Living Forever Online

Completing your Will and testament online ensures that your final wishes are carried out uncontested. Everything from who should become the legal guardian of your children (or fur children!), to who inherits any assets or properties. It’s all there in black and white for your nominated Executor to manage.

When you’ve finalised your official, legally binding Will online, there are still a few more things to consider. For example, have you thought about what you would like done with your social media accounts?

Your social media accounts and online presence will most likely live on long after you do. Thankfully, these platforms have made it easy for you to decide how you would like your accounts to be handled after you die.

FACEBOOK

You can choose to either appoint a legacy contact to look after your memorialised account or have your account permanently deleted from Facebook.

If you don’t choose to have your account permanently deleted, it will be memorialised if Facebook become aware of your passing.

Memorialised Account

Memorialized accounts are a place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away. Memorialised accounts have the following key features:

  • The word Remembering will be shown next to your name on your profile.
  • Depending on the privacy settings of your account, friends can share memories on the memorialised timeline.
  • Content you shared (example: photos, posts) stays on Facebook and is visible on Facebook to the audience it was shared with.
  • Memorialised profiles don’t appear in public spaces such as in suggestions for People You May Know, ads or birthday reminders.
  • No one can log into a memorialised account.
  • Memorialised accounts that don’t have a legacy contact can’t be changed.

Legacy Contacts

A legacy contact is someone you choose to look after your account if it’s memorialised.

Facebook strongly suggest setting a legacy contact so your account can be managed once it’s memorialised.

A legacy contact can accept friend requests on behalf of a memorialised account, pin a tribute post to the profile and change the profile picture and cover photo. If the memorialised account has an area for tributes, a legacy contact will be able to decide who can see and who can post tributes.

Deleting your account when you pass away

You can also choose to have your account permanently deleted should you pass away.

For more information on Facebook’s options: https://www.facebook.com/help/103897939701143

INSTAGRAM

Similar to Facebook, Instagram also has the ability to memorialise your account. However, Instagram will only memorialise an account if they receive a request to do so. This is how: https://help.instagram.com/264154560391256?helpref=faq_content

Here are some of the key features of memorialised Instagram accounts:

  • Instagram doesn’t allow anyone to log into a memorialised account.
  • The profile of a memorialised account doesn’t appear differently from an account that hasn’t been memorialised.
  • Posts you’ve shared, including photos and videos, stay on Instagram and are visible to the audience they were shared with.
  • Memorialised accounts don’t appear in public spaces, like people’s Explore Section.

Once memorialised, no one will be able to make changes to any of the account’s existing posts or info. This includes:

  • Photos or videos added by you to your profile.
  • Comments on posts shared by you to your profile.
  • Privacy settings of your profile.
  • The current profile photo, followers or people you follow.

Removing Instagram Account

Verified immediate family members may request the removal of your account from Instagram. When they submit a request for removal, Instagram requires proof that they’re an immediate family member, such as:

  • Your birth certificate
  • Your death certificate
  • Proof of authority under local law that they are the lawful representative you and your estate

More information here: https://help.instagram.com/contact/1474899482730688?helpref=faq_content

With all of your digital assets and online accounts, you have to consider whether they are set up for somebody to take them over, if something were to happen to you today. Just like writing a Will, you probably feel that it’s a task that can wait until next week, next month or next year. But there is no harm in getting everything in place, just in case.

If you’re an everyday Australian looking to complete your online Will and testament, this is where we come in.

Your Wills is an Australian-based company all about helping you save time and money by doing your own Will, in your own time, at an affordable price.

Despite what you might think, if your Will is simple and straight forward, you don’t have to fork out money to cover expensive legal fees, or take time out of your busy day to see a legal professional.

Your Wills offers you a simple, straightforward solution that lets you draft and complete a legally recognised Will online.

Here’s the fast facts:

  • There are only 9 simple steps from start to finish to complete your Will
  • No payment required until after you’ve completed Step 8 – then review and submit your Will
  • To officially finalise your legally binding Will, ensure you have two independent individuals (over the age of 18) witness you signing each page of your Will – including the all-important very last page. Your witnesses then need to sign each page of your Will too. Your witnesses must use exactly the same pen you used to sign your Will. Done! It’s that easy!

We also offer Will Sharing Service that allows you to share an unsigned copy of your Will with your Executor, Accountant, Lawyer, Family member/s and or Trusted Friend.

Ready to be a responsible grown up? Let’s create a will online today.

Got questions? We’ve got answers: https://www.yourwills.com.au/faqs/

Or if you’ve got a more specific question, get in touch: info@yourwills.com.au

Your Wills is proudly supported by SLF Lawyers, who have offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.