W hat did we do before the internet? Before the invention of the world wide web, if we wanted food we had to go the shops to buy it, if we wanted to do banking we had to go into a branch, and if we wanted to correspond with friends, it meant picking up the telephone or putting pen to actual (rather than virtual) paper. The ‘network of networks’ which we currently recognise as the internet has been with us since 1990 when Sir Tim Berners Lee invented the World Wide Web. It has now developed to a point where we barely need to leave the comfort of our own homes to work or play, and almost every aspect of our lives can be managed online. Pretty much whatever you want to do, or as Apple’s saying goes ‘there’s an app for that!’
Every online account provider has different procedures for dealing with accounts once someone has passed away, but perhaps the most important point to make is that if your executors are unaware of the account, they won’t be able to deal with it, and this could mean that your Beneficiaries would be denied some of their rightful inheritance, simply because your Executors didn’t know the account existed. Whilst most accounts involving third parties such as gambling accounts and online auction accounts will be accessible eventually, digital currency holdings could prove more difficult. Bitcoin in particular prides itself on being entirely outside of the banking system as it is held directly by the individual. Without either the encrypted access key, or the seed key if the currency is kept in a digital wallet, Beneficiaries could be in the horrible position of perhaps knowing of the existence of the asset, but having no ability to access it!
No matter what your experience of, or feelings towards technology, it’s now almost impossible to avoid as it increasingly becomes an accepted part of our everyday lives. Most of us now have online bank accounts, and many of us have a far greater online presence with accounts for online auction sites, investment portfolios, gambling accounts and maybe even digital wallets containing Bitcoins or some other digital currency. Many of us will use accounts like these, and in some circumstances the owner will be the only one aware of their existence, and this poses an interesting question; what happens to these assets if anything should happen to us?
3 6 | S C R U T T O N B L A N D | P E R S O N A L F I N A N C E S
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online