Digital Assets & Your Estate Plan: Crypto, Online Accounts & Passwords

Your estate plan was likely designed around physical assets — real estate, bank accounts, investments, personal property. But an increasingly significant portion of modern wealth — and an enormous amount of personal data — exists entirely online.

Digital assets in an estate can include: cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others), online investment and brokerage accounts, PayPal, Venmo, and other payment platforms, domain names and websites, digital businesses and income streams, social media accounts, email accounts, digital photo libraries, and loyalty points and rewards programs.

The challenge is access. Unlike a physical safe or a bank account, digital assets are protected by passwords, two-factor authentication, and encryption. If your executor doesn't know where to find your assets or how to access them, those assets may be permanently lost.

Cryptocurrency is especially critical. If you die without leaving access to your private keys or seed phrases, your crypto is gone — forever. There is no bank to call. No recovery process. No court order that can retrieve it.

What to do:

Create a digital asset inventory. List all accounts, platforms, and digital assets — including where they're held and their approximate value.

Document access credentials securely. Use a password manager and ensure your executor knows how to access it. Or maintain a physical document stored with your other estate planning materials.

Address digital assets in your estate plan. Specifically authorize your executor or trustee to access and manage digital assets. Some states have enacted laws governing this — your estate plan should be aligned with current law.

Consider a digital executor. Some people name a separate person with technical expertise to handle digital assets specifically.

📌 Don't let your digital assets disappear into the internet. Contact us to add a digital asset strategy to your estate plan.