A phone can hold far more than contacts and holiday photos. It may contain your banking apps, online business records, cryptocurrency, family videos, loyalty points and years of messages. Leaving digital assets in wills is therefore becoming a practical part of protecting the people you leave behind – but it needs to be handled carefully.
A will can tell your executors who should receive assets and who should deal with your estate. It cannot automatically give someone access to every online account, nor should it contain every password or security code. The right approach is to make clear wishes in your will, then leave safe, usable instructions for the person responsible for putting them into action.
What counts as a digital asset?
A digital asset is anything you own, control or have a meaningful interest in online or on a device. Some have a clear financial value. Others may be personally priceless, even if they cannot be sold.
Financial digital assets can include cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens, online investment accounts, money held in payment services, website domains, digital businesses, monetised social media accounts and intellectual property stored or traded online. A domain name, for example, may be central to a small business and worth protecting.
Personal digital assets include photographs stored in cloud accounts, emails, documents, family trees, blogs, music libraries and social media profiles. Your family may want to download and keep photographs, close an account, or turn a profile into a memorial. Those wishes are worth recording, rather than leaving relatives to guess at a difficult time.
The detail matters because an online account is not always an asset that can be passed on. You may own the cryptocurrency in a wallet, for instance, but only have a personal licence to use a film, e-book or music account. Each provider has its own terms and procedures after a death.
Why digital assets in wills need special care
With a house or bank account, your executors can usually identify the provider, show the death certificate and grant of probate if required, and follow an established process. Digital property is often less visible. An executor may not know an account exists, let alone where to find it.
Cryptocurrency creates a sharper risk. If no one can locate the wallet, private key or recovery phrase, the asset may be impossible to recover. Unlike a bank, there may be no customer service team able to restore access. A substantial investment can be lost simply because vital information was never left in a secure place.
There is also a privacy issue. Your will may become available to the public once probate has been granted. It is not the place for passwords, PINs, recovery phrases or answers to security questions. Putting them in the will could expose accounts and make them less safe.
Instead, use your will to appoint trustworthy executors and set out who should benefit from the asset where appropriate. Keep an up-to-date private record that tells your executors what exists and how to find the access information. This record should be stored securely and separately from the will.
What to put in your will
For many people, a general gift of the rest of their estate is enough to cover ordinary digital assets with financial value. If you leave everything to your spouse, civil partner or chosen beneficiaries, that gift can include assets that happen to be held online.
However, a specific instruction may help where an asset is valuable, unusual or intended for a particular person. You might wish to leave a website business to one beneficiary, cryptocurrency to another, or state that family photographs should be made available to your children. Clear wording can reduce arguments and make an executor’s job easier.
Your will should also appoint executors who are capable of handling the task. They do not need to be technology experts, but they need to be organised, trustworthy and willing to ask for professional help if the estate contains complex investments or a business. You can appoint more than one executor, which may be useful where one person understands the family and another understands the asset.
Avoid trying to direct an executor to break into accounts or bypass security. They must act lawfully and comply with the provider’s processes. Your wishes can explain whether you would like accounts closed, preserved or memorialised, but the provider may limit what an executor or family member can access.
Keep a separate digital asset record
A practical digital record is often the missing piece. It does not need to list every app on your phone. Focus on accounts and files that have financial value, personal value or information your executor will need.
Include the name of the service or platform, the account username or registered email address, the type of asset, where relevant documents are stored, and where your executor can find access details. For cryptoassets, record the wallet type and the location of the recovery information, without putting the recovery phrase itself into a document that others can easily read.
Review this record after major changes: opening a new investment account, buying cryptocurrency, starting a business, changing a phone, separating from a partner or moving key files to a new cloud service. An out-of-date list is better than no list, but a current one is far more useful.
How to store passwords and recovery details safely
Security and accessibility need to be balanced. A sealed letter kept with other estate-planning papers may suit some people. Others use a password manager with an emergency-access feature, or a secure physical record kept in a locked place. The best method depends on the value of the assets, your confidence with technology and who you trust.
Do not give a recovery phrase or master password casually to several relatives. It can expose you to fraud while you are alive, and it can create confusion over who has authority after you die. Tell your executors that the record exists, where it is held and how they can access it at the right time.
If you use two-factor authentication, think about what happens to the device or telephone number that receives verification codes. Your executor may need to retain your mobile phone temporarily, contact the provider, or use another lawful recovery route. This is one reason a simple inventory is more useful than leaving your family a pile of unexplained devices.
Common mistakes that leave families stuck
The first is assuming that a partner knows everything. Even close couples often use separate email addresses, cloud storage, wallets and banking apps. A conversation now can spare them a frustrating search later.
The second is treating passwords as the entire plan. Passwords may change, accounts may be closed and providers may still require formal evidence of authority. Your will, executor appointment and digital record need to work together.
The third is forgetting that digital life can have sentimental value. A family photo library may be the only copy of pictures from a child’s early years or a relative’s wedding. Decide whether you want those files preserved, shared or deleted, and say so clearly.
Finally, do not rely on an informal note alone where money or ownership is involved. A properly made will remains the foundation for deciding who receives your estate. If your circumstances are more complex – for example, you own a business, substantial cryptoassets or assets across different countries – tailored legal advice may be sensible.
A simple way to get started
Set aside half an hour to make a list of the digital accounts and files that would matter if you were no longer able to explain them. Mark which ones have financial value, which hold irreplaceable memories, and which should be closed. Then check that your will names executors you trust and reflects who you want to benefit.
Making or updating a will does not have to be daunting. English Wills is designed to help ordinary households put clear wishes in place without turning a straightforward task into an expensive legal ordeal. The most helpful gift you can leave is not every password written down in one place, but a clear plan that gives your family the authority and guidance to act with confidence.