TL;DR

• A will covers who inherits your property. It says nothing about your online accounts, passwords, or crypto, that gap is what digital estate planning closes.
• Start with a full inventory of your digital assets (accounts, subscriptions, crypto, domains), then document access credentials for each one.
• Appoint a digital executor (sometimes called a digital fiduciary), a person legally named to carry out your digital wishes, separate from your general estate executor unless you choose to combine the roles.
• Most U.S. states have adopted RUFADAA, the law that decides whether your family can legally access your accounts at all. It works on a three-tier hierarchy, platform tools first, then your will, then the platform’s default terms of service, so keeping platform-level settings in sync with your plan matters.
• Handing your family a password list isn’t the same as a legal plan, without proper authorization, using someone else’s login after they’ve died can technically run afoul of unauthorized computer access laws.
• Review your plan at least once a year. If you only do one thing today, name a digital executor and write down where your accounts live.

How Much Money Goes Unclaimed After Death in the US?

More than $70 billion in assets sit unclaimed across the United States right now.

This wasn’t for the lack of a plan. More importantly, it’s because their families didn’t know the assets existed.

According to NAUPA (the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators), roughly 1 in 10 Americans have unclaimed property sitting with a state government right now.

These aren’t just the estates of the ultra-wealthy. These are everyday families. People with retirement accounts from old jobs, insurance policies tucked away and forgotten, savings accounts that were never mentioned, and investment apps that only one person knew about.

Only about 5% of unclaimed property gets claimed each year. The rest sits idle, sometimes for decades.

What Is Digital Estate Planning?

Digital estate planning is the process of organizing and securing your financial accounts, digital assets, passwords, policies, and important documents in one central place so your family can find and access everything when needed.

It works alongside a will or trust by covering the practical details that legal documents don’t address: online account logins, cryptocurrency wallets, cloud storage, subscription services, and digital records. While traditional estate planning defines who inherits, digital estate planning ensures your family knows where things are, how to access them, and what to do next.

It’s less paperwork and more a gift that removes the burden of uncertainty from the people you love most.

Digital estate planning also has a legal backbone. Most U.S. states have adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), the law that determines whether a company will actually grant your family or executor (sometimes called a digital fiduciary) access to your accounts after you die.

RUFADAA works on three tiers, and most people have never heard of any of them:

• Tier 1: If the platform itself offers a tool to designate what happens after you die (Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Facebook’s Legacy Contact), that setting wins, regardless of what your will says.
• Tier 2: If no such tool exists or was never set up, your will or another legal document determines who gets access.
• Tier 3: If neither exists, the platform’s own terms of service decide, and those almost always default to restricting access to the original account holder only.

This is why a documented digital estate plan matters even if you’ve technically complied with RUFADAA: a forgotten or outdated platform-level setting (a dead man’s switch you set up years ago and forgot about) can override your actual current wishes. Part of maintaining a digital estate plan is checking these platform tools stay consistent with it.

A small but important caveat: RUFADAA adoption isn’t universal. Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Louisiana are commonly cited as the remaining holdouts that haven’t fully adopted it (sources vary slightly on the exact current list, so confirm your specific state with an attorney). In those states, access to digital accounts after death typically falls back on general fiduciary law and each platform’s own terms of service, which makes a documented digital estate plan even more important, not less.

Handing your family a printed list of your passwords is not the same as a digital estate plan, and it may not even be legal. Under federal and state unauthorized computer access laws, logging into someone else’s account after they’ve died, even with their old password and even if they clearly would have wanted you to, can technically be treated the same as hacking if you don’t have documented legal authority to do so. A digital estate plan that names a digital executor and is referenced in your will or power of attorney gives that person actual legal standing, a password list alone does not.

Will vs. Trust vs. Digital Estate Plan: What Each One Actually Covers

Most articles on this topic explain digital estate planning in isolation. Here’s how it actually compares to the tools you may already have, side by side, which is the comparison people are really trying to make:

What You Need Covered	Will	Trust (Schedule A)	Digital Estate Plan
Who inherits your property	Yes	Yes	No, works alongside a will/trust
Online account logins & passwords	No	No	Yes
Stays current as accounts change	No, requires a new will	No, requires attorney update	Yes, built to be updated by you
Cryptocurrency wallet access	Rarely addressed	Rarely addressed	Yes
Legally recognized digital executor	Only if explicitly named	Only if explicitly named	Yes, when named in the plan
Becomes public record	Yes, after probate	No	No

What Does a Will Not Cover?

