Before the advent of the Internet, when a person passed away or became incapacitated, family members or the executor of the Will would located the decedent’s personal and financial information in folders other tangible records found throughout the home. Photographs, letters, account information, etc. were all located physically in print. Today, you are more likely to find personal effects on the decedent’s social media accounts, like Facebook. Does your family know your password? In most cases, they do not.
While Facebook has terms of use for these situations, they may not accomplish what the decedent’s desires. As a result, people are now writing what is being called a Social Media Will which outlines the ownership (or deletion) of online information about them after their death. This can also be accomplished through your regular will or trust. As more and more people move their personal and financial information online protecting digital assets is becoming increasingly important. It is not only important for your family – we’ve all heard of cases where a “friend suggestion” of a deceased person pops up reopening the hurt, but also the risk of personal financial information to be obtained by hackers – this is especially likely when the information is no longer being monitored because of the owner’s death.
In the eyes of the law 
This is an interesting post. I have actually not heard of this. Personally, I probably would not do this. Any information about me that is needed after I pass could probably be attained fairly easy without the help of any social media I may be using. Also, by the time anyone in my generation, or even the generation before me passes away, the current social media will probably cease to exist, and a new form of it will be invented. Popular social media cites, generally don’t last too long. ‘Inside my mind’ is now something nobody knows of, ‘myspace’ has become a very old term and was probably popular for about four years or so. Facebook and twitter may last a few more years and the other social media cites I can think of really don’t contain much useful information about that person.
I never thought about what happens to our online presence once we are dead. I agree with Rachael in that our social media profiles would not be a problem since they won’t last forever. I’m not sure how our personal financial records can be hacked once we are dead.Like are you talking about our bank records or shopping accounts? Because if so, than it would not matter if hackers obtained this information since our banks would stop our credit once we have died.
There have been a few cases where I’ve known people who have passed relatively early and I always wondered if there were any legal decisions to be made about their online media profiles. This idea of a social media will is a very interesting one. However, I feel it’s almost sad that we rely on social media websites this much.
I personally have never heard of this social media Will and to answer your question yes my family has the password to my social media. Like others have mentioned in previous comments, I feel as new social media keeps being made, the old will fade and then what? I never really thought about what happens to your social media account once you died, I have a few friensd who have passed who I am still friends with on facebook. To me it seems more like a remembering site now. Where if you want to talk to this person you just go on their page and say what you normally would have verbally told them. However, like Cody mentioned above it is really sad that we have to think about a social media Will, because in today’s generation we rely way to much on social media websites.