Digital assets

[TrackITlj]

Hello

There is a lot of information here but can’t find anything obvious about shared digital assets in a divorce. I mean all the shared digital accounts for different services like Amazon , Netflix , shared family Apple accounts and data stored digitally.

can anyone point me to any resources available to understand how to manage those.

thanks

Are you sure you have any shared accounts? Amazon, Netflix etc are contracts usually signed for by a single person so it is them who is responsible for paying the bill or cancelling the service.

Data's an interesting one. Photos belong to the person who took them but the storage belongs to whoevers name is on the contract and they can deny access but not distribute them. Same for digital documents. I'd imagine it's possible to get them back during divorce but no way to ensure the storage owner hasn't kept a copy.

@HangingOnJustAbout thanks for your response. Genuinely asking for a friend. But even as a family I, we have one Amazon one Netflix and one shared Apple account with adult and child profiles as needed. The photos are all family photos in the primary AppleID and backups are all managed the one account. We have PINs to manage restricted content for younger children

This is a new field. I don’t know if the law has caught up though a random Google search does bring some guidance. I was looking for actual experiences from someone who might have navigated this recently after a 10/15/20 years together as these services are recent acquisitions. In a marriage, household situation you won’t need to have two Shopping accounts but whilst physical assets can be split up what about purchases made on Kindle or Netflix. Small stuff perhaps but what if Amazon photos or Shared Google accounts have all the family pictures and are in the name of one partner.

Digital assets

Can’t edit my messages. Adding a snapshot here.

Small beer surely, just like dividing up the CDs and books used to be or the saucepans. It's just stuff to divide.

i would assume bitcoin type currencies and sharing of online photo albums mainly?

Financially it is small stuff. Just make sure you include it in your list of expenses, but remember that after divorce many people are worse off so these luxury subscriptions might not be possible.

For photos and videos, take copies of the ones you want and store safely.

@heldinadream yes indeed small stuff. Probably more sentimental value than anything else unless it’s BITCOIN but one partner would lose complete access if not in their name

Why can’t you make copies and both have them? That’s what we did with photo and music and other key docs.
given you have to keep financial records for7 years for HMRC, and most married couples have a few shared accounts you have to make copies of these anyway

seems like you’re making heavy going of a simple thing like sharing copies ?

Genuinely wanted some practical answers from anyone going through this recently to help a friend who isn’t in the best headspace given the circumstances. They had not even thought about it.

If they still have access to the documents/photos then they should spend £50 on a large external drive and download all the stuff now.

Netflix etc are pay per month, though I guess if films have been bought then they are an "asset" controlled by the account holder. They'd be "divided" in the same way as the cutlery or books or pencil crayons, though the account holder essentially has possession and so control (much as one party would if they took some books and stored them at work or at a friends house).

Small fry apart from photos/documents, which have huge sentimental value. Get copies ASAP.

@UpsideDownside thank you for your post. Yes an external hard drive is a great suggestion.