If a Business Owner Dies, Who Can Access the Web? (Wall Street Journal)

May 22, 2012 at 10:16 AM
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Online business accounts come with security measures, but if something happened to the password-keeper, are your company's digital assets covered? If an online service does not allow multiple users on the account it'll be a whole lot easier to use the business' name on the account instead of an individual person. Even if the login in credentials are known, logging in could be a violation of privacy laws and terms-of-service agreements resulting in criminal or civil chargers, according to lawyers. A safer approach would be requesting the contents of the account through the proper channels. Instead of putting online account information in a will or trust as part of the company's assets, which can become a public document, put an inventory of digital assets into a side document with the will or trust.