The New Estate Planning That’s Critical for Clients

Last month a social-media website alerted me that a friend was celebrating over 30 years on the job at the company she founded. It was a nice thought. But she passed away several years ago after succumbing to cancer.

Digital echoes occur all the time on the Internet. After pausing a moment with a warm memory of my friend, I wondered what to do, whether it was my place to notify someone. Apparently, she had neglected to leave instructions with her executor.

In this case it was no harm, no foul. But “cyber intestacy”—or the failure to provide for one’s online presence at death—can cost families real money, just as when someone dies without a will, or “intestate.” That’s especially so as wealth management goes paperless and there are fewer, visible clues about the financial decisions of others.

Financial advisers should get out in front of this problem. That is what clients expect from advisers in the first place—the planning, the preparation for the unforeseen. Because at its core, wealth management is a business of tomorrows.

And the tomorrows can get complicated when clients haven’t planned for their online estates or left clear records about their digital footprints. Automatic payments continue to repeat after their deaths. Or credit cards go unpaid. Or good-until-cancelled orders execute. Or heirs struggle to access treasured photographs, domain names and medical records.