What Happens to Your Digital Assets When You Die? A UK Guide

When people think about writing a will, they think about the house, the savings, the jewellery. What most people forget is the other life they have built — the one that lives entirely online.

Email accounts, social media profiles, cloud photo libraries, cryptocurrency wallets, domain names, online businesses, streaming subscriptions, PayPal balances, loyalty points, digital music libraries. All of it has value, sentimental or financial, and almost none of it is covered by a standard DIY will template.

Here is what happens to your digital life when you die — and what you can do about it now.

What Counts as a Digital Asset?

A digital asset is anything you own or control that exists in electronic form. That includes:

• Email accounts — Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and work email
• Social media — Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok
• Photos and videos — iCloud, Google Photos, Dropbox, external hard drives
• Financial accounts — online banking, PayPal, investment platforms, pension portals
• Cryptocurrency — Bitcoin, Ethereum, and any tokens held in digital wallets
• Online businesses — websites, domain names, e-commerce shops, advertising revenue
• Subscriptions — Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, software licences
• Loyalty points and air miles — some have real monetary value and may be transferable
• Digital purchases — Kindle books, iTunes music, app purchases, gaming accounts

Some of these have clear financial value. Others have enormous sentimental value — decades of family photographs stored in the cloud, for example. And some, like active subscriptions, simply need to be cancelled to stop money draining from your accounts after you have gone.

The Problem: Your Family Cannot Access Any of It

When someone dies, their family often discovers that they cannot access any of the deceased person's online accounts. Passwords are unknown. Two-factor authentication is tied to a locked phone. And most online platforms have their own rules about what happens to an account when its owner dies — rules that rarely align with what your family actually needs.

Without clear instructions, your family may face:

• Months of bureaucratic requests to close or memorialise social media accounts
• Permanent loss of photos, videos, and messages stored only in the cloud
• Inability to access cryptocurrency holdings — potentially worth thousands — because no one knows the private key
• Ongoing subscription charges to accounts nobody can cancel
• An online business or website going offline with no one able to maintain it

For families across London and Surrey, the frustration of dealing with digital accounts on top of grief and probate is increasingly common — and entirely preventable with a little planning.

What the Major Platforms Do

Each platform handles death differently:

• Google — offers an Inactive Account Manager that lets you choose what happens to your data after a period of inactivity, including sharing it with nominated contacts or deleting it entirely
• Facebook / Meta — allows you to nominate a legacy contact who can manage a memorialised version of your profile, or request account deletion after death
• Apple — introduced a Digital Legacy programme letting you name legacy contacts who can request access to your iCloud data after your death
• Microsoft — will provide limited access to a deceased person's Outlook account with a court order, but the process is slow
• Most banks — online access is typically suspended on notification of death, with the executor then dealing with the bank directly through the probate process

The common thread is that all of these require either advance setup by you, or a lengthy process by your executor after you have died. Planning ahead saves your family significant time and stress.

Cryptocurrency: A Special Case

Cryptocurrency is the single most important digital asset to plan for, because it is the one your family is most likely to lose permanently if you do not.

Unlike a bank account, there is no institution your executor can contact to recover funds. If your Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other crypto is held in a personal wallet (rather than an exchange), the private key or seed phrase is the only way to access it. If that key dies with you, the cryptocurrency is gone — permanently and irrecoverably.

If you hold any cryptocurrency, you should:

• Record which platforms and wallets you use
• Store your private keys and seed phrases securely — not in your will itself (which becomes a public document after probate), but in a sealed envelope held by your executor or in a secure location referenced in your will
• Make sure your executor knows this information exists and where to find it

How to Include Digital Assets in Your Will

The good news is that including digital assets in your will is straightforward. Here is a practical approach:

1. Make a Digital Asset Inventory

Create a list of your important digital accounts, including the platform name, your username or email address, and what the account contains or is worth. You do not need to put passwords in the list itself — just enough information for your executor to know what exists and where to start.

2. Store Access Information Securely

Passwords and access credentials should be stored separately from your will, in a secure location your executor can reach. Options include a sealed envelope in a home safe, a password manager whose master password is shared with your executor, or a secure document stored with your will writer. Never put passwords in the will itself — after probate, wills become public documents.

3. Name a Digital Executor

You can appoint the same executor who handles your wider estate, or name someone more tech-savvy as a specific digital executor. Either way, make sure the person you choose understands the basics of the platforms you use and knows what you want done with each account — closed, memorialised, transferred, or preserved.

4. Set Up Platform-Specific Tools

Take advantage of the legacy features offered by Google, Apple, Facebook, and other platforms now, while you are alive and able to set them up. These are free, take only a few minutes, and can save your family weeks of frustration.

5. Review Regularly

Digital lives change fast. New accounts, new platforms, new investments. Review your digital asset inventory as part of the regular will review recommended in our guide to when to update your will.

What About Sentimental Digital Assets?

Financial value aside, many people's most irreplaceable possessions now exist only digitally. Tens of thousands of family photographs in Google Photos or iCloud. Years of personal emails. Video messages from loved ones. Creative work, writing, music.

If these matter to you — and for most families they matter enormously — make sure someone can access them. A professional will writer can help you think through what you have, what matters most, and how to protect it.

How Abrahams Wills Can Help

When I visit clients at home across Kingston, Richmond, Twickenham, and throughout London and Surrey, digital assets are increasingly part of the conversation. I help you think through what you own online, how to document it securely, and how to include it in a properly drafted will — so nothing valuable or irreplaceable is lost.

As a member of The Society of Will Writers, I offer home visits 7 days a week, daytime or evening, to discuss your complete estate — physical and digital.