Digital Directives: The Advanced Directive You Haven’t Made Yet

When most of us think about advance care planning, we think about medical decisions: a living will, a healthcare proxy, choices about resuscitation or life support. You have these so that if you can't speak for yourself, the people who love you have directions about what kind of care you would or would not want.

But there's a whole part of modern life that traditional advance care planning doesn't touch: your digital footprint. Your digital footprint is your activity and your accounts on the internet. This could include:

• Your email.
• Your online banking and credit cards (including PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, CashApp).
• Your social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, etc.).
• Your photos, stored in the cloud.
• Document storage (Dropbox, Google Drive).
• Your digital subscriptions (Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Instacart, newspapers, iCloud, Duolingo, SiriusXM, Canva).
• Cryptocurrency.

If something happens to you, who can get into any of these accounts? For most of us, the honest answer is: no one, unless you've planned for it. A plan for your digital footprint is often called a digital plan or digital directive.

Why is this part of advanced care planning?

The goal of advance care planning is to make sure your wishes are known. This helps ensure that your decision makers aren’t burdened with guessing at a time that is already challenging. A digital plan has the same goal. This is important due to our digital footprints continuing to grow and technology always changing.   

Think about what your family would actually need to do if you couldn't manage things yourself, even temporarily. They may need to pay your bills, cancel subscriptions, access medical portals, notify your emergency contacts, or simply see a photo that only exists on your phone. Without a plan, they're often locked out completely, not because they don't have the right, but because they don't have the password, and the company won't just hand it over.

Many people assume that if something happens to them, a spouse or adult child can call Google or a bank and explain the situation. In practice, privacy laws make this much harder than it sounds. Most states have adopted a law called the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which gives a named agent a legal path to access digital accounts. But this can only happen if you have only if you've given permission in the right way. This is often in a will, trust, or power of attorney, or through a tool or form (also needing to be filled out BEFORE a crisis) the company or bank provides. Without that documentation, companies are legally required to protect your privacy, even from your own family.

This is a bigger gap than most people realize. Surveys have shown that fewer than 1 in 5 Americans have a plan for their digital assets. There's a real difference between meaning to do this and having actually done it.

Cryptocurrency Is Its Own Category

If you hold cryptocurrency, having a plan is essential. Unlike a bank account, there's no bank to call. If a private key or recovery phrase is lost, the assets are gone permanently. Nobody can reset the password or verify identity to unlock it. This isn't rare: analysts estimate that millions of bitcoin, worth an enormous amount of money, are already lost forever this way. This is because the only person who knew how to access them didn't write it down or save it anywhere, or died before they could share it with anyone. So, if you own crypto, a plan for how someone could access it is necessary.

Where do I start?

You don't need to hand over every password to every family member today. The goal is to plan for your digital assets and accounts before a crisis. Here are some steps to take to start planning for your digital directive

• Take an inventory: Start with taking stock of what you have with a digital footprint inventory. Make a list of the accounts that matter: financial, medical, email, social media, cloud storage, subscriptions, and any crypto or digital wallets. You don't have to list every password in this document, but you should note where they're stored.
• Identify a way to access things: A password manager with an emergency access feature lets a trusted person get in only when you've authorized it, without you having to share every password today. You may already be using built in tools through Google or Apple. There are also third party apps available to help you keep track of passwords and other important account information while also having emergency access features. You may want to have passwords backed up in two locations (like Apple and an app like Keeper).
• Make a document with clear instructions about who gets access to what, and when. This may be many people for different accounts or functions; one to manage social media accounts, your financial power of attorney to manage your banking, credit cards and crypto, you healthcare proxy to have access to your health portal. This can also give folks access only to things they need to act for you and your best interest.
• Get it in writing with legal support. A digital directive works best with, not instead of, your will, power of attorney, and healthcare proxy. An estate planning attorney can help make sure your digital instructions are legally enforceable where you live, since laws vary by state.

Key Takeaways

Advance care planning helps you decide what matters to you, and helps the people you love from having to guess during a moment when guessing is the hardest thing to do. Putting it in writing is important. A digital directive is the same process, applied to a part of life that's become just as real, and just as valuable, as anything else you'd plan for.

This article is for general information and isn't legal advice. Laws about digital assets vary by state. A lawyer who specializes in estate planning can help you understand any local or state laws and help you with a digital advance care planning document.