Only 24% of Americans have a will, according to Caring.com’s 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, down from 33% in 2022. But even those who do are leaving significant gaps they may not realize exist.

A will says who gets what. It doesn’t say where things are, how to log in, or what password unlocks which account.

Consider what the average person holds that typically appears in no will or trust:

• Online banking logins
• Investment app accounts
• Cryptocurrency wallets
• PayPal and Venmo balances
• Email accounts
• Cloud storage with years of family photos
• Subscription services still billing monthly after death
• Social media accounts
• Loyalty and airline miles programs
• Domain names
• Online businesses or side income streams

One category people consistently forget: digital media libraries, iTunes, Kindle books, Spotify playlists, Steam game libraries. In almost every case, you never actually owned that music, those books, or those games, you paid for a license to use them under that platform’s terms of service. That license usually isn’t transferable, so your family may lose access entirely unless the platform specifically allows account succession. A will can’t fix this; only checking each platform’s own policy can.

The average person now manages well over 100 personal online accounts, by some estimates as many as 168 logins and passwords, according to NordPass’s password research. That’s a lot of access points that a will says nothing about.

How many of your accounts could your family find right now? Start organizing them for free.

Why Other Backup Plans Still Fall Short

• Trusts (Schedule A): If you have a trust, it likely includes Schedule A, the document that lists the assets the trust controls. It’s created when you sign the trust, but life keeps moving, new brokerage accounts, closed savings accounts, crypto purchases, switched insurance providers. Unless you return to your attorney and pay to update Schedule A every time something changes, the list quietly falls behind, and most people never update it. The legal system only honors what’s written, if an asset isn’t listed, it isn’t covered.
  
• Spreadsheets and password managers: Many people try to solve this on their own with a spreadsheet, a shared folder, or a password manager. It’s a thoughtful instinct, and for a while it works, until links break, files get moved, or the master password holder is the one person who died. The real question isn’t whether the system was well-built, it’s whether your family knows it exists, knows where it is, and knows how to use it. Even the most organized people build systems that depend entirely on them being alive to explain them.
  
• Relying on one person: Many families depend on a single person, a lawyer, a financial advisor, a spouse, an adult child, to hold all the information. But what happens if that lawyer retires, the advisor moves firms, the family member relocates, or the spouse is the one who passes first? What if your family doesn’t even know who that person is? One person is one point of failure, and it usually breaks at the worst possible moment, when your family is grieving and least equipped to go searching.

Don’t let your family’s access depend on one person. See how SmartHeritance works.

What Happens When a Family Has No Digital Estate Plan?

Here’s a scenario that plays out more often than it should:

A 45-year-old professional passes away suddenly. He was responsible. He had a will. He believed his family was covered.

But his investment accounts had changed since the will was written. His cryptocurrency wallet passwords were never recorded anywhere. His online financial apps appeared in no document. His wife didn’t know which bank held which account.

His family spent months calling banks, digging through old emails, and working with attorneys. The administrative weight compounded the grief. Every phone call was a reminder of the loss.

In the end, tens of thousands of dollars were unrecoverable. Not because he didn’t care. Because there was no system in place to make the information available when it was needed.

This is a story repeated across thousands of households every year. The difference between them and yours is whether a plan exists before it’s needed.

How Digital Estate Planning Works

The common thread running through every approach above (wills, trusts, spreadsheets, one trusted person) is that they are all static. They capture a snapshot of your life at one moment and assume nothing will change.

Digital estate planning solves this by creating a living record: a single, secure place that holds all your accounts, assets, passwords, policies, and instructions, and stays current as your life evolves.

A living record doesn’t replace your will or trust. It makes them work. Your will says who inherits. Your living record tells them where to find everything and how to access it.

A complete digital estate plan addresses four things:

• A full inventory of all financial, digital, and personal assets
• Secure storage for account credentials and access instructions
• A system that stays updated as your life changes
• A mechanism that shares the right information with the right people at the right time

This is what separates digital estate planning from a spreadsheet or a filing cabinet. It isn’t just about storing information. It’s about ensuring that information reaches your family when they need it, without them having to search, guess, or wait.

How to Create a Digital Estate Plan

A digital estate plan comes together in five steps. Skipping any one of them is usually what causes the gaps described above.

Inventory Your Digital Assets

Start with a full list: online banking and investment accounts, cryptocurrency wallets, PayPal and Venmo, email, cloud storage, subscriptions, social media, loyalty and airline miles programs, domain names, digital media libraries, and any online business you run. If it requires a login, it belongs on this list. Our guide to securing digital assets after death walks through this inventory step in more depth.

