Wisconsin's Digital Property Act: Recent Developments & Emerging Issues 2024
Decrypting digital property
Nearly everyone uses digital property, whether they realize it or not. Because email, social media, online banking, shopping accounts, and other digital aspects of a person’s life are considered personal property, the internet and our wireless devices have changed how estate planning is done. That’s why the Wisconsin Digital Property Act of 2016 (WDPA) allowed individuals to grant their fiduciaries, such as personal representatives, trustees, or agents under powers of attorney, access to their digital property. While largely maintaining the WDPA’s provisions, the 2024 Wisconsin Trailer Code Bill updates the classification of digital property for marital property in estate planning.
To understand what’s changed, join two members of the original Wisconsin Digital Property Committee—Kenneth P. Barczak and Benjamin P. Brunette—for Wisconsin’s Digital Property Act: Recent Developments and Emerging Issues. You’ll explore:
- Digital property rights under the WDPA
- How the 2024 Trust Code Trailer Bill affects marital property in estate planning
- Drafting estate planning documents to address digital property
- Key considerations for valuation and transfer taxes
- Nonprobate methods including online tools and consent instruments
- Emerging types of economically valuable digital assets
Decrypting digital property
Nearly everyone uses digital property, whether they realize it or not. Because email, social media, online banking, shopping accounts, and other digital aspects of a person’s life are considered personal property, the internet and our wireless devices have changed how estate planning is done. That’s why the Wisconsin Digital Property Act of 2016 (WDPA) allowed individuals to grant their fiduciaries, such as personal representatives, trustees, or agents under powers of attorney, access to their digital property. While largely maintaining the WDPA’s provisions, the 2024 Wisconsin Trailer Code Bill updates the classification of digital property for marital property in estate planning.
To understand what’s changed, join two members of the original Wisconsin Digital Property Committee—Kenneth P. Barczak and Benjamin P. Brunette—for Wisconsin’s Digital Property Act: Recent Developments and Emerging Issues. You’ll explore:
- Digital property rights under the WDPA
- How the 2024 Trust Code Trailer Bill affects marital property in estate planning
- Drafting estate planning documents to address digital property
- Key considerations for valuation and transfer taxes
- Nonprobate methods including online tools and consent instruments
- Emerging types of economically valuable digital assets
Accessing assets
Explicit instructions on access to digital assets in an estate plan ensure that clients’ online identities are maintained as they intend and enable their families to access and oversee digital accounts according to the client’s wishes.
Effectively address access to your clients’ digital assets in estate planning with Wisconsin’s Digital Property Act: Recent Developments and Emerging Issues.
Product details
- Review the WDPA and updates made by the Wisconsin Trust Code Trailer Bill
- Learn how updates to the WDPA impact marital property in estate planning
- Help clients understand what constitutes digital property
- Determine how to address digital property in estate planning documents
- Discover nonprobate strategies for access to digital property
- Estate planning lawyers
- Business lawyers
- Tax attorneys
- Family lawyers
- Fiduciaries
- Paralegals
This program originally presented December 2, 2024.