by Laurie Siebert, CPA, CFP^®, AEP^®, Senior Vice President
I attended the Estate Planning Council of the Lehigh Valley’s recent “Estate Planning in a World of Rapidly Advancing Technology” seminar. What I learned is that you cannot ignore the implications of technology in the way we hold, access, retain, share and use it for financial or personal transactions and storage. Assuming that your personal representatives will have the ability to manage your internet of “things” may be costly. In any number of ways, accounts that may be accessible by user identification and passwords, may no longer be accessible if the account is closed. This could happen when credit cards linked to the accounts are notified of the death and they become frozen. Work with your attorney to make sure that your personal representatives will have the required permissions or strategies to manage your digital world.  Leave a roadmap of your online footprint for your personal representatives as well.  We strongly encourage everyone to take an inventory of the way you use technology, how to access it, what information or monetary value may be buried and on what devices.