What happens to my social media footprint after I die?

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In the brave new world of Facebook, Twitter, eBay, PayPal, LinkedIn and the like, the process of shutting down a loved one's social media account after death is not clear-cut.

What's more, ownership of the material, such as stored digital images, does not automatically pass to the beneficiaries of the estate.

To date, social media hasn't been a big issue in estate planning as the older generation is not as attuned to it.

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However, it will become a growing issue. Most social media sites have policies on how a deceased person's account can be closed but there is no uniformity.

With Yahoo! media, for example, the account is automatically closed; with Facebook, the account can be converted to a memorial page.

The issue is further complicated by the different legal jurisdictions in which these sites operate. In some circumstances you may need a court order to access the information, and often people won't know this until it is too late.

There are steps that can be taken in the estate planning and will drafting process that can help. Just as you might leave behind details for the code to a safe, you can leave a sealed document, stored with your will, containing information relating to your passwords and online accounts.

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