On death, digital assets, DIY wills, and dead man's switches.

So here's a fun little thing I did back in August with Muhammad Alif and Liyana Syahirah, when we sat down and had a chat about how our digital assets can be dealt with after our inevitable demise: https://lnkd.in/gFWHMc4B.

When we die, dealing with traditional assets (e.g. an apartment, a car, money in a bank account, a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, the list goes on) is relatively straightforward.¹

But the picture gets more complicated with intangible assets or items. How does one deal with, for example...
a) cryptocurrency (whether in a hot or cold wallet)?
b) stocks held in an online brokerage (like Interactive Brokers / Moomoo)?
c) social media accounts (Facebook / YouTube / LinkedIn)?

That's too much ground to cover in a single post. But for now, apart from what's been shared in the docuseries, I suggest below some practical tips.

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1️⃣ Get a will done professionally.

Look, I know that this is a bog-standard suggestion. But you'll be surprised how many folks:
a) still haven't gotten this sorted out;²
b) choose to DIY their wills;³ or
c) mix up wills with Lasting Powers of Attorney⁴ / Advance Care Planning⁵.

And for those of us with digital assets, we may want to speak with a (legal) professional who actually has some practical experience dealing with them, instead of someone who merely conducts a form-filling exercise.

2️⃣ Set up a dead man's switch.⁶

A dead man's switch is "a switch that is designed to be activated or deactivated if the human operator becomes incapacitated, such as through death [or] loss of consciousness..."⁷

So a common practical problem we face is this. We want our loved ones to be able to access our digital assets when we pass, and such access may require them to possess details such as usernames and passwords.⁸

But on the other hand, we don't necessarily want to provide them with this information right now, while we're still alive. After all, many of us would have an expectation of privacy, and these details might change over time.

So one solution would be to:
a) draft an email to our loved ones, containing such information;
b) set the email to be sent out at a later date;⁹
c) set calendar reminders indicating the date and time on which the scheduled email will be sent out;
d) closer to the scheduled date, upon seeing the calendar reminders, cancel the scheduled email and set a new email containing updated details to be sent out at a later date; and
e) repeat (c) and (d) regularly.

Not technically complicated, doable from the comfort of your own home, and free of charge. Just don't forget to reset the switch regularly.

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Many thanks as well to Renee Poh, Ashleigh Sim, Jordan Lee, Shawna Siow, Jamie Koh, and T Kumar of The Straits Times, and Ju Er Wong (formerly of Covenant Chambers LLC) for the hard work and support behind the scenes.