Estate Planning for Digital Assets- If you don’t already have a will, power of attorney, and healthcare power of attorney, you need to have these documents created as soon as possible. If you have a will, check it to see whether it mentions digital assets, says this article, “Your Digital Afterlife: A No-Nonsense Guide to Digital Will & Legacy Planning” from Ageist.
What’s at risk? Family photos living only in the cloud. A crypto wallet only you can access. Decades of emails, blogs, airline miles, subscription renewals, unfinished novels, and anything else you access online, on your phone, computer, laptop, iPad, etc. Your entire digital life will continue without you, and your family won’t be able to access any of it unless you have a plan for your digital estate.
This is what modern estate planning looks like today. Here’s what you need to do:
Create an inventory. If this sounds overwhelming, imagine what will happen if your children or surviving spouse have to try to figure it all out. Dividing digital assets into a few buckets may help:
Understanding the laws of digital assets may contain surprises for you and your family. Owning an account isn’t the same as owning the property itself or the right to give it to someone else. The Terms of Service Agreements you click on when opening a new account prohibit sharing login information with anyone, even after the original owner has died.
Most states today have adopted some version of RUFADAA, the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which gives your executor or a designated digital fiduciary the legal authority to manage digital accounts—but only if you have granted this authority in writing. Speak with a local estate planning attorney who will know what your state’s laws allow.
Many major platforms now allow you to name a legacy contact, but you’ll need to visit each platform and follow their directions.
A list of accounts tells your executor what you have—but it doesn’t tell them what you want to happen to the digital assets. Do you want your Instagram account memorialized, or would you rather have it deleted? Should your emails be deleted or should someone go through them? What happens to a website you’ve built? Write it all down so no one has to guess what you wanted.
Keep sensitive information out of your will, which becomes a public document once it’s filed in probate court. Any passwords, PINs, and security questions should be kept confidential in a separate document.
If your estate plan was created more than three to five years ago, review it to ensure digital assets are included. If not, speak with your estate planning attorney to have this addressed as soon as possible. Don’t leave it for your family to figure out.
Schedule your phone consultation: THE LAW OFFICES OF CLAUDE S. SMITH, III
Estate Planning for Digital Assets
Reference: Ageist (July 31, 2026) “Your Digital Afterlife: A No-Nonsense Guide to Digital Will & Legacy Planning”
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