Entropia Universe - how to prepare for the case of death

Entropia Universe - how to prepare for the case of death

This information is put together for Entropia Universe participants,
who want to consider how to prepare their account for the event of their own death.
Moderators please feel free to move this thread to its proper location if there is a better place than tutorials.

Important notice:
even though I did contact Mindark for clarification purposes of some questions,
this document reflects my personal interpretation
and is not an official statement by Mindark.
It is in no way of any binding relevance to Mindark
and might even contain misconceptions on my side.
Please feel free to point out things that I can improve
or which need correction.

It is written on the 18th of August in 2010,
as virtual worlds are relatively new in regards to legal practice there might be new laws in place by the time you read this.

Your account represents real value and naturally you will probably not want to let that go to waste, but of course if you don't care about the money value, then the easy way will be not to take any action at all.
Not to take any action is equivalent to donating your possessions to Mindark, which depending on your personal views might even be something you want to do.

This will result in your account being terminated after 750 days after your last login, as per the terms of use rule number 5.4.

Normally though you probably will want one of those three options:

• 1. A regular inheritance settlement
  
• 2. Transfer of the account or parts to a friend or many friends
  
• 3. Donating your possessions to a charity or other non EU third party

Lets look at each of those three options in turn.

1. A regular inheritance settlement

For this way you have to include all relevant details about the Entropia Universe account within your will. Should you want certain friends to receive specific items, make sure to select a solicitor beforehand, which is willing to learn how to control the avatar within EU and how to find your friends.

The procedure in case of death is then such that an inventory is drawn up of the deceased participants assets. Since an Entropia Universe account is an asset in the terms of right of use, the account will be part of the estate inventory.

Quoting Mindark:

“The heirs can then decide whether they want to continue running the Account or if they wish to cancel it. In both cases a verified copy of the estate inventory must be sent to us along with a verified copy of an identification document of the person representing the estate. The Account information will then be changed accordingly giving the representative of the estate full access to the Entropia Universe Account and its assets. Note that Terms of Use 2.1§ still apply prohibiting the use of multiple accounts. “

If the meaning of estate is unclear to you look it up here:
Estate (law) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This means if the heir in question already has an account the heir may liquidate one of the two accounts and can keep the other.

This way is the most secure way in legal aspects and I can only strongly encourage you to do this if your account value represents a considerable amount of money.
Which brings us to the second point.

2. Transfer of the account or parts to a friend or many friends

If you don't have a considerable amount of value on your account you might consider to just make sure someone whom you trust receives your login data after your departure.

This method is not endorsed by Mindark as the terms of use 3.2 state that

“If You should happen to willfully or otherwise reveal Your Login Details, You have relinquished Your right to any assistance regarding the possible outcomes or consequences of Your actions. Your Account may be Banned and/or Terminated if You let someone else use it inappropriately or not in compliance with this paragraph 3.”

So don't consider this if you want your account to be kept active, but for not too considerable amounts of money this is an easy way of liquidating the assets.

Also be sure to do this in a manner which is not a disservice to your friends.
A worst case could be that your relatives claim your account as described in part 1, but a friend already has your account data and gets accused of having hacked you.
So if you chose to do it this way, do it in a manner which does not put your friends in potentially problematic situations.

As to what a considerable amount is, most countries have a certain value limit for gifts you give to your relatives and friends and any gifts above this value have to be taxed.
As example in Germany this would be, within the duration of 10 years, 500,000 € for the husband, 400,000 € for children, or the children of your dead children, 200,000 € for the children of your living children and 20,000 € to everyone else.

But consider that border crossing gifts might become taxed two times.

Considering the current laws this might not apply to virtual property as the real value only will appear on your bank account in the case of you withdrawing it.
Make sure to consult a lawyer if the value in question is considerable within your country, so you don’t run into the danger that your countries revenue authorities suspect you of any illegal actions.


3. Donating your possessions to a charity or other non EU third party

Mindark is not prepared to assist with this.

As Mindark is not prepared to transfer the money to any other bank account than the account of the legitimate participant, there is no way to have the money paid out directly to a charities bank account.

The best way to achieve this is to regulate it in the will or similar to part 2 you might make sure that someone you trust gains access to the account and takes care of the matter.

Summary

Mindark is not prepared to liquidate your account in a way that market value or skill value can be achieved, so if you just let your account be liquidated by Mindark you will only receive the TT value of your items.

This means if you want to have the account liquidated in the way that your assets will be sold for what they are worth, you will have to make sure that someone you trust can take control of the account.

Withdrawals are only paid out to legitimate account holders, so don't perform a withdrawal with the account of a deceased player if you don't have access to the bank account (!).

As each trade is final, liquidating an account can be performed by just gaining access to it and transferring all valuables to an account that the beneficiary legitimately owns, but mind that the decease's account might then be terminated due to ToU 3.2. and also there is the danger that the decease's heirs might claim the account and challenge the rightfulness of the asset transfer to the beneficiary.


Thank you for reading and I hope you might find this information to be helpful.