Don’t Let Your Digital Assets Disappear: Estate Planning for Online & Crypto Property
From family photos in the cloud to Bitcoin in a cold wallet, “digital assets” now carry real financial and sentimental value. California’s Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA)—Probate Code §§ 870-884—lets you name who can access these accounts when you’re gone, but only if you take action.
What counts as a digital asset?
Social media profiles, blogs, YouTube channels
Email and cloud-storage contents
Cryptocurrency and NFTs
Online banking, PayPal/Venmo, loyalty points
Domain names and monetized gamer or influencer accounts
Best-practice checklist
Inventory & value. List every platform, wallet, or service, plus approximate balances or revenue streams. Store the list securely—never in plain text.
Use provider tools first. Facebook’s Legacy Contact, Google’s Inactive Account Manager, and Apple’s Digital Legacy all override state law. Activate them.
Grant explicit authority. Update your durable power of attorney and revocable living trust with RUFADAA language that lets fiduciaries “step into your login.”
Separate keys from instructions. Keep private keys, seed phrases, and 2FA backup codes in an encrypted vault or hardware device—not in the estate docs themselves.
Plan for taxes. Crypto gains are still capital gains; include basis records so heirs aren’t left guessing.
Set post-mortem wishes. Decide whether accounts should be memorialized, deleted, or transferred and spell it out.
Review yearly. Platforms add features and you add accounts—update accordingly.
Why it matters
Without clear authority, custodians can refuse to release content or funds, forcing heirs into costly litigation. Worse, some assets (think: crypto) may be forever inaccessible if keys are lost. Adding digital-asset clauses to your estate plan usually costs little but can preserve thousands—and priceless memories.
Shafae Law integrates digital planning into every estate package, ensuring your online life is as protected as your real-world assets.