by Julia Walker
Do Not Let Your Digital Life Die with You
Today, so much of what once existed in material form now lives entirely online. Our photos, finances, business operations, and even our identities are stored on devices and platforms and in cloud accounts. Without proper planning, these valuable digital assets can easily be lost or become inaccessible after we die.
As a sign of the times and how deeply virtual and physical life have merged, most of us no longer distinguish between assets we can touch and those that exist only online. You cannot put cryptocurrency in your back pocket, but you can move it instantly via the phone that is in your pocket. You cannot walk into your e-commerce store, but it can generate thousands in income each month for you, and that money flows directly into your online accounts where you never physically see a dollar or cent.
Digital assets are every bit as real and valuable as traditional property—sometimes even more so. Yet many people do not treat them that way in their estate plan. Your plan may account for your home and heirlooms, but what about your Venmo balance, web domains, or crypto wallets?
A Day in the (Digital) Life
Think about how many digital assets you interact with on a daily basis. Your smartphone unlocks to reveal years’ worth of photos, messages, authentication codes, and logins. You can go online to check banking and investment apps, pay bills, move money through PayPal or Venmo, and access cloud storage, subscriptions, rewards programs, and digital wallets. By day’s end, you have used dozens of digital accounts, some holding real monetary value, others containing irreplaceable personal history. Yet most people do not recognize that these items are part of their overall estate.
A recent Bryn Mawr Trust survey found that Americans now place an average value of nearly $200,000 on their digital assets, and 79 percent say that protecting those assets is important—almost identical to the 78 percent who feel that way about traditional financial assets.[1] However, only 44 percent of those working with financial advisors say that the topic of digital assets and digital estate planning has ever been raised.[2]
People also underestimate the size of their digital footprint. Respondents to the same survey reported having anywhere from a handful to approximately 250 digital accounts, and many could not even estimate how many files they have.[3]
● Twenty-nine percent say they feel very or somewhat knowledgeable about digital assets.
● Twenty-one percent say they have only “a little knowledge.”
● Twenty-seven percent have heard the term digital assets but know almost nothing about it.
● Fifteen percent have never heard the term.[4]
If any of these findings hit home for you, you may be facing one of the major conundrums of the digital world: We constantly interact with digital assets but often have no idea what they actually are, let alone how to protect them.
So what exactly counts as a digital asset today?
Defining Digital Assets
Digital assets include any electronically stored pieces of information you own, use, control, or derive value from as well as the accounts, platforms, and devices where that information is stored. They generally fall into several categories:
● Personal communications and media: emails, text messages, digital photos and videos, social media profiles
● Creative and intellectual property: blogs, websites, domain names, digital artwork, nonfungible tokens (NFTs)
● Financial and asset-based accounts: online bank and brokerage accounts, crypto wallets, payment apps
● Business and commercial digital assets: e-commerce stores, bookkeeping and payroll platforms, monetized social media
● Subscription and licensed digital property: e-books, digital movies and music, gaming libraries
● Security and authentication tools: password managers, authenticator apps, encrypted drives
● Records, data, and personal identity: online statements, tax and medical portals, biometric identifiers
● Rewards and loyalty programs: airline miles, hotel points, credit card rewards
● Digital memorabilia and archived content: genealogy accounts, cloud-stored archives
● Connected devices: smartphones, tablets, computers, smart home devices tied to cloud accounts
Living in our digital world, differentiating between a digital asset and a traditional asset is not as obvious as it might seem. With so much of our lives now online, it is a bit like asking a fish, “What is water?” We are so immersed in digital assets, we almost do not perceive them for what they are: distinct assets that require a distinct protection plan.
How to Protect Digital Assets in Your Estate Plan
Even if you understand what digital assets are, they can be easy to overlook in your estate plan. Here are some of the most common digital risks and the practical steps you can take to address them.
Not knowing what digital assets you own. Most people do not realize how much of their life runs through digital channels. Creating a complete digital asset inventory is the first step toward securing your digital legacy.
What you can do:
● Walk through a typical day, then a week, then a month.
● Write down every digital touchpoint: apps, accounts, bills, subscriptions, cloud storage, and financial platforms.
● Add these items to your digital asset inventory.
Losing access to your own digital accounts (and leaving loved ones locked out later). Without a clear plan, loved ones may never recover important digital property, from payment app balances to cryptocurrency to unused reward points.
What you can do:
● Go through each account in your digital asset inventory.
● Store access instructions (not passwords) securely.
