FAQs

It's important to consider both the financial and/or sentimental value held by digital assets. Individuals born after the 1950s will likely leave behind more digital photos and documents than printed ones. For most people the photos have sentimental value but for some who are advanced amateur or professional photographers, there can be significant financial value as well.

Property with Financial Value

• domain names
• online advertising revenue
• online game virtual items, virtual currency, and characters
• online payment accounts
• online auction sites
• online banking and financial accounts
• loyalty program points and awards
• savings bonds (sold only electronically since 2012)
• gambling sites
• artistic and creative product sales (iStockPhoto, etsy, iTunes, CafePress, Zazzle, ...)

Property with Sentimental Value

• documents and writings
• photos
• videos
• emails
• social networking content
• address books
• digital legacy site assets
• genealogy sites
• recipes

Mylennium provides products and services that complement traditional estate plans and are designed to be used in conjunction with representation by an estate planning attorney.  Mylennium provides the expertise, tools, and services for the specific purpose of helping with your digital assets. We do not provide legal advice of any kind, but we can help you organize and document your digital assets so that these can be easily and effectively included in an estate plan created by you and your estate attorney.

A password manager is software that securely stores usernames, passwords, encryption keys, and other highly confidential information in an encrypted database or set of files.  Data can be stored on the device running the software, on a remote server that can be accessed by any of the user's computing devices, or a combination of both local and remote.  In order to encrypt/decrypt stored data, the user provides a master password that they previously established.  There are many password manager applications on the market, some which are free and others which require an annual payment.  Most programs integrate into one or more of the primary Internet browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera.

One of the key benefits of using a password manager is the ability to easily manage secure passwords that would otherwise be difficult to remember.  Most managers provide functionality to generate and store secure passwords without the user's input.  A URL can be stored with each password so that when the site is revisited the password manager can automatically provide the username and password to seamlessly login the user.

Top-rated password managers include:

• LastPass
• KeePass
• Dashlane
• SplashID
• 1Password
• RoboForm

Reference:

Best Password Managers for 2018 (PC Magazine)

Five Best Password Managers (LifeHacker)

Best Password Managers for PCs, Macs, and mobile devices (InfoWorld)

A person who has died.

An estate executor is a fiduciary that is legally responsible for settling a deceased or incapacitated person's estate. If someone has a will, the person responsbile for settling the estate is typically referred to as an Administrator. If the individual is incapacitated the term Personal Representative is used, whereas if a trust is involved then the fiduciary is referred to as an Executor.  However, the term Executor is often generically used for an individual named in a will or trust to carry out the decedent's wishes.

A password manager is software that securely stores usernames, passwords, encryption keys, and other highly confidential information in an encrypted database or set of files.  Data can be stored on the device running the software, on a remote server that can be accessed by any of the user's computing devices, or a combination of both local and remote.  In order to encrypt/decrypt stored data, the user provides a master password that they previously established.  There are many password manager applications on the market, some which are free and others which require an annual payment.  Most programs integrate into one or more of the primary Internet browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera.

One of the key benefits of using a password manager is the ability to easily manage secure passwords that would otherwise be difficult to remember.  Most managers provide functionality to generate and store secure passwords without the user's input.  A URL can be stored with each password so that when the site is revisited the password manager can automatically provide the username and password to seamlessly login the user.

Top-rated password managers include:

• LastPass
• KeePass
• Dashlane
• SplashID
• 1Password
• RoboForm

Reference:

Best Password Managers for 2018 (PC Magazine)

Five Best Password Managers (LifeHacker)

Best Password Managers for PCs, Macs, and mobile devices (InfoWorld)

The security and protection of your personal information is our key objective. We believe that password management and file storage are sophisticated services that require dedication and focus to create a world class project that offers a secure and robust environment for your valuable assets. For this reason, we believe it is in your best interest to select from one of the leading service providers that we recommend.

Mylennium works directly with clients over the telephone and using an encrypted pdf questionnaire to gather information about their digital assets. We do not gather passwords or encryption keys but instead help the client adopt the use of a leading password manager (LastPass, Roboform, Dashlane, 1Password) to store their confidential information that can eventually be provided to the estate or digital executor.

Once the client’s digital asset inventory is gathered we create an encrypted Digital Asset Report in pdf format that we distribute to the client, their estate attorney, and a digital executor if one is specified.

Documents are encrypted using 128-bit or 256-bit AES, depending upon the version of Acrobat Reader used by the client.  Our website uses a GeoTrust business validated SSL certificate that uses 256-bit encryption for all user sessions.

In order to access a digital device owned by the decedent you must have the legal authority to do so, either through a will, a trust, or Probate.  If you have the legal authority to settle the decedent's estate including the computing device, then the next step depends upon the device, its operating system software, and how it's protected.  Some devices, such as smartphones, can be configured to erase the device if a pre-determined number of successive logins fail due to an incorrect password, therefore, it's important to use a process that will not result in the erasure of the device's data.

A digital executor is tasked with marshalling, procuring, protecting, and preserving an individual's digital assets and digital property.

A digital executor should be able to:

• Work under the direction of the estate executor
• Understand state and federal laws that relate  to third-party access to online services
• Understand the limitations specified by terms of services agrreements with online account providers
• Freeze or close online accounts with banks, email providers, social networking sites, data storage, and shopping sites
• Safely and securely archive all digital data stored on local computing devices and online providers
• Plan and execute a reasonable security model for accessing archived digital files
• Build a secure and controlled "global" contact list that combines multiple address/contact lists
• Send notifications to select contacts in the global contact list

A digital executor must have a deep knowledge and understanding of desktop computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and the operating systems they run (Windows, OSX, iOS, Android, Linux). They should be experienced with the most common online services including:

• email
• document storage
• notes and clipping
• data storage
• cloud services
• domain registration
• digital currency wallets
• online games

An understanding of popular software applications in the following categories is important:

• Operating systems and their varying file and directory/folder organization, including where application data is stored on devices
• Digital storage device cloining and erasure (hard disks, ssd, usb drives)
• Financial management
• Web browsers, including their storage of cookies and passwords
• Password management apps that store usernames and passwords
• File encryption
• Music libraries
• eBook libraries

More about digital executors: The Digital Executor: A Client's Estate Plan CTO

Locating and securing digital assets and digital property requires experience working with a multitude of computer devices, operating systems, and software applications.  The digital footprint left by a decedent can often be much larger than imagined and requires a significant effort to search for their digital assets.  Mylennium provides the technology experience needed to locate, and protect digital assets to allow you to focus on the overall executorship of the estate.

The most commonplace devices are desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet, and mobile phone.

If you are unable to login to the decedent's account on the device you are faced with the following choices:

• reset the password, using specialized software for that particular operating system if required
• if the device is a desktop, remove the internal disk drive and connect it to a system for which you do have access
• connect the target device to another device which allows you to access the files on the target device
• take the system to a data forensics specialist