Who Owns Your Digital Photos When You Die?

The reasons for not having a will are commonly; "I'm too young", "I don't have anything to leave" or "it's not nice to think about dying".

We completely agree with the last point and whilst this isn’t a comfortable thought, we do believe it is worse to die not knowing what will happen to your assets after you have gone. By writing a Will you can be clear about who your assets will pass to. It will also ensure that you can set out who will look after your children, who should carry out your wishes and any other personal wishes, such as if you want to be cremated or buried.

Without a will or a court order, digital photos and videos stored in the cloud die with the owner. If your partner has taken the photos of you and your family, you may lose all the photos as well.

It is also vitally important to draw up a Will or renew your Will if you get married/enter into a civil partnership, get divorced, if you have children from a previous relationship, have other relatives that you wish to benefit such as grandchildren or after you have bought a new property or obtained other expensive assets.

You may believe that you don’t need a Will and that your family will simply inherit your assets. Whilst in some circumstances that may be true it is only in very limited cases where the law will apply to you in this way. If you die without a Will there are rules in place to decide what happens. This is called dying ‘intestate’ but these rules will not always deliver a result that you or your loved ones would have wanted. Sometimes, intestacy rules can cause your loved ones to miss out entirely and receiving nothing, or force them to pay a hefty inheritance tax bill that you could have prevented by making a Will. It may also leave someone in charge of your estate to attend to your affairs that you otherwise would not have wanted, for example an ex partner if you have minor children together.

One of the biggest issues of dying intestate is if you live with a partner but are not married/in a civil partnership. Under the rules, your partner would receive nothing at all, no matter how long you have lived together. The same goes for any children your partner may have (who are not your biological children/adopted by you) even if they were financially dependent on you; they would receive nothing. It also becomes problematic if you have children to a previous partner and remarry, under the rules of intestacy your children could receive nothing at all or very little if you have substantial assets.

So, whilst you may not think so, in certain circumstances, it is extremely important to have a valid Will.

Toomey Legal are very pleased to announce that we are now able to offer Will writing services on behalf of all clients, new and old, as we have recently appointed Solicitor, Toni Spencer, who is happy to discuss your circumstances and provide advice tailored to your needs.