● Let someone you trust know where your inventory and access instructions are stored.
Losing irreplaceable photos, videos, messages, and personal history. If everything lives on one device or inside a locked cloud account, your priceless memories may disappear forever.
What you can do:
● Designate Apple or Google legacy contacts to allow approved access after death.[5]
● Back up important media to a secure shared folder accessible to a spouse or trusted family member or advisor.
● Periodically review what is stored only on your phones, computers, tablets, or private accounts and move critical items to a protected backup or shared account.
Executors facing access barriers during estate settlement. Executors need access to your bills, statements, or important online documents but may be blocked without the right authority.
What you can do:
● Appoint a digital executor (or coexecutor).
● Tell your executor which accounts they may need to access during administration so they know what to look for and where to begin.
● Ensure that your will or trust gives them explicit access rights.
Identity theft or fraud after death. Criminals often target the deceased, taking advantage of dormant accounts or publicly available probate information.
What you can do:
● Maintain an updated digital asset list so your executor knows what to secure or close quickly.
● Consider using a living trust to avoid probate court after your passing and reduce the public exposure that goes with it.
● Ensure that your executor (or digital executor) knows how to notify credit bureaus and freeze the credit file immediately after death.
Weak cybersecurity that puts your estate (and loved ones) at risk. Simple mistakes such as weak passwords, no multifactor authentication (MFA), or storing sensitive details in unprotected files create vulnerabilities now and later.
What you can do:
● Use MFA and a reputable password manager for stronger security.
● Document your MFA methods (backup codes, authenticator apps) in a secure, nonpublic place so a spouse or other trusted contact can use them in an emergency.
● Never write passwords in your will. Instead, ensure that your will or trust names a digital executor or trustee and grants them the necessary access rights.
Bring Your Digital Estate into the 21st Century
We are living in a digital world; an estate plan that is not purposefully designed to protect digital assets is incomplete and out of date.
If your estate plan has not been revisited in the past few years with an eye toward safeguarding your digital legacy, it needs attention. For help bringing your estate plan into the 21st century, schedule a time to talk with us.
[1] Jamie Hopkins, Bryn Mawr Trust Survey Reveals Americans Value Digital Assets at $191,516 on Average, but Gaps Exist in Digital Asset Awareness and Estate Planning, Bryn Mawr Tr. (Dec. 5, 2024), https://www.bmt.com/news-insights-events/bryn-mawr-trust-survey.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Roger Fingas, Who Handles Your Death Better? Google, Facebook, and Apple Compared, Android Auth. (Jan. 16, 2022), https://www.androidauthority.com/data-after-death-google-facebook-apple-3088700.
2022-06-06 by susanhuntlaw
The road to retirement is a long one, and, like any journey, it can help to have a few key milestones along the way to gauge progress. While individual retirement plans and goals are unique, based on income, family situation, and desired lifestyle, most follow a common path with similar markers. Retirement milestones are based on age, as well as important dates and deadlines related to Social Security benefits, Medicare, and tax-advantaged retirement plans.
Side note: if you are a business owner, your primary investments are going to be in your business and you can turn it into a self-generating machine, running without you for extended amounts of time. At first, this may be just to take vacations or handle emergencies, but eventually you'll want to have the freedom to retire entirely, sell the company, or transfer it to the next generation. If this is your situation, your retirement milestones will be different than those shared here.
However, for those who work for someone else, or whose income is otherwise dependent on being employed, consider these milestones on your road to retirement.
The key to having a comfortable retirement is by saving as much as possible as early in your career as you can. Time, tax breaks, and compounding interest all add up; by getting into the habit of saving when you are young, it will be exponentially easier to reach vital retirement goals as you get older.
One of the most important things you can do at this age is to take full advantage of employer-sponsored retirement accounts, such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s, IRAs and other tax-advantaged plans, especially if your employer offers a match. A common rule of thumb is that you should save at least 15% of your pre-tax income each year. If that's not possible, then save as much as you can, and at least enough to get the full benefit of your employer's matching contribution if one is offered.
For 2022, you can contribute up to $20,500 to your 401(k) or 403(b) plan, while the contribution limit for both traditional IRA and Roth IRAs is $6,000. Since you are likely to be in the workforce for several decades, you'll have a higher tolerance for market volatility and risk, so you may want to consider investing with a focus on maximizing growth, rather than taking a more conservative approach.
