As an entrepreneur, you’ve always had your eye on the future — and that’s paid off with a successful business that provides well for your family and keeps numerous people employed.
Have you considered what will happen if you’re suddenly no longer around? Or what might happen if you’re incapacitated? Your family — and your company — could be left in the lurch unless you have the right estate plans in place.
Digital assets sometimes get forgotten when estate plans are made
In an era where one’s digital assets and online identities are often deeply entangled with one’s business, it’s important to address these things in your estate plans. This doesn’t just include access to your company’s bank accounts, but things like:
- Your company’s actual website and email account
- Domain names that you or your company owns that may not yet be in use
- Social media accounts attached to the business, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
- Blogs and articles that you have published to increase your company’s authority and drive up your search engine results
- Apps that your company has produced either for entertainment or customer convenience
- Cryptocurrency accounts or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that your company owns
- Cloud accounts that store photos, documents, graphics, logos and more
Unless you have laid out careful, clear plans that allow someone else to access, control and — eventually — inherit those items, everything you’ve built up could be in danger of falling apart. It’s not enough to merely write down usernames and passwords for your successors. Instead, you need to understand how ownership of these items can eventually change hands.
Learning more about your estate planning options can help you protect everything you’ve built — and the people you love the most.