How to Include Your Digital Assets in Your Estate Plan

A generation ago, sorting out someone's affairs after they died meant going through paperwork, bank statements and a filing cabinet. Today, a huge part of your financial and personal life sits behind passwords - online banking, investments, cryptocurrency, email, years of photos, social media, maybe an online business. If no one can get to those accounts when you're gone, they can be locked away or lost entirely, sometimes for good.

This guide explains what digital assets are, why they're so easily lost, the particular trap of putting passwords in your will, and the practical steps to make sure your digital life passes safely to the people you choose. It's an increasingly important part of estate planning that most people haven't thought about.

What counts as a digital asset

A digital asset is anything you own, control or have value in that exists in digital form. They fall loosely into two groups.

*Assets with financial value:*

• *Cryptocurrency* held in wallets or on exchanges.
• *Online banking, investment and trading accounts* (including platforms like EasyEquities).
• *PayPal or other digital payment balances.*
• *An online business*, e-commerce store, or a website or domain name with value.
• *Loyalty points and rewards* that can be worth real money.

*Assets with personal or sentimental value:*

• *Photos and videos* stored in the cloud (Google Photos, iCloud, and so on).
• *Email accounts*, which often hold years of correspondence and act as the "key" to resetting other accounts.
• *Social media accounts* - Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and others.
• *Documents and files* in cloud storage.

Some of these are worth money; some are priceless to your family even though they're worth nothing financially. Both deserve a plan.

Why digital assets get lost

The problem is access. Your executor can take control of a bank account or a house with the right paperwork, but digital accounts are different:

• *No one knows they exist.* If your family doesn't know you held cryptocurrency or had a particular account, they can't look for it. It simply vanishes.
• *No one can get in.* Without your login details, accounts are locked. Providers won't simply hand over a password, and their terms of service often prohibit sharing accounts even with family.
• *Some assets are irreversible.* This is most acute with cryptocurrency. If the private keys or recovery phrase are lost, the crypto is gone permanently - there's no bank to phone, no "forgot password" link, no way to recover it. Real wealth has been lost this way forever.
• *Providers have their own processes.* Getting access to a deceased person's account from a tech company can be slow, restrictive, or impossible, depending on the platform and what proof is available.

The result is that, without planning, parts of your estate can be effectively destroyed at the moment you die - not because of tax or debt, but simply because the keys went with you.

The password trap: don't put logins in your will

Here's a mistake that seems sensible but is genuinely dangerous: *do not write your passwords, PINs or crypto recovery phrases into your will.*

The reason is that a will doesn't stay private. Once a will is lodged with the Master of the High Court as part of administering your estate, it becomes part of the estate record and can be accessed - it's not a confidential document. Anything written in it, including passwords or a crypto seed phrase, could be exposed to people you never intended to see it. By the time the will is being read, those credentials might also be out of date.

So the principle is: *your will can refer to your digital assets and give your executor authority to deal with them, but the actual access details must be kept separately and securely.*

How to plan for your digital assets

A workable digital estate plan comes down to four things: knowing what you have, making access possible for the right person, leaving clear instructions, and keeping it all current.

1. Make an inventory

Write down a list of your digital assets and accounts - what they are and where they live. Include your important email accounts, banking and investment platforms, any crypto (and where it's held), social media, cloud storage, domains, and online businesses. You don't need to put passwords on this list - just enough for someone to know what exists and where to look. Keep the list somewhere safe and remember to update it as your accounts change.

2. Store access securely

Decide how a trusted person will actually get in when the time comes, without exposing your credentials now. Common approaches:

• *A reputable password manager* that offers an emergency or legacy access feature, where a person you nominate can request access after a set waiting period. This keeps all your logins in one encrypted place and controls who can reach them.
• *A securely stored written record* of key access details, kept separately from your will - for example, in a sealed document with your attorney, in a safe, or with your bank - with instructions left in (or alongside) your will telling your executor that it exists and how to find it.

The point is to separate the existence of the instructions (which your will or executor can know about) from the contents (which stay protected until needed).

3. Use the platforms' built-in legacy tools

Several major services now let you decide in advance what happens to your account. It's worth setting these up directly:

• *Apple* offers a Legacy Contact, letting you nominate someone who can access your account data after you die.
• *Google* has an Inactive Account Manager, which can share your data with a chosen person or delete your account after a period of inactivity.
• *Facebook* lets you appoint a legacy contact and choose whether your account is memorialised or deleted.

Setting these up while you're alive is far easier than your family fighting through a provider's bereavement process later.

4. Handle cryptocurrency with special care

Because crypto is irreversible, it needs its own clear plan. Make sure your *recovery phrase or private keys are securely stored (never in the will, and ideally not anywhere easily stolen), and leave clear, careful instructions* for a trusted person on how to access the wallet - while keeping those instructions secure. Balance two risks: if the details are too hidden, the crypto is lost forever; if they're too exposed, it could be stolen while you're alive. A password manager with legacy access, or split, secured instructions, can help strike that balance.

5. Mention digital assets in your will (in general terms)

In your will, you can give your executor explicit authority to access, manage, distribute or close your digital assets and accounts, and state your wishes - for instance, that certain photos should be preserved and passed to family, that a social media account should be memorialised or deleted, or that any crypto should pass to a named person. Keep it general and instructional; the credentials stay in your secure, separate record. Our guides on writing a will and what an executor does explain how this fits into the bigger picture.

A note on privacy

Bear in mind that your digital life contains a lot of private information, and the people accessing it will see it. Think about what you're comfortable sharing and with whom, and choose your nominated person accordingly. South Africa's privacy law (POPIA) governs personal information generally, but there's currently no dedicated South African statute spelling out exactly how digital assets pass on death - which is all the more reason to leave clear instructions yourself rather than relying on a default.

Key takeaways

• *Digital assets* include crypto, online accounts, an online business, and personal items like photos and email - some hold money, some hold memories.
• Without planning, they're easily *lost: no one knows they exist, no one can get in, and some (like crypto) are irreversible*.
• *Never put passwords or crypto recovery phrases in your will* - it can become a publicly accessible document.
• Make an *inventory, store access securely and separately (a password manager with legacy access works well), and set up platforms' built-in legacy tools*.
• In your will, give your executor *authority and instructions* for your digital assets in general terms, keeping the actual credentials in a protected record.

Your next step

Spend half an hour making a simple inventory of your digital life - your key email accounts, banking and investment platforms, any cryptocurrency, social media and cloud storage. Then set up a password manager with a legacy or emergency contact, or arrange a secure separate record of access, and tell your executor it exists. If you hold cryptocurrency, sort its recovery details out carefully now - it's the one asset that's gone for good if the keys are lost.

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always consult a qualified financial professional before making any financial decisions.

This is educational content, not financial advice. Consider your own situation, and speak to a registered adviser before making decisions.