Once you reach 50, you are likely in your peak earning years. This means you should be taking advantage of the extra income and maxing out your contributions to tax-advantaged retirement accounts. The IRS even helps out here, allowing those age 50 and older to make an extra annual "catch-up" contribution.
In 2022, the catch-up contribution limit for a 401(k) or 403(b) is $6,500, which gives you a total contribution limit of $27,000 annually. For traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, the catch-up contribution is capped at $1,000, equaling a total limit of $7,000 annually.
At this point, you are likely nearing retirement age and will have less tolerance for risk. You may want to consider revisiting your retirement portfolio — it may be the right time to start shifting away from investing for growth, focusing instead on a more conservative strategy. And, If you haven't already, it is probably time to find a financial advisor who can support you in planning for and reaching your retirement savings goals.
Although you generally must wait until age 59 ½ to make withdrawals from your 401(k) without incurring a 10% penalty, the IRS allows for a "separation of service" exception for certain workers. Also known as the Rule of 55, if you quit, were laid off, or otherwise terminated from your job during or after the year you turn 55, you can take withdrawals from your 401(k) or 403(b) penalty-free from the account associated with that job.
You are still required to pay income taxes on any withdrawals from your 401(k) or 403(b) in the year they are taken. IRAs are also not eligible for this exception — for those accounts, you must still wait until age 59 ½ to take withdrawals without any penalty.
Outside of the "separation of service" exception, this is the age when you can begin taking withdrawals from your retirement account without the 10% early withdrawal penalty. These are the years of freedom - you are welcome to make penalty-free withdrawals from your retirement account starting at this age, but you are not yet required to.
Though not subject to a 10% penalty, all withdrawals from your retirement accounts are subject to federal income taxes in the year you make them. You may want to plan ahead, setting aside some of the withdrawal to pay taxes.
62 is the earliest age you can begin claiming Social Security retirement benefits. However, the earlier you claim your Social Security, the more reduced your monthly payment may be. Depending on your date of birth, your monthly benefit can be reduced by as much as 30% if you begin taking it immediately. Conversely, your benefit amount increases each year that you wait to claim your benefits up until you turn 70.
The age at which you are eligible for 100% of your Social Security benefit is known as your full retirement age. The full retirement age used to be 65, but in 1983, the law changed and gradually pushed the full retirement age up to 67, depending on the year you were born. The dates below show your full retirement based on your birth year.
Year of birth: Age to receive full Social Security benefits
You can enroll in Medicare at any point during the seven-month period that begins three months before the month you turn 65. Medicare is our government's basic health insurance program for those age 65 or older.
Unless you are still covered by the health insurance of your employer or your spouse's employer, you should consider enrolling in Medicare during this seven-month window to cover expenses related to inpatient hospital care, doctor visits, outpatient care, and prescription drugs. If you do not enroll during this initial window, you may have to pay higher premiums should you choose to enroll later on.
If you plan to continue working after age 65 and are covered by your employer's health insurance plan (or your spouse's), speak with the employer and your benefits coordinator to see how signing up for Medicare would affect that coverage. Depending on the size of the employer, you may be entitled to a special enrollment period of up to eight months after the employer-tied coverage ends to sign up for Medicare with incurring a penalty.
As previously mentioned, the longer you wait to claim Social Security between your full retirement age and age 70, the higher your benefits will be. In fact, your benefits increase by 8% for each year you wait between your full retirement age and 70. But once you reach 70, your benefits no longer increase, so don't put off filing for Social Security past this age.
Once you reach age 72, you are required by law to begin taking distributions from tax-deferred retirement accounts, such as a 401(k), 403(b), and traditional IRA. These are known as required minimum distributions (RMDs), and your first distribution must be taken by April 1 of the year you turn 72. Thereafter, annual withdrawals must be taken by December 31 of each year. Note: RMDs don't apply to Roth IRAs, because contributions to these accounts are made with after-tax dollars.
It's extremely important to stay on top of your RMDs — if you miss one, you could owe a penalty of up to 50% of the amount you should have withdrawn. The amount you're required to withdraw will depend on the balance in your account and your life expectancy as defined by the IRS.
To calculate your RMD, visit the IRS website and refer to the table in IRS Publication 590-B. From there, locate your age in the table, and find the "life expectancy factor" that corresponds to your age. Then divide your retirement account balance (as of December 31st of the previous year) by your current life expectancy factor. This should give you the amount of your RMD.
When preparing for your senior years, it's not enough to simply hope for the best. You should treat retirement planning as if your life depended on it—because it does. Without an effective plan, you risk a future of financial struggle, limited options, dependence and stress. The stakes could hardly be higher.
