Digital Assets in a Deceased Estate: What Clients Forget to Mention

15 October 2026·5 min read

Quick answer: Digital assets — cryptocurrency, cloud storage, monetised social accounts, loyalty points, domains and digital businesses — are legally part of a deceased estate, but they're often functionally lost because nobody can access them. A will can direct who inherits them, but it can't be the place where passwords or seed phrases live, because a will becomes a public document once probate is granted. The fix is a separate, regularly updated digital assets memorandum alongside the will. 🤍

Ask most clients updating their will what they own, and they'll list the house, the super, maybe a share portfolio. 💖 Almost nobody volunteers "I've got $40,000 in a crypto wallet," "my Instagram shop has 20,000 followers and actual revenue," or "I've got 300,000 frequent flyer points sitting there." None of that is deliberately hidden — it just doesn't register as "estate" material in most people's minds, which is exactly why it gets missed.

Please note: general information, not legal advice — check current official guidance before relying on it. Rules around digital assets and platform access vary and change.

What most people (and firms) get wrong

The will conversation tends to default to the assets everyone already thinks of as "estate" — real property, bank accounts, super, shares. Digital assets sit in a different mental category, even when they have real value or are genuinely business-critical. The second mistake is assuming ownership is the only issue. A will can say who inherits a crypto wallet or a business Instagram account, but ownership on paper doesn't automatically translate into access — an executor still needs login details, a seed phrase, or a recovery method, and platforms don't hand that over just because someone has a death certificate and a copy of the will.

A digital assets intake checklist

Cryptocurrency & exchange accounts — wallets, exchange logins, seed phrases, hardware wallets.
Email & cloud storage — the account that usually gatekeeps password resets for everything else.
Monetised social & business accounts — Instagram shops, YouTube channels, TikTok accounts with income attached.
Loyalty & travel points — frequent flyer points, hotel points, often with real dollar value and their own transfer rules.
Domains & websites — registrar logins, hosting accounts, especially for a small business.
Password manager master access — often the single key to everything else on this list.
Stored-value subscriptions — prepaid balances, gift cards, digital wallets like PayPal.

The crypto wallet nobody could open: An estate includes a meaningful crypto holding, but the seed phrase was never recorded anywhere the family could find. Legally, the asset belongs to the estate. Practically, without the seed phrase, it can be permanently unreachable — there's no "forgot password" option for most wallets.

The business that ran on one person's login: A sole trader's entire online shop and its following lived on social accounts logged in only on their phone, with no documented access for anyone else. The business itself may have real value as an estate asset, but realising that value depends entirely on someone being able to get in.

The points nobody remembered: A frequent flyer account with a large points balance went unmentioned during estate planning. Points schemes have their own rules about transferring a deceased member's balance, and missing the window — or not knowing the account exists at all — can mean the value simply lapses.

How to actually plan for this

The will itself should name who inherits digital assets, the same as any other property, but the practical detail — logins, recovery methods, which platforms are involved — belongs in a separate digital assets memorandum, not the will. That's because a will becomes a public document once probate is granted, so anything written directly into it (including passwords) is no longer private. A memorandum can be referenced in the will without its contents being disclosed, and critically, it can be updated any time platforms or passwords change without needing to touch the will itself. Where platforms offer one, legacy contact tools (Google and Apple both have versions of this) are also worth setting up directly, since they give a nominated person defined access without relying on anyone finding a password at all.

💡 Review the digital assets list every year, not every five. Passwords, platforms, and balances change far faster than real property or super ever does — an annual check-in catches drift that a will review cycle would otherwise miss entirely.

Mistakes to avoid

Writing passwords or seed phrases directly into the will, which becomes a public document.
Assuming an executor can "just log in" once they have a death certificate — most platforms don't work that way.
Forgetting business-critical accounts that generate actual income.
Not naming a specific person responsible for digital assets, or not keeping the memorandum anywhere the executor can actually find it.
Treating loyalty points and stored value as too minor to mention, when the combined value is often significant.

Frequently asked questions

Can an executor access a deceased person's crypto without the password or seed phrase?

Often no — this is one of the more honest limits in this space. Unlike a bank account, there's generally no institution that can reset access on request, so a lost seed phrase can mean the asset is permanently unreachable, regardless of what the will says about who inherits it.

Should digital assets be listed in the will itself?

Ownership and intended beneficiaries, yes. Access details like passwords, no — a will becomes a public document once probate is granted, so a separate, updatable memorandum is the better place for that information.

Do loyalty and frequent flyer points actually form part of an estate?

This varies by scheme and isn't always straightforward — many programs have their own terms about whether and how points transfer after death, and some impose time limits. It's worth checking the specific scheme's rules rather than assuming a standard outcome.

Keep reading 🤍

Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

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