What Happens to Digital Assets When You Die?

TL;DR Summary: In today’s digital world, your estate isn’t just jewelry, property, and bank accounts. It also includes your photos, emails, financial accounts, social media, and online subscriptions. Planning ahead ensures your loved ones won’t be locked out of important digital property or stuck navigating frustrating tech and legal barriers.

When most people think of estate planning, they picture dividing up real estate and retirement accounts, signing trust documents, and appointing trustees and beneficiaries. But here’s the reality of modern life: much of your personal life, financial activity, and legacy now lives online.

Your estate plan needs to reflect that. And most people don’t know this: your loved ones do NOT automatically get access to your digital assets when you die, even if they’re your trustee or beneficiary.

At Goff Legal, we’re seeing this situation more and more. Adult children who can’t get into their parents’ email accounts. Widows who can’t unlock financial accounts because login credentials are unknown. Families locked out of priceless photo collections stored in the cloud. Digital investments and crypto wallets forever lost because the access keys were never shared.

Let’s change that. Below is a friendly, plain-English guide to understanding what happens to digital assets when you die and practical steps to make sure your digital life is handled the way you want after you’re gone.

What Counts as a “Digital Asset”?

Your digital estate includes any information or property stored electronically, not just the data, but often the accounts and rights to them. Examples include:

Personal Digital Property

• Photos & videos on your phone or iCloud
• Home movies stored on Google Drive
• Email accounts and stored message history
• Text messages
• Digital journaling or writing
• Genealogy research stored online

Financial-Related Digital Assets

• Online banking access
  
• PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, Apple Cash
• Crypto wallets (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.)
• Coinbase, Binance, Kraken accounts
• NFT ownership
• Online investment platforms (Robinhood, Schwab, Fidelity, etc.)
• Airline mileage and credit-card rewards points

Social & Lifestyle Accounts

• Facebook
• Instagram
• X (Twitter)
• LinkedIn
• TikTok
• Pinterest
• Reddit
• Dating apps (yes—some clients are surprised by this one!)

Digital Subscriptions

• Amazon Prime
• Kindle ebooks
• Audible
• Netflix
• Spotify
• Apple Music
• Online games with in-game value
• Software licenses & cloud storage subscriptions

Online Business & Intellectual Property

• Monetized YouTube channels
• Blogs
• Online businesses (Shopify, Etsy, etc.)
• Domain names & hosting accounts
• Affiliate accounts
• Patreon
• Revenue-generating digital art or photography
• Monetized social accounts or influence profiles

Your digital assets may hold financial value, sentimental value, and legal importance, and each type must be handled intentionally.

Your Loved Ones Can’t Just Log In—Even if They Have Your Password

This part surprises people. Let’s say your son knows your Facebook password. After your death, he logs in to close the account.

Technically, that could violate:

• Facebook’s Terms of Service
• Federal privacy laws
• California digital privacy statutes

And many platforms (Google, Apple, etc.) explicitly prohibit password sharing—even after death.

So what’s the alternative? Estate planning.

We draft specific legal documents that:

• authorize your trustee or executor to access digital assets
• ensure they are protected under California’s adoption of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA)
• allow service providers to legally release digital information
• prevent your estate from being blocked by Terms of Service restrictions

How California Law Treats Digital Assets

California enacted RUFADAA in 2016, which sets rules for digital access. Under this law:

• Your estate representatives do not automatically get access
• You must affirmatively grant access
• Each platform’s “digital planning tools” may control access

For example, some platforms allow you to designate post-death control:

• Facebook: Legacy Contact
• Google: Inactive Account Manager
• Apple: Digital Legacy program
• LinkedIn: Memorialized status program
• Bitcoin/Ethereum: private keys

Here’s the key legal point: If the platform offers a digital-after-death tool and you’ve completed it, that preference overrides your Will or Trust.

This area of law is still evolving, and having a legal advocate matters.

Digital Assets With REAL Financial Value

We’ve seen:

• Airline miles worth $40,000
• Crypto wallets worth $250,000
• PayPal accounts with thousands in uncollected payments
• Domain names sold for tens of thousands
• Monetized social accounts driving real revenue

If your trustee can’t access your portfolio of digital investments, they may never even know it exists.

Imagine your crypto keys are stored in Google Drive or on a Ledger device. Without documentation and access instructions, that money is simply gone.

Estate planning can ensure your digital wealth doesn’t disappear like a lost password.

