Delaware Has A New Digital Inheritance Law

Delaware has become the first state in the US to enact a law that ensures families’ rights to access the digital assets of loved ones during incapacitation or after death. Last week, Gov. Jack Markell signed House Bill (HB) 345, “Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act,” which gives heirs and executors the same authority to take legal control of a digital account or device, just as they would take control of a physical asset or document.

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Axehandler said:

I wonder how this affects TOS with like STEAM.

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m heisty said:

This likely has more to do with banking than anything else. As banking goes 100% digital there will be fights in the coming future where banks confiscate money of dead people because they did not expressly indicate the benefactor to the account.

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"This law takes no account of minimizing intrusions into the privacy of third parties who communicated with the deceased," he said. "This would include highly confidential communications to decedents from third parties who are still alive—patients of deceased doctors, psychiatrists, and clergy, for example—who would be very surprised that an executor is reviewing the communications. The law may well create a lot of confusion and false expectations because, as the law itself acknowledges, federal law may prohibit disclosing contents of communications."

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m heisty said:

This likely has more to do with banking than anything else. As banking goes 100% digital there will be fights in the coming future where banks confiscate money of dead people because they did not expressly indicate the benefactor to the account.

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President Obama has criticized outposts like the Caymans, complaining that they harbor giant tax schemes. But here in Wilmington, just over 100 miles from Washington, is in some ways the biggest corporate haven of all. It takes less than an hour to incorporate a company in Delaware, and the state is so eager to attract businesses that the office of its secretary of state stays open until midnight Monday through Thursday — and until 10:30 p.m. on Friday.

Nearly half of all public corporations in the United States are incorporated in Delaware. Last year, 133,297 businesses set up here. And, at last count, Delaware had more corporate entities, public and private, than people — 945,326 to 897,934.

One Delaware company was used last year to make an anonymous $1 million donation to Restore Our Future, a super PAC that favors Mitt Romney for president. Restore Our Future ultimately disclosed that the money came from a former Bain Capital executive. The Romney campaign declined comment, and Restore Our Future did not return calls.

Delaware’s tax laws are a bonanza for the state. At a time when many states are being squeezed by a difficult economy, Delaware collected roughly $860 million in taxes and fees from its absentee corporate residents in 2011. That money accounted for a quarter of the state’s total budget.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/b...-corporate-tax-haven.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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“Companies choose our state and we are proud of it,” said Richard J. Geisenberger, Delaware’s chief deputy secretary of state and its leading ambassador to business. “We spend a lot of time in the United States and traveling internationally to let people know that Delaware is a great place to do business.”

It is also a great place to reduce a tax bill. Delaware today regularly tops lists of domestic and foreign tax havens because it allows companies to lower their taxes in another state — for instance, the state in which they actually do business or have their headquarters — by shifting royalties and similar revenues to holding companies in Delaware, where they are not taxed. In tax circles, the arrangement is known as “the Delaware loophole.” Over the last decade, the Delaware loophole has enabled corporations to reduce the taxes paid to other states by an estimated $9.5 billion. State lawmakers in Pennsylvania are now trying to close the loophole, arguing that their state is being robbed of its tax dollars. Of particular concern is that many companies involved in drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania are, in fact, incorporating in Delaware instead.

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domenic said:

I actually live in Delaware, have worked in downtown Wilmington for over 15 years (very close to the infamous North Orange Street mentioned above), and yes I work for one of the evil banks. Ten years or so ago I thought about opening a small business on the side to earn extra income and actually went so far as getting a business license. It literally took fifteen minutes during my lunch hour.

I am sure in Texas the laws are skewed towards the oil industry, in CA the tech industry is favored, it’s easy to become an orange juice mogul in Florida, and probably in Maine lobsters have some sort of rights. Here in Delaware (very small state – second smallest actually) we have a modest agriculture industry, modest tourism with our beach locations, and happen to be the chemical capital of the world. Heck, gunpowder was invented less than five miles from my home. Being business friendly is no different than other industry leading states and a favorable business climate does pay the bills for the state. We don’t even have a state sales tax!

Don’t hate us, just understand we are no better / or worse than any other state trying to compete – at least we are _within_ the US. Where else can you go out for Sunday breakfast with your family and regularly run into and sit next to the Vice President of the United States who just happens to be eating with his son & attorney general for the state. If you do just remember not to spill coffee on either of them accidently, it makes the Secret Service get jumpy…

DOM

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domenic said:

Heck, gunpowder was invented less than five miles from my home.

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domenic said:

I actually live in Delaware, have worked in downtown Wilmington for over 15 years (very close to the infamous North Orange Street mentioned above), and yes I work for one of the evil banks. Ten years or so ago I thought about opening a small business on the side to earn extra income and actually went so far as getting a business license. It literally took fifteen minutes during my lunch hour.

I am sure in Texas the laws are skewed towards the oil industry, in CA the tech industry is favored, it’s easy to become an orange juice mogul in Florida, and probably in Maine lobsters have some sort of rights. Here in Delaware (very small state – second smallest actually) we have a modest agriculture industry, modest tourism with our beach locations, and happen to be the chemical capital of the world. Heck, gunpowder was invented less than five miles from my home. Being business friendly is no different than other industry leading states and a favorable business climate does pay the bills for the state. We don’t even have a state sales tax!

Don’t hate us, just understand we are no better / or worse than any other state trying to compete – at least we are _within_ the US. Where else can you go out for Sunday breakfast with your family and regularly run into and sit next to the Vice President of the United States who just happens to be eating with his son & attorney general for the state. If you do just remember not to spill coffee on either of them accidently, it makes the Secret Service get jumpy…

DOM

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