Your Digital Assets: How to Protect Your Digital Assets
Managing Your Digital EstateKey Takeaways
- What is a digital legacy? The sum of all your online accounts, digital files, and electronic assets — and the plan you leave behind for how they should be handled after you’re gone.
- What counts as a digital asset? Anything stored or accessed electronically: email accounts, social media profiles, online banking, cloud storage (photos, videos, documents), streaming subscriptions, domain names, and cryptocurrency.
- Who can access my accounts when I die? That depends on whether you’ve set up a legacy tool on the platform, named someone in your estate documents, or left no instructions at all — in which case the platform’s Terms of Service control the outcome.
- Is there a law that covers this? Yes. The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) has been adopted by more than 40 states and gives fiduciaries a legal pathway to manage digital assets after death or incapacity.
- What should I do right now? Create an inventory of your accounts, set up legacy tools on major platforms (Google, Apple, Facebook), and document your wishes in a secure location your family can find.
Most of us manage more of our lives online than we realize. Email accounts, social media profiles, cloud photo libraries, online banking, streaming services, cryptocurrency — the average person has dozens of active digital accounts, and that number grows every year.
When you die, those accounts don’t disappear. Instead, they sit in place, sometimes indefinitely, while your family figures out what to do with them — often without knowing what you had, how to access it, or what you would have wanted.
A digital legacy plan changes that. It’s a record of your digital accounts, your wishes for each one, and the information your family or executor will need to carry those wishes out. This guide walks you through everything: what counts as a digital asset, what the law says about access, how the major platforms handle accounts after death, and the steps to create a plan that actually works.
What Counts as a Digital Asset?
Under RUFADAA — the federal framework most states have adopted — a digital asset is any electronic record in which you have a right or interest. In practice, that covers a wide range of things people rarely think of as “assets.” We discuss RUFADAA in more detail below.
Financial Digital Assets
- Online banking and investment accounts
- PayPal, Venmo, Cash App balances
- Cryptocurrency and NFTs (Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others stored in wallets or on exchanges)
- Rewards points, airline miles, and gift card balances
Personal and Sentimental Assets
- Email accounts (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.)
- Cloud photo and video libraries (iCloud, Google Photos, Amazon Photos)
- Social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok)
- Personal blogs, websites, and online journals
- Digital documents stored in cloud services (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive)
Subscriptions and Accounts
- Streaming services (Netflix, Spotify, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime)
- Shopping accounts with stored payment methods or order history (Amazon, eBay, Etsy)
- Gaming accounts with in-game purchases or digital collections
- Domain names and website hosting accounts
One important distinction: many digital “assets” are actually licenses, not property you own outright. Your iTunes music library, your Kindle books, and your Netflix account are licensed to you personally. They typically cannot be transferred to a beneficiary the way a bank account can. Knowing which of your assets are truly transferable and which aren’t is an important part of planning.
Creating Your Digital Legacy Plan: Five Steps
- Take inventory of your digital accounts.
List every significant account you have — financial, personal, social, and subscription. Include the service name, the email address or username associated with it, and any notes about what’s stored there. Prioritize by importance. A password manager with emergency access features can help organize this, or you can use a written record kept in a secure location.
- Set up legacy tools on major platforms.
For Google, Apple, and Facebook, this takes less than ten minutes each and has the highest legal priority under RUFADAA. Don’t skip this step — it’s more reliable than putting access instructions in a will.
- Document your wishes for each account.
For every significant account, decide whether it should be memorialized, deleted, downloaded and archived, or transferred. Who should handle it? Note anything the person needs to know that isn’t covered by the platform’s tools.
- Name a digital executor and update your legal documents.
Name your digital executor in your will and make sure your estate planning documents specifically reference digital assets — not just “all property.” If you hold cryptocurrency, your estate documents should explicitly address it, including where to find wallet access information.
- Store your information securely and keep it current.
Your inventory and instructions should be stored somewhere secure — a fireproof safe, a safe-deposit box, or an encrypted digital vault. Consider storing your account list and your passwords separately for added security. Review and update everything at least once a year, or any time you open a new account.
The Digital Executor
A digital executor is the person you designate to carry out your wishes for your online accounts and digital files. They work alongside the executor of your estate but focus specifically on digital assets.
