Only 10% of UK adults have a plan for who will inherit their digital assets. From cryptocurrency wallets to cloud photo libraries, a significant portion of our financial and personal lives now exists entirely online — and most of it is at risk of being lost forever. A generation ago, an executor could walk into a room and find the paperwork. Today, the paperwork does not exist. What exists instead is a sprawling collection of accounts, platforms, and wallets — each with its own access requirements, terms of service, and legal status. Without a plan, your executor may never find them.

What Counts as a Digital Asset?

The term "digital asset" covers a much wider range of things than most people realise. It is not just cryptocurrency. Almost anything that exists in digital form and has financial or personal value can be considered a digital asset.

Category	Examples
Financial	Online bank accounts, PayPal, investment platforms, cryptocurrency wallets, NFTs
Subscriptions	Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, Adobe Creative Cloud, software licences
Content & media	iTunes/Apple Music library, Kindle books, Google Play purchases, digital photography
Social media	Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), TikTok, YouTube channels
Communication	Email accounts (Gmail, Outlook), messaging apps (WhatsApp, iMessage)
Cloud storage	iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox — photos, documents, videos
Business & income	Domain names, websites, Etsy or eBay seller accounts, Patreon, royalties
Gaming	Steam libraries, in-game currencies, virtual items, gaming accounts

Many of these have real financial value. A domain name might be worth thousands of pounds. A YouTube channel with a substantial following generates ongoing ad revenue. A cryptocurrency wallet might hold significant sums. Others have irreplaceable sentimental value — a decade of family photographs stored in iCloud, for example, or years of personal correspondence in an email account.

The Law Has Changed: The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025

Until recently, the legal status of digital assets in England and Wales was uncertain. Cryptocurrency and NFTs did not fit neatly into the existing categories of personal property — they were neither a "thing in possession" (a physical object) nor a "thing in action" (a legal right enforceable by action). This created real problems for executors trying to claim, transfer, or recover digital assets as part of an estate. That changed on 2 December 2025, when the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 received Royal Assent. The Act formally recognises that certain digital assets — including crypto-tokens and NFTs — can be treated as personal property under English law. This means they can now be owned, inherited, transferred, and legally protected in the same way as other property. The UK is among the first countries in the world to take this step, and it has significant implications for estate planning.

What the 2025 Act does — and does not — do

The Act confirms that digital assets can be personal property and gives executors clearer legal standing to pursue, recover, and transfer them. However, it does not automatically cause digital assets to pass to beneficiaries — they still need to be identified, accessed, and transferred. Recognition in law means nothing if your executor cannot find the wallet or log in to the account.

The Access Problem

Legal recognition is only half the challenge. The other half is practical access — and this is where most estates run into serious difficulty. Digital assets are protected by passwords, two-factor authentication, biometrics, and in the case of cryptocurrency, private keys or seed phrases. Without these, the assets are effectively inaccessible, regardless of what the law says. The scale of the problem with cryptocurrency alone is significant. An estimated 20% of all Bitcoin — worth hundreds of billions of dollars globally — is believed to be permanently lost due to forgotten or inaccessible private keys. A private key stored only in the owner's memory, or written on a piece of paper that has since been lost, cannot be recovered by anyone. For other digital accounts, the challenge is different but equally real. Most platforms' terms of service do not permit account access by third parties, even executors. Apple has historically required a court order to access a deceased person's iCloud account. Facebook allows memorialisation of profiles but restricts full access to account content. Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you designate a trusted contact to receive your data — but only if you set it up in advance.

What Happens to Each Type of Account

The fate of a digital account after death depends largely on the platform's own policies, which vary considerably.

Platform / type	What typically happens	What you can do now
Facebook / Instagram	Account can be memorialised or removed on request. Content is not transferred.	Appoint a Legacy Contact in Facebook settings. Request removal in your will.
Google (Gmail, Drive, Photos)	Account is suspended after inactivity. Data may be deleted.	Set up Google Inactive Account Manager to share data with a trusted contact.
Apple (iCloud, iTunes)	Access requires a court order or Apple's Legacy Contact feature (iOS 15.2+).	Add a Legacy Contact in your Apple ID settings.
Cryptocurrency wallets	Permanently inaccessible without private key or seed phrase.	Store private keys / seed phrases securely and tell your executor where to find them.
Online banking / PayPal	Executor can notify the provider with a death certificate and grant of probate.	Record account details and provider contact information for your executor.
Subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify)	Continue charging until cancelled. No transfer of content libraries.	List subscriptions so your executor can cancel them promptly.

The Password Problem: What Not to Do

The instinctive response to the access problem is to write passwords in your will. This is a serious mistake. A will becomes a public document once probate is granted — anyone can apply to see it at the Probate Registry. Passwords, private keys, and access credentials written in a will are therefore effectively made public. The correct approach is to keep a separate, secure record of your digital access information — one that is not part of your will, but that your executor knows exists and knows how to access. This might be a password manager with a master password stored securely, a physical document kept with your will, or a dedicated digital estate record-keeping service. The key principle is separation: your will records what you own and who should receive it; a separate secure record holds the access information your executor needs to actually retrieve it.

Five Steps to Protect Your Digital Legacy

You do not need to be technically sophisticated to protect your digital assets. The most important step is simply to create a record.

Create a digital inventory — list every account, platform, and wallet you hold. Include the type of account, the email address or username associated with it, and its approximate value or importance.
Record access information securely — store passwords, private keys, and seed phrases in a secure location separate from your will. A password manager, a physical document in a fireproof safe, or a dedicated digital vault service are all options.
Tell your executor where to look — the most detailed inventory in the world is useless if your executor does not know it exists. Make sure at least one trusted person knows where your digital records are kept.
Use platform legacy tools — set up Google Inactive Account Manager, Apple Legacy Contact, and Facebook Legacy Contact now, while you still can. These take minutes to configure and can save your family significant difficulty.
Include digital assets in your will — reference your digital assets in your will and specify your wishes for each category. Do not include passwords, but do name your digital executor and describe what you hold.

The Subscription Drain

One practical consequence of poor digital estate planning that is often overlooked is the ongoing cost of uncancelled subscriptions. The average UK household pays for multiple streaming, software, and membership services. Without a record of what subscriptions exist, an executor cannot cancel them — and they will continue charging the estate until the bank account is frozen or closed. A comprehensive digital inventory that includes subscription services, the associated payment method, and the cancellation process can save the estate hundreds of pounds and spare the executor significant administrative burden.

How YourEstateVault Helps

YourEstateVault's Digital Assets vault gives you a structured place to record every digital account and asset your executor will need to know about — from cryptocurrency wallets and online banking to social media profiles and subscription services. You record the account type, provider, username, where the access credentials are stored, and any specific instructions. Nothing is stored in the vault itself — only the record that tells your executor where to look. Everything is AES-256 encrypted in your browser before being transmitted to our servers. Your executor receives a secure summary only when you choose to share it.

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YourEstateVault's Digital Assets vault gives your executor the map they need to find and manage your online life. Free to get started. AES-256 encrypted.

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