Monthly Archives: February 2016

Do presidents forget to write their wills?

Even though more than 50% of US citizens still don’t have a will, you’d think that the presidents of the United States, with all of their legal advisors and staff, would definitely have protected their property by preparing one.

Not true – Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, William Garfield and Ulysses S. Grant did not!

Two presidents who did leave wills freed slaves in them. George Washington left his entire estate to his wife Martha. He requested that, upon her death, all of their 317 slaves should receive their freedom.

Thomas Jefferson actually freed some of his slaves in his will – 3 older men who worked for him for decades and two of Sally Heming’s four children.

Most other presidents left fairly standard wills, leaving their assets to family members, though a few left special bequests.

Richard Nixon bequeathed his personal diaries to the Richard Nixon Library and Thomas Jefferson gave his friend and former president James Madison his gold-mounted walking staff.

Regardless of what presidents have or have not done, you should definitely consider getting a will prepared today. Otherwise, the government will decide what happens to your assets, not you.

For more information about wills and other end-of-life planning, go the www.diesmart.com.

What’s UFADAA and why should you care?

We’ve talked several times about the importance of managing your digital assets and making sure your loved ones will be able to access them when you’re gone.

UFADAA stands for Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. It was developed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and is a recommended act that all states are encouraged to enact. The first approved version of the act did not meet the needs of the states and very few of them approved it. However, in late 2015, a revised act was passed. It has several important points:

It gives internet users control. It allows users to specify whether their digital assets should be preserved, distributed to heirs or destroyed.
It provides efficient uniformity for all concerned. Digital assets cross state lines. A uniform law ensures that fiduciaries (the people who are appointed to manage our property when we die or are unable to manage it ourselves) in every state will have equal access to digital assets and custodians will have a single legal standard with which to comply.
It respects privacy interests. It prevents the companies that store our communications from releasing them to fiduciaries unless the user consented to disclosure.
It works hand-in-hand with federal and state law. Fiduciaries must provide proof of their authority in the form of a certified document. Custodians of digital assets that comply with a fiduciary’s apparently authorized request for access are immune from any liability under statutes that prohibit unauthorized access. A fiduciary’s authority over digital assets is limited by federal law, including the Copyright Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

19 states are considering passing a law that encompasses at least some of what was recommended in the revised UFADAA. You should contact your representatives and urge them to enact this legislation. It will make it much easier for you to manage the digital estate of a loved one after he or she has died.

For more information about UFADAA and other issues related to your digital estate, check out our book ACCESS DENIED: WHY YOUR PASSWORDS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS YOUR WILL.

Do you know what your digital assets are worth…and what happens to them when you die?

A 2013 estimate by McAfee found that the average person’s digital assets are worth $35,000. That may be in things such as airline miles, purchased media, online bank accounts, Bitcoins, domain names. Regardless of what they are in, their value can add up quickly.

As my attorney put it, “The digital world is today’s Wild West. There are no sheriffs and no predictable law.” Yet you have to find a way to protect these assets and to pass their worth on when you die.

A recent blog by Sharon Fisher gave some great examples of people who didn’t do anything and what happened when they were gone.

A son gave up about $2000 that resided in a PayPal account because his father hadn’t left a will granting him possession to those funds.

Michael Hamelin, a hacker who died in an accident had secured his family’s systems so well that even with the help of other hacker friends, his wife hasn’t be able to gain access to some of their files, including the only copies of digital photos they owned.

Peggy Bush, who we previously wrote about, was a Canadian widow who was told by Apple that she’d have to get a court order for the company to reveal the password to an iPad card game she and he husband linked to play.

In addition to policies of each company that has an online presence, laws vary by state. It’s a very complex situation.

Be sure you have a plan for how to deal with your digital assets. Check out our book, ACCESS DENIED: WHY PASSWORDS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS YOUR WILL, which will walk you thru the issues and help you to figure out what to do.

The Mushroom Death Suit – almost ready for use

We’ve reported before on unique ways to dispose of someone’s body after death. However, a friend found a new one that already has people lining up to use it – The Mushroom Death Suit. The brainstorm of Jae Rhim Lee, it’s a burial suit that contains mushroom spoors. They will be able to “eat” your body and neutralize its toxins after you’ve been buried. The suit will prevent toxins in the human body from being released into the environment after death and is also intended to help deliver nutrients to plant roots more quickly and efficiently.

The first real user of this suit will be Dennis White, a 63-year-old man suffering from a neurodegenerative disease. He hopes that this will make his death a greener process.

The Infinity Burial suit (the other name for this product) is available in pod form for animal burials as well.

Whether the suit will actually work in practice is yet to be seen…but it’s certainly an interesting idea.

For more information about traditional and non-traditional ways to dispose of a body after death, go to www.diesmart.com.