On a serious note, this class got me thinking. It's time for hubby and me to redo our wills. We no longer have to worry about how to care for minor children, but there are other but still equally daunting issues we need to get down on paper.

What about you? Had you ever considered your digital rights and whether or not you can bequeath them to someone?

FYI--the Kindle books are only licensed for your use and cannot be bequeathed to anyone. Same for those tunes you've downloaded.