Your online activities should not be overlooked when making a will, advises Alison Turner, tax manager with DSH, Maidstone-based accountants and business advisors

Most people use a will to determine how their estate will be distributed and their affairs wound up after their death, but few think about their online estate – email, online banking, payment and shopping accounts, Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts.

Much of our online activity exists in a digital virtual world and does not leave a paper trail. As these accounts often hold important financial and confidential personal information, friends and family will want these accounts to be closed down as quickly as possible.

It is also important to protect against identity fraud. Social media accounts carry a lot of personal information and inactive social media and online accounts are vulnerable to exploitation by criminals to create fake identities. Dealing with identity fraud not only takes a long time but coupled with bereavement, adds considerable stress on to friends and family.

The obvious solution is to write passwords and pin numbers into your will and lodge it with a solicitor. But it should be remembered that once probate is granted, the will becomes a public document and information contained therein freely available to anyone requesting a copy.

To prevent disclosure, the executor needs to act quickly to change passwords and pin numbers in advance of probate. If the will is lodged with a solicitor, each time it is updated a codicil will be required. This can prove an onerous and costly business.

A second option is to put the information in a letter or document that can be left with a solicitor, trusted friend or family member. Although this may prove a cheaper alternative, updating it on a regular basis to ensure its currency can still prove awkward.

Current advice is to maintain your own secure list of passwords and pin numbers, and to leave instructions explaining where it is kept and how it may be accessed, in the will or in a letter lodged with a solicitor, trusted friend or family member.

Such a letter may also prove useful if for some reason you become unable to manage your affairs and have set up a Lasting Power of Attorney.

Although this seemingly contradicts current advice that we should keep passwords and pin numbers secret and not to write them down, failure to do so makes it an almost impossible task for the executor to deal with a deceased’s accounts.

Contact DSH on 01622 690666 or visit www.dsh.co.uk.