Use the checklist table below as a starting template:

Asset Category	Examples	Recorded? (Y/N)
Financial accounts	Banking, investment, PayPal, Venmo
Cryptocurrency	Wallets, exchange accounts, seed phrases
Communication	Email, cloud storage, messaging apps
Subscriptions & media	Streaming, software, memberships, digital libraries
Social & identity	Social media, domain names, online businesses

While you’re at it, this is also a good time to close old, unused accounts you no longer need, fewer forgotten accounts means fewer gaps for your family to chase down later.

Document Access and Credentials

For each item on your inventory, record how to access it: usernames, passwords, two-factor recovery methods, and answers to security questions. This is the step most people skip, and it’s the one that actually determines whether your family can get in. Password managers alone don’t solve this, see why spreadsheets and password managers fail after death, above.

Also check your platform-level “dead man’s switch” settings, tools like Google’s Inactive Account Manager or Facebook’s Legacy Contact, since these can override your digital estate plan under RUFADAA’s Tier 1 rule if they’re out of date.

Decide How Each Asset Is Distributed

Not everything should be inherited. Some accounts should be transferred, some memorialized, some simply deleted. Decide this in advance so your family isn’t guessing during a moment when they have no bandwidth to guess. This applies as much to cryptocurrency as it does to social accounts, and remember that digital media libraries may not be transferable at all under the platform’s license terms.

Appoint a Digital Executor

A digital executor (or digital fiduciary) is the person you designate to carry out these instructions after you die, distinct from the executor named in your will, though it can be the same person. Choose someone comfortable navigating accounts and platforms, give them your inventory and access instructions, and name them formally in your will, trust, or power of attorney so the role is legally recognized, this is also what protects them from the unauthorized-access risk described earlier.

Review and Update Regularly

New accounts get opened, old ones get closed, and passwords change. Review your digital estate plan at least once a year, or any time you open a new account or change a password. This connects to the broader idea of digital legacy planning, treating your plan as ongoing, not a one-time document.

How SmartHeritance Makes Digital Estate Planning Simple

SmartHeritance was built specifically to close every gap described above. Here’s how it maps to each one:

• Your will doesn’t know your passwords: SmartHeritance stores all your accounts, credentials, policies, and documents in one secure, encrypted vault. Add or update anything in minutes. No lawyer required.
  
• Your asset list is outdated: SmartSync (patent-pending) automatically scans your email and surfaces accounts you may have forgotten, old retirement plans, insurance policies, subscriptions. Your records stay current without you having to remember to update them.
  
• Spreadsheets break down: One organized platform replaces scattered files, folders, and password managers. Your family doesn’t need to search. Everything is already structured and ready for them.
  
• One person isn’t enough: The Wellness Protocol monitors your wellbeing and automatically releases information to your chosen beneficiaries at the right time. No single person needs to hold everything. No one needs to be “the keeper.”
  
• Families spend months searching: Your loved ones receive secure, organized access to exactly what they need immediately. No months of phone calls. No lost assets. No guessing.
  
• A password list isn’t legal authority: Naming a digital executor inside SmartHeritance and referencing it in your will gives that person documented, legal standing, not just a list of logins.

“Finally, there is peace of mind regarding the loss of assets and what might happen if an unforeseen accident occurs.” — Venky, Small Business Owner, Los Angeles

“The wellness and personalized checks give me peace of mind to know that if something does happen, my family will receive all of the information they need.” — Adam, Product Executive, Chicago

Start Your Digital Estate Plan Today

Every day without a plan is another day your family would have to figure it out alone. If that feels uncomfortable to read, it’s meant to, because it’s also entirely preventable.

“I’ll do it later.” It takes less than 10 minutes to get started. You’ll spend more time deciding what to watch tonight.

“It’s probably expensive.” Plans start at $2.99/month, less than a coffee. There’s a free trial with no credit card required.

“I’m not sure I trust it.” SmartHeritance was built by a cybersecurity expert. It uses bank-grade encryption and a zero-knowledge architecture. Even SmartHeritance cannot see your data. Only you and the people you choose ever can. 

“I’m too young for this.” The 45-year-old in the story above thought the same.

Build Your Digital Estate Plan Checklist Free. No Credit Card Needed. Take a Guided Tour.

If you already have a will, SmartHeritance completes the picture. If you don’t, it gives you the strongest possible start.

Frequently Asked Questions