How to make a will and arrange your digital afterlife

Most of us make some sort of spiritual provision for the next world through religion.

Yet relatively few take any practical steps about what happens in this world when we depart from it.

Only 30% Irish people have made a will, according to a recent survey by My Legacy, an umbrella group of charities which campaigns for endowments.

In the survey, 24% said that if they died tomorrow their biggest regret would be worrying too much (while another 21% wish they had “let themselves be happier.”)

But maybe we wouldn’t have to worry so much if we made a will and ensured that our family will be looked after when we’re gone.

Your will also provides an opportunity to spell out what you would like done with your remains.

Star Trek creator, Gene Rodenberry, for example, requested that his ashes be shot into space. They were and “boldly went where no man went before.”

Fred Baur, founder of Pringles, had his buried inside one of his crisp tubes.

And Marvel’s Mark Gruenwald, editor of Captain America and Iron Man, had his mixed into the ink used to print his comic books.

Most of us would probably make more prosaic instructions, however, like whether to be buried or cremated.

So what happens if, like most people, you die without making a will?

Your estate will be divided up according to the Succession Act.

If there are no children, your spouse gets everything.

Where there are, two thirds goes to the spouse and one third is divided among the children.

Where there is no surviving spouse, the entire estate is divvied up among the children, with children of a deceased child getting his or her share.

That all seems fair enough. But it may not suit many people.

What if you’re estranged from your spouse, in acrimonious circumstances. Do you want them to get everything?

It’s also hardly the most organised or meaningful way to depart this world.

A will is also a great tax planning tool you can use to minimise your estate’s exposure to inheritance tax.

Group Thresholds Applicable for Capital Acquisitions Tax from 12 October 2016

Group A

Group B

Group C

Relationship to Disponer

Son/Daughter

Parent*/Brother/Sister/

Niece/Nephew/Grandchild

Relationship other than

Group A or B

Group Threshold

On or after 12/10/2016

€310,000

€32,500

€16,250

You can see that it makes more tax-saving sense to ‘keep it in the family’ and leave most of your estate to your offspring (or spouse, who pays no tax).

Thanks to changes in the last Budget, you can leave them even more of your assets tax free.

Sons and daughters can inherit or receive as gifts up to €310k tax free from their parents over a lifetime – up from €280k previously.

After that, close relatives now get a threshold of €32,500.

So when distributing assets, it makes sense to keep it in the family.

Non-relatives, however, can still get an inheritance of €16,500 tax free.

Another option to avoid tax – and increase filial gratitude – is to divvy out your estate before you depart ‘this mortal coil.’

Normally, gifts and inheritances are lumped in together under the tax-free thresholds listed above for the purposes of Capital Acquisitions Tax.

Each gift or inheritance eats into the lifetime allowances listed.

But there is also a ‘small gift allowance’ of €3,000 a year that anyone can receive on top of that, without affecting the lifetime threshold.

Sometimes, parents use this to drip-feed their estate to their offspring tax-free long before they pass away.

A will not only makes financial sense – it’s a way to make a final connection with those you love.

If your nephew wants to take up golf – leave him your prized clubs. Or maybe your niece or granddaughter admired your book collection and is a keen reader. Wouldn’t it be nice to let them have first choice?

You could also donate to charity to earn some Brownie points from St Peter at the ‘pearly gates.’

While Ireland is the 9th most generous country in the world when it comes to donating, only 12% of Irish people plan to leave money to a charity, according to My Legacy, an umbrella group of almost 70 Irish charities.

“We ask people to consider leaving a legacy to a favourite charity, once all other personal decisions have been made,” said chairperson Fergal O’Sullivan.

You don’t need a solicitor to make a will. You can download a form and write one yourself as long as you appoint an executor and have it witnessed by a non-beneficiary.

But many solicitors charge aslittle as €100 and this is well worth it for something so important.

Apart from providing advice on how to distribute your estate (and there are many more complexities than we’ve outlined here), a solicitor will make sure there are no mistakes.

Any errors would see your will tied up in courts for years with much of the assets it took a lifetime to build going to pay legal costs among feuding relatives.

And you certainly don’t want that to be your legacy – and lawyers the biggest beneficiaries of your estate!

Your digital legacy

Another issue is our digital afterlife.

“We’re hearing more and more about (this) from clients,” said Eileen O’Gorman, partner with Dublin law firm Gleeson, McGrath, Baldwin.

Some social media platforms have developed tools such as Google’s plan for your digital ‘life after death’ and Facebook’s memorialisation feature.

By following a few simple steps, you can appoint a legacy contact through this Facebook feature to give a trusted party the ability to select certain data to archive, memorialise or terminate your account.

Some online accounts however will be automatically terminated as a result of inactive use and where this happens you need to consider if there is content you may want someone to have. If so, Facebook has a feature where you can download it onto a hard drive and leave photos and videos to relatives.

Most people would probably want to terminate their post-mortem online existence rather than maintain a ghostly presence.

But some might consider platforms sites like DeadSocial, whereby messages can be created and saved for publication to your Facebook or Twitter profiles after death.

Another, LivesOn even uses artificial intelligence algorithms to keep your tweets coming from beyond the grave. Its somewhat-creepy slogan is “When your heart stops beating you keep tweeting”.

You should be aware that your presence does not automatically terminate on death, Ms O’Gorman warned.

Many of your accounts and profiles may remain alive and subject to abuse in the absence of custodianship, she said.