The best way to ensure a comfortable retirement is to start planning and saving as soon as possible. It is also critical to seek the guidance and support of professionals who can help you develop strategies to maximize your investments and savings, while minimizing taxes and avoiding common pitfalls. If you need help finding a financial advisor, just ask — we can introduce you to the experienced professionals we trust most. With their support and ours, you will have peace of mind that you and your family will be well-protected and well-planned for no matter what. Contact us today to get started.
2025-04-02 by Sue Hunt
Approximately three-fourths of Americans do not have a basic will.[1] Many of the same people also have children under the age of 18, which underscores a major misunderstanding about estate plans: They can accomplish much more than just handling financial assets (money, accounts, and property).
One of the most important estate plan functions for parents of minor children is the ability to provide specific guidance about how their children will be cared for and who will care for them in case something happens to the parents.
To account for all emergency contingencies concerning you and your children, your estate plan should form a comprehensive safety net that addresses your children's care needs and protects them from the unthinkable.
Three Tools You Need If You Have Minor Children
As parents, we instinctively strive to shield our children from harm and set them up for success, now and in the future.
While we cannot predict the future, we can prepare for it. Estate planning is a crucial step in this preparation, especially when minor children are involved. It is not only about distributing your money and property after your death; it is also about establishing ways to care for your children if you no longer can.
Your death or incapacity (inability to manage your affairs) from a sudden illness or accident is a situation that you would likely rather not think about but must consider in preparing for worst-case scenarios that could lead to a court deciding who cares for your child.
Data on parental mortality is sobering: More than 4 percent of minor children have lost at least one parent.[2] If you wait too long to create your estate plan, it could be too late. More than any other reason, Americans cite procrastination as the reason they do not have an estate plan.[3] Procrastinating on creating your estate plan could mean it will not be there when you—and your children—need it.
To safeguard your children's future, three estate planning tools are particularly important: a will, a power of attorney for minors, and a standalone nomination of guardian.
Last Will and Testament
A last will and testament (also known as a will) is a cornerstone of any estate plan, but it takes on added importance when you have minor children. Your will outlines your wishes regarding the distribution of your money and property after your death. It also allows you to do the following:
Power of Attorney for Minors
A power of attorney for minors, sometimes called a designation of standby guardian or something similar depending on the state, is a legal document that empowers a chosen individual (your agent or attorney-in-fact) to act for your minor child on your behalf. This person steps in to make decisions regarding your child's care if you become incapacitated or unavailable.
The power of attorney can grant the agent broad authority to handle various aspects of your child's life, including the following:
Although the power of attorney grants the agent significant authority, there are limits to what it permits. The agent cannot consent to the child's marriage or adoption. In addition, many state laws impose expiration dates on these documents (e.g., six months, one year), so it is important to review and update them regularly to ensure that they remain valid.
Revocable Living Trust
In addition to a power of attorney, nomination of guardian, and will, the parents of minor children might consider a revocable living trust that holds their accounts and property during their lifetime and distributes them after their death.
You (the parent) maintain control of the accounts and property in the trust while you are alive as the current trustee. You can change the trust's terms as needed because you are the trustmaker, and this type of trust is revocable. A revocable living trust can help avoid probate and give your children faster access to the resources they need. You can also specify how and when your children receive their inheritance, name a successor trustee to continue management of the trust if you suffer incapacity, and provide financial support for the guardian, further synergizing your estate plan.
How These Tools Work Together—and What Can Happen If You Do Not Plan
These three estate planning tools are not interchangeable; they are complementary and designed to work together to address immediate and long-term needs in a range of potential scenarios.
Imagine a scenario where both parents are in a car accident. One parent dies, and the other is severely injured and temporarily incapacitated. The agent named in the temporary power of attorney or delegation of standby guardian immediately steps in to temporarily care for the children.
If the injured parent passes away, the designated guardian (who may be the same person as the agent under the temporary power of attorney) named in the will or standalone document can provide the children with a stable permanent home. The will can be structured so that the children's inheritance is managed through a trust that specifies how and when their inheritances should be spent and distributed.
Failure to have any one of these estate planning tools can lead to complications and unintended consequences for your minor children. For example:
Other Planning Tools and Tips for Parents
Parents should understand that they can only nominate a guardian for their child, not legally appoint one; the court has the final authority to decide, though it gives significant weight to the parents' nomination.
