Looking for an expert to discuss inheritance and digital/virtual assets
Good morning. Apologies for cross posting. I am looking to find someone to comment on what happens/ is supposed to happen when you die and have digital based assets like cash in your mpesa, crypto currency, the large number of online investment platforms. Many people have no idea where to start and this is not just a Kenya issue
This is an interesting question for legal profession. The best would be to have a digital executor in addition to any other executor named in your will.In absence of a will, the one who takes out a grant of letters of administration will require assistance from the hosts of your digital assets which is not wise, as identifying and accessing would be a problem. The main focus is ,in your absence, how would the assets be accessed? One with the ability to access is the suitable executor. If it is just mpesa, Safaricom or equivalent will open it for the person with the confirmed grant of letters of administration.For the others, you need to have a digital estate inventory and also plan what you want to happen whether continuity or winding up. How do you think you can have someone inherit your passwords in a safe manner.Apply technology to that. The office of Public Trustee should by now have provision for a tech-savy person in their department for the digital assets of those who will have no will, no one to apply for grant of letters of administration. Such estates are managed by the Public Trustee.(hope you are not a lawyer because if you are, am being irrelevant). The other problem, is that we do not yet have rules in place to address how unidentified digital assets can be forwarded to public trustee. The best for now as we wait for rules, is to have your most trusted spouse or child who is a techy into all your digital assets and plans. Disclaimer- Am not very ICT knowledgeable, being an old stone age lawyer , but I got interested in the unfolding challenges in the legal sphere and joined the previous IP/ICT LSK committee which put us on board Kictanet. I do not understand most of the stuff but I just read.I also dig to see how the laws are catching up with technology, very poor, as we are yet to be clear on digital signatures. Hope the bit above will guide you. Regards, Gertrude Matata Stone Age Lawyer. GERTRUDE MATATA HILLSIDE APARTMENTS 4TH FLOOR, Apartments 11 RAGATI ROAD,Opposite N.H.I.F NEAR CAPITOL HILL POLICE STATION P.O. Box 517-00517 Nairobi Mobile:0722-374109/0772327265 Go to; https://themediatorkenya.wordpress.com/author/themediatorkenya/ DISCLAIMERThis email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of GERTRUDE MATATA. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must neither take any action based upon its contents, nor copy or show it to anyone. Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in error. CallSend SMSCall from mobileAdd to SkypeYou'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype On Friday, February 15, 2019, 12:02:02 PM GMT+3, Peter Wakaba via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: Good morning.Apologies for cross posting.I am looking to find someone to comment on what happens/ is supposed to happen when you die and have digital based assets like cash in your mpesa, crypto currency, the large number of online investment platforms. Many people have no idea where to start and this is not just a Kenya issue_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/ Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/gertrudematata%40yahoo... The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
participants (2)
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gertrude matata
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Peter Wakaba