Technology has given us greater control in many areas of our lives, from managing our health to planning vacations on the fly. Yet some industries, including that of financial services, have been slow to utilize digital tools or encourage their clients to do so. This has caused significant challenges around estate planning, most notably the generation gap among older principals and their millennial heirs. With millennials being much more tech savvy than their parents, they prefer to communicate in different ways and access new methods of technology.

When it comes to managing and passing down wealth, going digital solves a myriad of problems. For example, there are all-in-one solutions that make it easier for you to monitor your real estate portfolio in real time (and possibly jump on investments) and manage the maintenance of physical assets such as homes and properties from anywhere in the world. You can also give loved ones and other trusted parties access, forming a communications hub that facilitates the sharing of information.As mentioned, one of the biggest barriers to successful estate planning is the lack of communication between principals and heirs, which often leaves the latter in the dark about the size of their inheritance and lacking the skills to manage it. This places them at risk for poor decision-making, especially millennials who came of age during the Great Recession and
remain distrustful of financial institutions.

Digital tools allow you to give them insight into your investment decisions and your process
around them. More importantly, it promotes transparency among the people who are most likely
to contest your estate or battle amongst themselves. For example, it would be very hard for a
spouse to prove that you intended to disinherit a child when that child had access to your
finances, or to argue in favor of selling your vacation home, when a series of messages
demonstrate your intention to keep it in the family.

Finally, keeping track of your finances in real-time will remind you to review your estate plan
every few years – something that everyone, including middle income or HNWI, neglect to do.
Covid-19 has been a real wakeup call in that regard, given the rapidity with which it killed or
incapacitated people from all walks of life. There are also a number of factors – from changing
tax codes to major life events like divorce, remarriage, the loss of an heir through estrangement
or death, or the birth of a new one – that if not addressed can impact the value of your estate.
There are some caveats to going digital with estate planning. There will be less physical (paper)
evidence of your wishes and you cannot assume that your family will be able to get into your
devices and find (or figure out) your passwords. Instead, make sure a neutral party has
knowledge of, and access to, all of your accounts. Another concern is identity theft, so when
choosing digital tools make sure that they have stellar security, something that EstateSpace
prioritizes above all else.

Information may be the most valuable commodity of our time, but only if it is accurate and
shared in a timely fashion. Transitioning to a digital platform is an imperative for anyone seeking
to educate their heirs on how to preserve and grow their wealth and that’s where EstateSpace
comes in. EstateSpace has developed the world’s first asset management solution that provides
a single point of record for a family’s real estate and physical assets. This intelligent financial
management solution enables and simplifies how families manage valuable physical assets to
increase and protect generational wealth. Learn more by visiting: www.estatespace.com