Managing digital assets during property division

Managing digital assets during property division

by | Oct 12, 2019 | Property Division |

When spouses divorce, they need to go through the process of severing ties, both financially and emotionally. In today’s world, we have become increasingly dependent on digital assets such as family photo albums, Instagram accounts, purchased music and video files and perhaps bitcoin accounts.

While most of these digital assets do not have a high financial value, they will be seen to be of high sentimental value. Increasingly, spouses can also become involved in disputes regarding social capital. For example, a joint Instagram account that has a huge amount of followers may be the subject of a dispute when it needs to be divided. The following are some ways that disputes regarding digital assets can be avoided.

Keep accounts separate during your marriage

Those with prenuptial agreements in place may have already agreed that separate accounts be maintained. While this seems wise in theory and can limit the complexities of digital asset division, at least a portion of your digital assets will likely become commingled at some point in your marriage.

Agree that you will duplicate and share what files you can

The advantage of digital assets is that many files of value can easily be duplicated. For example, family photographs can easily be shared through this process. However, disputes may arise if one spouse believes that the other is deliberately withholding digital assets from them as a form of revenge or spite.

If you are feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of organizing and dividing all digital assets as part of your divorce, you should start by understanding how divorce agreements could help you simplify the process.

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