If there is evidence that your chosen guardian is unfit or unable to provide proper care, the court may appoint a different guardian in the child's best interest, even if it goes against your wishes. There is also the chance that a family member could contest your guardianship choice or your first choice of guardian is unavailable.
These outcomes are unlikely, but since they could undermine your wishes, there are additional steps you can take to minimize the risk and strengthen your case.
Fitting Together the Pieces of Your Estate Plan
Each part of an estate plan has a role to play, but they work best when considered as parts of a larger plan that addresses big issues such as the well-being of your minor children.
A will, temporary power of attorney, and standalone guardian document are not interchangeable; they are complementary. Incorporating all three into your plan, alongside other strategies such as a revocable living trust and a letter of intent, addresses the immediate and long-term needs of your minor children in any eventuality.
If you have minor children, estate planning is a necessity. Do not leave your children's future to chance. Consult with us to create a multipoint plan that protects you and your family.
[1] Victoria Lurie, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, Caring (Feb. 18, 2025), https://www.caring.com/caregivers/estate-planning/wills-survey.
[2] George M. Hayward, New 2021 Data Visualization Shows Parent Mortality: 44.2% Had Lost at Least One Parent, U.S. Census Bureau (Mar. 21, 2023), https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/03/losing-our-parents.html.
[3] Lurie, supra note 1.
2025-02-04 by Sue Hunt
A home is often one of the most important assets that people own. Therefore, most people want to stay in their home until they die and then have a loved one receive it. One common way to pass a home to loved ones is through a will. However, transferring property with a will requires probate, which is generally considered a lengthy, costly, and public court process that many actively seek to avoid.
There are several ways an estate plan can transfer property without a will or probate court involvement when the owner passes away. In addition to a lifetime transfer of the property (by sale or gift), certain types of deeds can be used that take effect only upon the property owner's death and do not subject the property to probate. However, using these deeds for probate avoidance can potentially introduce new issues. A trust-based estate plan may be a better option if the goal is simply to avoid probate.
Home Ownership and Inheritance
We are living through one of the largest intergenerational wealth transfers in history. Roughly one in six Americans expect to receive an inheritance in the next 10 years, and among those, nearly half anticipate inheriting property such as a house.[1]
According to Pew Research, in 2021, nearly two-thirds of US households lived in a home they owned as their primary residence.[2] Homeowners have, on average, around $174,000 in equity in their homes—more than double the value of their next most valuable asset, retirement accounts, which have an average value of $76,000.[3]
Real Property, Legal Rights, and Trusts
A key concept in estate planning is honoring people's wishes by helping them control, as much as possible, what they own and what happens to it after their death.
An estate plan enables a homeowner to decide what happens to their property after they pass away, ensuring that it goes to the person (or people) they choose in a manner of their choosing, whether that means keeping it in the family and setting limits on its use or transferring the property to a beneficiary without restrictions.
Options for Transferring Real Property at Your Death
Estate planning is highly flexible, offering multiple ways to satisfy someone's wishes for what happens to their money and property when they die, each with a mix of benefits and downsides.
To avoid probate, there are many ways to transfer real property, both during the owner's lifetime and at their death. Some solutions can cost less than a trust, but as the examples below show, they can also have significant downsides and risks.
Deed-Based Transfers
A deed is a legal document that transfers real estate ownership from the current owner (the grantor) to another individual or entity (the grantee). Several types of deeds can be used to gift real property at the grantor's death. They include the following:
Again, not all of these types of deeds are legally valid in all states. An experienced estate planning attorney can explain what tools are available to you and discuss the benefits and potential risks.
Downsides to Using a Deed to Transfer Property at Your Death
There is no creditor protection for your beneficiaries. When a deed transfers property to a beneficiary, that property goes to the beneficiary outright. There are no strings attached and no protections. For instance, if the beneficiary were to receive the property during a bankruptcy proceeding, it might be used to satisfy the creditors because it is now considered the beneficiary's property.
There is no protection if the beneficiary is disabled or unable to manage their affairs. As previously mentioned, when the beneficiary receives the property, it is theirs. However, if they receive the property when they cannot manage their affairs, its management falls to another person. It may be handled by a court-appointed guardian or conservator or an agent under a financial power of attorney, who can do whatever they want with it (as long as it is in the incapacitated beneficiary's best interest). Also, if the beneficiary receives any means-based assistance, the sudden inheritance could jeopardize those benefits by placing the beneficiary above any applicable asset threshold.
