Does eWill replace a Lawyer?

eWill is designed specifically to handle the inheritance transfer of your digital assets, which will likely be held on the internet by a giant multinational data corporation in an off-shore jurisdiction where your local inheritance lawyers and courts have no standing.

eWill enables the efficient transfer of access to these time-sensitive digital assets to your designated beneficiaries immediately, directly, and securely, without long, complicated and expensive procedures.

Does eWill replace the conventional physical will?

No. eWill is designed to run in parallel with your physical will. It has been developed to complement the traditional will-and-probate system, not to replace it. 

Your physical will works well for your local physical assets – typically, bricks and mortar – and, with the guidance of your local lawyer, is an effective means of ensuring the orderly transfer of these local physical assets to your beneficiaries. But eWill is designed specifically for the speedy transfer of digital assets, which are most likely held off-shore by an amorphous multinational corporation in a nebulous jurisdiction where your lawyer has no standing and no expertise.

By their very nature, your digital assets – bank accounts, trading platforms, email accounts digital wallets, social media, etc.  – are a critical part of your business life, and a vital part of your family life. There is a risk that your beneficiaries will be disconnected from them, even for a matter of days. eWill provides the transfer mechanism that enables you to ensure that these time-sensitive digital assets (or access to them) are distributed to your designated beneficiaries smoothly, securely and swiftly.

You have probably put a lot of effort into building an effective physical will, and - in the 3 months of the typical probate process - it is unlikely that anyone is going to run off with your 5-bedroom house. But without a fast, secure system for digital asset inheritance, the critical assets may not reach your loved ones in time. Or, worst case, they may never reach them at all.

Does eWill have to go through probate?

No. Because your digital assets don’t have to go through probate. In fact, in most cases, they should not go through probate.

Probate is the more-than-500-year old process for legally approving the transfer of your estate to your beneficiaries (or, in the absence of a will, to your heirs). It works fine for physical assets, especially bricks and mortar. It is unlikely, during the probate process, that someone will steal your house, or remove your family heirlooms, so you can be confident your property will eventually end up with your beneficiaries. The process is slow and bureaucratic – necessarily so, because it is handled by a court of law – and often expensive, because there are so many middle-men with their hands in the pot (your pot or, by then, your children’s pot). But, for physical property, it works.

Probate does not work so well, if at all, for digital assets. First, these assets are virtual, intangible, and are probably held off-shore by an amorphous multinational corporation in a nebulous jurisdiction. Second, your local probate court will likely have no authority in that jurisdiction; and the multinational corporation would most likely ignore the court if it did. Third, again it is unlikely that anyone will steal your assets, because the global technology giants usually have reasonable data security systems. But the real danger is that if you do not arrange to transfer them properly, they will end up lost in cyberspace, and inaccessible to your beneficiaries (who are blocked from accessing them by the self-same security systems); or if they are subject to annual renewal they will end up in the clutches of ….. the global technology giant. Fourth, if any of your digital accounts are necessary for the well-being of your family or the smooth running of your business, you will want your beneficiaries to get immediate access to them once your death is confirmed. The typical 3- or 4-month delay in transferring them because of the lengthy probate process is clearly a non-starter.

Therefore, to safeguard your digital assets and their proper transfer you should not risk the conventional probate route – and you don’t need to. Instead take the parallel track of a digital process designed specifically for digital assets. eWill provides the transfer system that enables you to ensure that access to these time-sensitive digital assets is distributed to your designated beneficiaries smoothly, securely and swiftly. Read More: Physical Wills Work For Physical Assets, Not Digital.

Does eWill require an Executor?

One of the side-benefits of eWill is that it removes the need for you to have an executor, as, in effect, the eWill system handles that function online. If you still choose to have one, you can use eWill to send additional instructions to the executor. But eWill takes the burden away from the executor and ensures that access to your digital assets is transferred to your beneficiaries quickly, securely, and seamlessly. This rapid, safe distribution of your assets is just not possible under the conventional 3-step process of a physical will, the typical 4 months of the probate process, and the eventual distribution of your estate by the executor.