Tasks you can assign to your digital executor include:
- Notifying online contacts, communities, or followers of your death
- Transferring financial balances (PayPal, crypto, rewards points) to your heirs
- Archiving photos, videos, and personal files for family members
- Closing or canceling subscriptions and shopping accounts
- Memorializing or deleting social media profiles according to your wishes
- Managing or transferring blogs, websites, and domain names
When choosing your digital executor, think about trust, technical comfort, and discretion. This person may need to handle sensitive personal information and navigate platform-specific processes that aren’t always straightforward. Name this person explicitly in your will — and make sure they know you’ve done so.
The Legal Landscape: RUFADAA Explained
RUFADAA (the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act) is the law that governs whether a family member or executor can legally access a loved one’s online accounts after death or incapacity. Most U.S. states have adopted some version of RUFADAA. It gives fiduciaries (executors, trustees, agents under a power of attorney, or court-appointed guardians) a clear legal path to manage digital assets like email, social media, and cloud storage — something that simply didn’t exist before it was introduced.
RUFADAA works on a three-tier priority system. Understanding it helps explain why setting up platform legacy tools matters, and why leaving no instructions at all is the worst outcome for your family.
| Priority Level | Source of Authority | What It Means |
| Tier 1 (Highest Priority) | Platform legacy tools | If you set up a legacy tool on the platform itself (Google Inactive Account Manager, Apple Legacy Contact, Facebook Memorialization Settings), those instructions take priority over everything else, including your will. |
| Tier 2 | Your estate planning documents | If no platform tool is set up, your will, trust, or power of attorney controls, but only if it specifically names digital assets. A generic grant of authority over “all property” may not be enough. |
| Tier 3 (Last Resort) | Platform Terms of Service | If you’ve done neither, the platform’s own rules apply. Most default to restricting access or deleting accounts, which is rarely what families expect. |
A few important things RUFADAA does not do automatically: it doesn’t give your fiduciary access to the content of your private messages (emails, DMs) unless you’ve explicitly authorized it in your estate documents. And it works alongside platform Terms of Service, not over them — which is why Tier 1 (platform tools) takes priority.
Note on cryptocurrency: Crypto is covered under RUFADAA as a digital asset, but legal and practical access are different. Even if your executor has legal authority to access your crypto accounts, they also need private keys or seed phrases to do anything with a self-custodied wallet. Documenting this information securely — and making sure someone trusted knows where to find it — is essential.
What the Major Platforms Offer
Several major platforms now offer built-in tools for designating what happens to your account after death. These are the highest-priority instructions under RUFADAA — they override your will if they conflict. Setting them up takes only a few minutes and can save your family significant time and difficulty.
| Platform | Tool Name | What It Does | Where to Find It |
| Facebook / Meta | Memorialization Settings | Designate a legacy contact to manage your memorialized profile, or request deletion | Settings > Accounts Center > Personal Details > Account Ownership and Control |
| Google (Gmail, Drive, YouTube, Photos) | Inactive Account Manager | Choose trusted contacts to receive data or delete your account after a period of inactivity you define | myaccount.google.com/inactive |
| Apple (iCloud, Photos, iMessage) | Legacy Contact | Designate someone who can access your Apple account data after death using an access key | Settings > [Your Name] > Sign-In & Security > Legacy Contact |
| Memorialization Request | Request to memorialize or remove an account after death; no pre-death designee option | Help Center > Privacy & Safety > Memorialization | |
| Deceased Member Removal | Family can request removal; no pre-death legacy tool is available | Help Center > Deceased LinkedIn Member | |
| X / Twitter | Deceased User Policy | Verified family members can request deactivation; no pre-death legacy tool | Help Center > Rules and Policies > Deceased Users |
Keep in mind that platform tools and policies change. It’s worth reviewing your settings annually to make sure your instructions are still current and that the tools still work the way you expect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Contributors:
Rick Paskin, Managing Director and former funeral home and cemetery executive.
Molly Gorny, Director of Digital Marketing and author of 100+ funeral industry articles and blog posts.
Funeralwise is an independent, unbiased resource specializing in do-it-yourself funeral planning for people seeking affordability with dignity.
Last Reviewed and Updated by Molly Gorny: 07/03/2026
