The co-founder and CEO of Epilogue, an online estate planning service, is encouraging Canadians to think about the future of their social media.
Daniel Goldgut and Arin Klug launched Epilogue in Toronto in March 2020. It’s a low cost, online tool that aims to make planning a will easier and more affordable for Canadians.
Recently, the online estate planning service recently launched a new kind of service: social media wills.
“People don’t appreciate that even after you’re gone, your social media presence, your digital identity is going to live on longer than you do,” Goldgut says.
Goldgut believes part of estate planning should include social media wishes.
“Do you want it to be deleted or memorialized? Do you want it to disappear forever so that no one sees it or do you want it to live on as a place where people can go back and continue to engage in some sense with your profile.”
For some family members, having your social media memorialized can make family members feel there’s still a small connection to you, he says.
And while Goldgut says they haven’t seen high demand for social media wills yet, he thinks they will.
“Right now it’s seen as ancillary to the important estate planning documents that people already know about and think about,” he says. “But I don’t it’s going to take too long before this becomes one of those important documents.”
Since launching, they’ve expanded Epilogue into all nine English speaking provinces — with Atlantic Canadian provinces being the the most recent.
Goldgut hopes making the service easy and affordable will encourage more Canadians to plan ahead.
