Digital Assets in Your Will: Accounts, Photos, Crypto and Passwords

What counts as a digital asset?

The model law most states use defines a digital asset as "an electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest" (RUFADAA §2). That covers email and messages, photos and files in the cloud, social media, cryptocurrency, domain names, websites and online businesses.

Digital purchases are trickier. Apple, for example, says movies, music, books and subscriptions bought with your account aren't available to a Legacy Contact (Apple).

What is RUFADAA, and does your state have it?

The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) is a model law the Uniform Law Commission approved in 2015. It governs what your executor, trustee or agent under a power of attorney can get from online companies. As of October 2026, the commission lists it as enacted in 47 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands (Uniform Law Commission).

The exceptions are Delaware, which has its own digital-assets law (12 Del. C. ch. 50), Louisiana and Massachusetts, where a bill has been introduced. If you live in one of those states, ask a local attorney how your instructions will be treated.

RUFADAA sets a clear order of priority:

By default, your executor can get a list of who you communicated with and when, plus your other digital assets, but not the content of your messages. The content is released only if you consented or a court orders it (RUFADAA §§4, 7, 8). Even then, the company can choose to give full access, partial access or copies, and it doesn't have to hand over anything you deleted.

How do Apple, Google and Facebook handle death?

All three let you plan ahead. These settings are the kind of "online tool" RUFADAA puts first, so make sure they match your will.

Sources: Apple, adding a Legacy Contact; Apple, requesting access; Google Account Help; Facebook Help Center. On Facebook you can instead choose to have your account permanently deleted.

Why shouldn't passwords go in your will?

• A probated will is usually public. Once it's filed with the court, anyone may be able to read it. One California court puts it plainly: "Probate records are public records subject to public view and copying" unless sealed or made confidential by law (Sacramento Superior Court).
• Passwords change; wills don't. Updating a will means signing a new will or codicil with witnesses. A list in the will goes stale fast.
• Logging in as you isn't the same as authority. Under RUFADAA, your executor's authority is still subject to each site's terms of service and "may not be used to impersonate the user" (§15).

Instead, use your will to grant authority, and keep the keys elsewhere. Write an inventory of your accounts, without passwords, and store it with your other estate papers. A letter of wishes can explain what you want done with each account.

How do password managers' emergency access features work?

Some password managers let you name someone in advance. With Bitwarden's emergency access, a premium feature, your trusted contact requests access, a waiting period you set must pass, and you can reject the request in the meantime. You choose whether they can only view your vault or take it over (Bitwarden).

1Password instead suggests giving someone you trust a copy of your Emergency Kit, which holds your sign-in details and Secret Key (1Password). Keep it with your important papers, not inside the will. Features change, so check your password manager's current help pages.

How do you pass on cryptocurrency?

The IRS treats digital assets such as crypto as property, not currency (IRS), so it belongs to your estate like any other investment. Your will can name who inherits it.

The hard part is access. The SEC warns that "if you lose your private key, you permanently lose access to the crypto assets in your wallet." A seed phrase can restore a wallet, so the SEC also advises storing it securely and never sharing it (SEC investor bulletin, December 2025).

• Crypto on an exchange: list the exchange in your inventory, so your executor knows to contact it.
• Crypto you hold yourself: record where the hardware wallet and seed phrase are kept, such as a safe or safe-deposit box your executor can open. Never write the seed phrase in your will.
• Large holdings: an attorney can help you set up access that doesn't depend on one person.

What about domain names, websites and online businesses?

Domain names are registered for a set term and must be renewed. Registrars must send at least two renewal reminders, about a month and a week before expiration, to the email on file (ICANN). If no one is reading your email after you die, a valuable domain can lapse. Turn on auto-renew, list your registrar in your inventory, and say in your will who gets the domain.

For an online business, list every platform it depends on, such as your store, payment processor and ad accounts, and note who already has administrator access. Where a platform allows it, add a trusted backup administrator now. If the business is a company, its operating agreement or bylaws may also control who takes over.

How do you add digital assets to your estate plan?

1. Make an inventory of accounts, devices and crypto, without passwords.
2. Turn on platform tools at Apple, Google, Facebook and any other service that offers one.
3. Set up emergency access in your password manager, or store your master password securely.
4. Give consent in writing. If you want your executor to read your messages, your will, trust or power of attorney must say so. A power of attorney covers message content only if it expressly grants that authority (RUFADAA §9).
5. Name who inherits digital property with real value, such as crypto or a domain.
6. Review it yearly.

Our free will builder needs no account and keeps your answers in your browser. It doesn't add a digital-assets consent clause, so for message access, use the platforms' own tools, which take priority anyway, or ask an attorney to add consent language. See what to include in a will for the rest of your plan.