There are no protections for you if you cannot manage your affairs. These deeds are a sufficient way to transfer property after you are deceased. However, if you cannot manage your affairs during your lifetime, the named beneficiary or remainderman has no access to or interest in the property to help you manage it until you pass away. You will have to rely on an agent under a financial power of attorney (if you have one) or a court-appointed guardian or conservator to manage the property on your behalf.
Your beneficiary is free to do what they want. As already discussed, if you use a deed to transfer ownership at your death, your beneficiary will receive the property outright. You cannot add any conditions or requirements regarding the property or its use. The beneficiary can sell, mortgage, or use it as a rental property (subject to applicable zoning restrictions). It is their property to do with as they please. Their intended use of the property may not align with your wishes.
Using a Trust to Transfer Real Property
While you may view your home as a place to live and not as an investment or financial vehicle, that perception can change when you pass away and the home passes to a loved one, particularly if that loved one already has a primary residence.
A beneficiary who inherits a home may decide to sell the property; turn it into a rental; renovate the property to use it as a farm or business; sell off individual structures on the property (such as a barn or historic structure); cash in on its natural resources (e.g., allow timber to be harvested); or even tear down the original home and build a new one in its place. When more than one beneficiary inherits the property, disagreements about how to best use it could arise.
You might not care what happens to your home when you are gone. However, if you want to set restrictions on its use for any reason—whether those reasons are sentimental or have the practical intent of reducing conflicts among multiple beneficiaries—you must use the right estate planning tool.
Consider placing your home in a living trust that legally owns the property, with you serving as a trustee and being the current beneficiary during your lifetime. This allows you to stay in your home—and maintain control over it—while you are alive. When you pass away, the home does not go through probate because you do not technically own it. Instead, a successor trustee assumes legal responsibility for the property and manages it or gives it away in accordance with your trust's terms.
The trust terms can be highly detailed, and limitations can be set on how the property can be used. You can stipulate, for example, that the property must be shared as a family vacation home and cannot be used for business purposes. You can require that the house be held in the trust until your minor children reach a certain age so they can remain in the home after your passing. While the trust owns the property, your terms will govern its use. As soon as the property is distributed from the trust, you lose all control over it.
The Best Way to Transfer Property for Every Situation
Estate planning is a highly personal process that must consider many factors, each of which can have multiple solutions that present a unique set of benefits and drawbacks.
Avoiding probate is usually just one estate planning consideration among many, and it may not be desirable in every situation.
Determining the best way to pass down real property at death depends on your preferences and family circumstances. An estate planning attorney can explain each available option and help you decide what is best for your situation.
[1] The "Great Wealth Transfer" is underway but nearly half expecting an inheritance are not ready to manage it, finds New York Life Wealth Watch Survey, New York Life, July 19, 2023, https://www.newyorklife.com/newsroom/2023/new-york-life-wealth-watch-great-wealth-transfer.
[2] Rakesh Kochhar and Mohamad Moslimani, 4. The assets households own and the debts they carry, Pew Research Center, Dec. 4, 2023, https://www.pewresearch.org/2023/12/04/the-assets-households-own-and-the-debts-they-carry.
[3] Id.
by Julia Walker
Well, that doesn’t seem right.
It usually starts with something small. A strange email from a bank you do not recognize. A new credit card account you do not remember opening. A password reset link you never requested. A notice from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that someone has already filed a tax return in your name.
At first there is confusion. No, there’s no way that’s right.
Then anxiety sets in. Am I being scammed?
After that, you may spend hours or days on the phone with banks, credit bureaus, and government agencies to reach an unsettling conclusion: Someone has my information and is pretending to be me.
Next comes anger, frustration, and a sense of violation. How could this happen?
Acceptance eventually sets in, along with a determination to never let scammers get the upper hand again. But sometimes it is too late. The damage has been done—to finances, reputation, peace of mind, and, sometimes, legacy.
Preventing cybercrimes such as identity theft starts with awareness, including the recognition that cybersecurity is not just an IT problem or something that affects businesses. It is a personal wealth preservation issue that can affect you not only now but also after you are gone, making it crucial to strengthen your digital defenses long before your estate reaches administration.
Scammers routinely target estates, executors, and grieving families, often by mining obituaries and public probate records to launch phishing, impersonation, and identity-theft schemes.
Growing Cyberthreats and Their Impact on Estate Planning
You may have started to take the first steps toward creating a digital estate plan, but that planning should also account for the growing risks that cybercriminals pose to both your assets and your legacy.
