If you’re like most people today, chances are that you have multiple active email accounts with hundreds – possibly even thousands – of messages stored on your computer hard drive or on remote servers. You probably also have numerous other online presences – a Facebook profile, Twitter account, photos on Picasa or Flickr, and various online accounts for bill paying, account management, or other services, just to name a few. If so, these digital profiles have become an integral part of how you live, but have you given any thought to what will happen to them when you die?

The law in this area is unsettled, to say the least. As a general rule, email and electronic correspondence is your property and you can leave it to whomever you like in your will. However, it will be difficult for your executor or other family members to retrieve your email unless they have your account information and password(s). For example, Gmail will provide the contents of a deceased user’s email account on a case-by-case basis, after a lengthy application process. Similarly, Hotmail will release information on a deceased or incapacitated user’s account to the user’s executor, agent under a power of attorney, or next of kin only upon submission of a long list of information and supporting documentation. So, even without your password, family members may be able to obtain the contents of your email accounts after your death – but would you really want them to? Email can be a private, personal form of communication, and you may not want your spouse or remaining family members to have access to your correspondence. In any case, you should consider naming a “digital executor” – whether a family member or a trusted friend – to deal with your online email accounts after your death.

Facebook and other social networking services are not as private as email accounts, since they are intended to be interactive, used and viewed by friends and contacts. Policies vary – for example, there are two options on Facebook – the deceased user’s account can be deleted, or the account may be “memorialized” and kept open as a tribute. In either case, however, Facebook will not release login information, so the deceased user’s profile cannot be accessed, changed, or updated. LinkedIn, on the other hand, will only delete the deceased user’s account upon submission of a Verification of Death Form. Give some thought to your intentions for your social networking accounts after your death and, again, consider naming a “digital executor” to carry out these intentions.

If you maintain a blog, website, or other active internet content, you should also plan for its administration after your death. Online service providers and web hosting services are reluctant to release login information to family members or even executors of deceased users. For this reason, it is important to develop a plan for any such internet content. Again, a designated “digital executor” can deal with these accounts on your behalf after your death.

Now that you’ve considered what could happen to your online presence after death, you should take steps to plan for it – but, where to begin? First, prepare a list or inventory of all of your various digital accounts and the account information and passwords you use to access them. Next, you should compile this information – including account numbers, user IDs, passwords, names and locations of important files, and instructions about handling files – and store it in a secure location, whether in writing or on a flash drive or other electronic media. Remember to update this information regularly. You should also consider updating your will and powers of attorney to name a “digital executor” to handle this information. Obviously, this person should be comfortable with technology, and may or may not be the same person you have named to manage the rest of your estate. Finally, you should let your “digital executor” know where you have stored your account information, how s/he can access it upon your death or incapacity, and what s/he should do with your accounts and files.

Again, the law in the this area is far from settled, so as with all estate planning issues, you should consult with an attorney to ensure that your digital presence will be secure and handled according to your wishes after your death.