Sentimental Digital Assets Are Often the Most Heartbreaking

Most families are far less worried about losing access to Chase.com than they are about losing:

• decades of family photos
• voicemails
• saved text message threads
• ancestry records
• videos of grandchildren
• memorial letters
• creative writings
• recipe collections
• digital scrapbooks

Your family will treasure these for generations. But they need access.

So What Should You Do? (Practical Steps)

Here’s a simple and actionable roadmap:

✔ Step 1: Make a digital asset inventory.

List:

• accounts
• usernames
• where passwords are stored
• associated emails
• backup locations
• two-factor authentication methods
• recovery contacts

✔ Step 2: Use a secure password manager.

Some examples:

• Passwords (for apple devices)\
• 1Password
• LastPass
• Keeper
• Dashlane

These can store encrypted account credentials, and you can grant emergency post-death access.

✔ Step 3: Activate platform-specific legacy systems.

We can guide you through:

• Facebook Legacy Contact
• Google Account Inactivity Manager
• Apple Digital Legacy
• Amazon household/digital library structure
• Dropbox/Google Drive transfer plan

✔ Step 4: Update your estate planning documents.

We will create:

• trustee/agent authorization for digital access
• properly worded consent to override privacy restrictions
• instructions for cloud-stored materials
• backup keys and system access permissions

✔ Step 5: Communicate.

Tell your chosen trustee or digital executor:

• that they’re designated
• where credentials are stored
• how to access the inventory upon death
• any specific wishes regarding memorialization vs deletion

Should You Appoint a “Digital Executor”?

Some people choose a separate person from their financial trustee.

Example:

• your lawyer or spouse manages financial assets
• your adult child manages social media, photos, and personal files

This separation may make sense when:

• one person is tech-savvy
• one person is deeply trusted emotionally
• one person understands cryptocurrency or NFT systems
• one person is less equipped for private family messages

We’ll help you decide whether a digital executor makes sense for your situation.

Privacy Concerns: What Should Your Family See?

This is important and sometimes uncomfortable.

You may want:

• your family to have full access to everything
  OR
• some data deleted after death
  OR
• certain communications automatically destroyed

Your digital directive can specify:

• which emails can be read
• which files should be erased
• whether your text messages remain private
• whether your browsing history and stored search data should be purged
• whether online accounts should be closed, memorialized, or frozen

Your post-death digital privacy should be respected, and we can help ensure that.

The Big Problem: Digital Assets Change Constantly

Unlike physical property or land titles, your digital footprint evolves:

• new accounts are added
• platforms change
• passwords are updated
• devices are replaced
• cloud storage expands
• authentication methods evolve (face ID, fingerprints, SMS codes, security keys)

This is why having an ongoing relationship with your estate planning attorney matters.

At Goff Legal, we offer plan reviews and digital-estate refreshes—not just documents that sit in a drawer for 20 years.

How Goff Legal Helps

We will:

• include digital access permissions in your trust and durable power of attorney
• advise on password storage and transfer mechanisms
• guide you through crypto-security strategies and digital asset inheritance
• help you use digital-legacy tools correctly for each online platform
• help you clarify memorialization wishes for social platforms
• make sure your trustee has legal access authority

We make digital inheritance simple, compassionate, and legally compliant.

Ready for help?

If you’re thinking, “Wow, I haven’t planned for any of this…” you’re not alone.

Contact Goff Legal for a free discovery call, and our experienced estate planning attorneys will walk you through everything- from passwords to cloud storage to crypto access to online photo archives. We’ll help you build an estate plan that truly reflects your entire life—both offline and online.

FAQs

Can I leave my digital photos or emails to someone specific as a legacy gift?

Yes. Your estate plan can explicitly specify that certain digital items go to designated recipients, just like physical heirlooms.

If I delete my social media before I die, can my executor restore it?

Generally, no. Deletion is permanent. If you might want family to recover the content later, memorialization or account preservation is a better approach.

Can my digital assets be transferred to a trust like physical property?

Some can, especially crypto, domain names, and monetized accounts. Others are licenses rather than property (like Amazon Kindle) and typically can’t be transferred, but you can grant access rights.

What happens if I die with outstanding subscription charges or auto-billing services?

Your executor can legally terminate subscriptions; charges typically become debts of the estate, not personal liability to family.

What if I don’t want certain personal digital information exposed to my family?

We can include instructions for deletion, restricted access, OR designate a specific trusted person (attorney, executor, friend) to handle those assets discreetly.