● Seventy-three percent of US adults have experienced some form of online scam or cyberattack. Most report weekly scam calls, text, and emails.[1]
● Americans reported 2.6 million fraud cases and 1.1 million identity-theft incidents to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2024. Losses exceeded $12.5 billion, a 25 percent increase over the prior year.[2]
● Identity theft is now one of the most common types of consumer fraud, with nearly 750,000 cases in the first half of 2025 alone.[3]
● Seventy-six percent of consumers say they feel more anxious about cybersecurity today than they did two years ago, driven by impersonation enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) and increasingly sophisticated scams.[4]
Cybercriminals now use AI-generated voice clones to impersonate loved ones, breached financial and medical data to answer security questions, and automated scraping of public records to target people with unnerving precision. You will very likely be targeted at some point and may have already been a victim of cybercrime. Even if you avoid direct harm during your lifetime, your estate and heirs may be more vulnerable after your death.
Why Estates Can Be Vulnerable to Cybercriminals
The FBI reports that in 2024, Americans over age 60 were the most frequently targeted demographic for online scams and fraud and lost the most money to cybercrimes.[5]
Fraud schemes targeting the estates of people who have passed away are another area of growing cybercrime concern.[6] As with older adults, estates, particularly those of seniors, are often perceived as holding substantial assets. The individuals and property involved with estate administration can also create unique vulnerabilities that attract cybercriminals.
● The loved ones left behind are often overwhelmed and distracted after a loved one’s death, making them more susceptible to scams. Cybercriminals use times of chaos, confusion, and heightened emotion to their advantage, preying on feelings such as fear, urgency, and trust during times when people may let their guard down.
● Executors may be unfamiliar with digital security, making phishing attempts more successful.
● Multiple parties (attorneys, advisors, banks, beneficiaries) are exchanging sensitive documents during estate administration, sometimes through unsecured or informal methods.
● The deceased person’s dormant accounts are often easy entry points for identity theft because they often go unmonitored, rely on outdated passwords, and may be tied to personal information that criminals can exploit before anyone realizes that there is a problem.
● Scammers routinely impersonate banks, government agencies, attorneys, or even the executor.
● Probate is public, giving criminals a ready-made list of heirs, contact information, and sometimes asset details.
Social engineering attacks—scams that use deception rather than technical hacking—that rely on sophisticated cybertools such as AI to exploit basic human psychology and manipulate people are on the rise.[7] And just as cybercriminals capitalize on natural disasters[8] and tech outages,[9] the estate administration process is a scenario that could provide the perfect opening for fraud and deception.
A Digital Defense Plan for Your Estate
You would not leave your physical property unsecured, but without a digital defense plan, you are essentially leaving the front door unlocked to cyberthieves, compromising your traditional and digital assets. Understanding points of vulnerability and taking a few simple precautions can help reduce your exposure to cybercrimes.
Issue: Email is the weakest link. Most cyberattacks begin with email.
● What you can do: Use strong passwords, multifactor authentication (MFA), and encrypted document-sharing platforms. Avoid sending unprotected sensitive materials, and encourage your executors to follow the same security practices when administering your estate.
Issue: Executors cannot secure what they cannot see. Unknown or dormant accounts often remain open and unmonitored, making them prime targets for takeover and identity theft.
● What you can do: Create a detailed inventory of important digital accounts and storage locations. Ensure that fiduciaries (such as your executors and advisors) know what accounts must be closed, monitored, or secured.
Issue: Sensitive legal and tax documents are insecurely stored or shared. Wills, statements, and tax documents often sit unprotected in inboxes or cloud folders.
● What you can do: Store documents securely using online encrypted folders or password-protected vaults, and ensure that fiduciaries know where to find documents and how to access them.
Issue: Executors may not be prepared for digital threats. Phishing attempts surge during estate administration, and many executors are unfamiliar with digital-security practices.
● What you can do: Name a tech-literate executor (or coexecutor) who is comfortable managing digital accounts and security protocols. Include with your estate planning documents a brief “executor security checklist” that outlines verification steps (such as confirming account ownership and access authority) and highlights common red flags, such as urgent payment requests, unexpected account changes, or requests for credentials.
Issue: Probate exposes personal information. Public probate court filings often disclose the names and contact information of executors and beneficiaries and may even include a list of assets with their values—information that scammers can easily weaponize.
● What you can do: Talk with your attorney about whether trust-based planning or other probate-avoidance tools can reduce public exposure of your estate and limit targeted fraud.
