Facebook can be used to track, share and report on life events. It can give you a snapshot of your life and can also serve to preserve your legacy. As with all digital assets, your Facebook profile should be included in your estate plan. You will want to include your Facebook account in your estate plan’s digital assets inventory. However, Facebook offers a unique “legacy contact” function that allows you to manage your profile after your death. A legacy contact allows you to choose someone to manage your account after you have passed away. We’ll explain how Facebook’s legacy contact works to preserve your digital legacy.
Managing Your Digital Afterlife
Facebook allows you to “memorialize” your account at your death. This will allow your family and friends to gather and share their memories. Facebook will require proof of death and evidence to memorialize your account. Whether a legacy contact was selected, Facebook accounts can be memorialized. Only confirmed friends can see or search for your profile once it has been memorialized. The memorialized profile will not appear in friend suggestions and will not be sent birthday updates or any other account notifications. The word “Remembering,” which will appear next to your profile, will be added when your account is memorialized. Your privacy settings will allow family and friends to post content or share memories on your timeline. An account memorialized is locked so that its original content can’t be changed or deleted even if someone has your password information.
What Your Legacy Contact Cannot Do
Once your account is memorialized, you can designate a legacy contact to manage your Facebook account. This person will be able to access your account using the permissions you’ve granted. You should carefully consider who you name your legacy contact. This person will be able to manage your memorialized Facebook account and, thus, your legacy.
You can have your Facebook legacy contact perform many functions:
- View all posts, even though you have set your privacy to Only Me.
- Decide who can view and leave tributes on your memorialized account.
- Delete tribute posts.
- Change who has access to posts you have been tagged in.
- Remove tags that you have been tagged in by someone else.
- Respond to friend requests.
- Update your profile photo and cover photo.
- Request the deletion of your account.
- Download a copy if you have enabled Facebook’s “Share This” feature.
What Your Legacy Contact Can’t Do
It is important to note that your legacy contact does not completely control your account. Your legacy contact can’t take the following actions.
- Log in to your account.
- Read your direct messages.
- Remove friends from your account or send friend requests.
- You can also choose to permanently delete your Facebook account if you don’t want it to continue after your death.
Preserve Your Digital Assets
We recommend working with us to ensure that your digital assets are protected in your estate plan, as social media and other digital assets play a significant role in our daily lives. We will help you to inventory all your digital assets and provide instructions on how they should be handled in your estate planning documents. This will allow them to pass smoothly to your loved ones after death.
We can help you identify a digital executor to manage your digital assets after your death, so your heirs can reap the greatest benefit. Get in touch with us today for more information.