Issue: Heirs and beneficiaries are prime targets for impersonation scams. Criminals impersonate banks, attorneys, courts, or even executors to solicit money or sensitive data. For example, a scammer may send an email posing as the estate’s bank or attorney, claiming an urgent problem with an account and requesting immediate payment or login credentials from a beneficiary or executor.
● What you can do: Educate executors and beneficiaries about how to spot and avoid common scams[10] and establish a simple verification process for unexpected requests.
Issue: Identity theft of the deceased is common. Dormant and unmonitored accounts create easy entry points and are frequently hijacked after death. Criminals use a decedent’s information found in public records and online obituaries to open credit accounts, redirect mail, submit false change-of-address forms, or file fraudulent tax returns.
● What you can do: Develop a postdeath digital and identity-protection checklist for your estate and executor. This should include promptly notifying the major credit bureaus of the death, placing a credit freeze or fraud alert on the decedent’s credit file, forwarding and monitoring mail, filing the final tax return and IRS death notification, and quickly closing, consolidating, or memorializing unused online accounts and financial profiles.
Do Not Become a Cybercrime Statistic
Cybercrime statistics are sobering. We all know the risks of falling prey to online fraudsters, but when knowledge is not paired with action, it is an invitation for disaster. A proactive approach to cybersecurity rooted in awareness, preparation, and avoiding high-risk situations is key to securing your estate—and your legacy—in a digital world.
[1] Jeffrey Gottfried, Eugenie Park, & Monica Anderson, Online Scams and Attacks in America Today, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (July 31, 2025), https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/07/31/online-scams-and-attacks-in-america-today.
[2] New FTC Data Show a Big Jump in Reported Losses to Fraud to $12.5 Billion in 2024, Fed. Trade Comm’n (Mar. 10, 2025), https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/new-ftc-data-show-big-jump-reported-losses-fraud-125-billion-2024.
[3] Jack Caporal, Identity Theft and Credit Card Fraud Statistics for 2025, MotleyFoolMoney (Aug. 15, 2025), https://www.fool.com/money/research/identity-theft-credit-card-fraud-statistics.
[4] Vicky Hyman, When It Comes to Fraud, a Sense of Insecurity and Even Inevitability, Global Survey Shows, Mastercard Cybersecurity (Oct. 6, 2025), https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/stories/2025/consumer-cybersecurity-survey.html.
[5] Press Release, FBI, FBI Releases Annual Internet Crime Report (Apr. 23, 2025), https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-annual-internet-crime-report.
[6] Henry Rinder, Fraud Targeting the Elderly and Estates: A Growing Concern, NJCPA (Sept. 23, 2024), https://www.njcpa.org/stayinformed/news/blog/post/njcpa-focus/2024/09/23/fraud-targeting-the-elderly-and-estates--a-growing-concern.
[7] Michelle Maratto & Sana Hashmat, Unmasking Social Engineering: Protecting Your Wealth from Deceptive Cyber Tactics, J.P. Morgan Wealth Mgmt. (Oct. 1, 2025), https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/cybersecurity/phishing/unmasking-social-engineering-protecting-your-wealth-from-deceptive-cyber-tactics.
[8] Niamh Ancell, Cybercriminals Capitalize on LA Wildfire Chaos via Fake GoFundMe’s and Crypto Coins, Cybernews (Jan. 17, 2025), https://cybernews.com/cybercrime/cybercriminals-exploit-la-wildfires.
[9] Brian Fung & Sean Lyngaas, Hackers Are Already Taking Advantage of the CrowdStrike Outage Chaos, CNN Bus. (July 22, 2024), https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/22/tech/hackers-crowdstrike-outage-scams.
[10] How to Avoid Imposter Scams, Fed. Trade Comm’m Consumer Advice, https://consumer.ftc.gov/features/how-avoid-imposter-scams (last visited Dec. 22, 2025).
2026-06-10 by Julia Walker
Myth 7: My old life insurance policy is enough.
A life insurance policy that was adequate before you purchased a home may no longer be enough to meet your family’s financial needs following your death. Taking on a mortgage often creates a much larger financial obligation, and your coverage should be reviewed in light of that debt as well as ongoing costs such as property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and other household expenses. It is also important to consider whether your policy would provide enough support for your family’s day-to-day living expenses and longer-term goals if you were no longer here. If your coverage has not been updated, your loved ones may need to rely on savings, sell assets, or reconsider whether they can realistically afford to keep the home.
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