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Practice Areas

Estate Planning for Digital Assets & Cryptocurrencies

Planning for the Future is Complicated Enough, So Why Do I Need to Worry about Passwords, Private Keys, and the Like? 

For better or worse, life for many of us is increasingly “lived” online. If you were to die or become incapacitated, would you want someone to have access to your Facebook account or other social media, or should these be shut down? Who would have access to your PayPal or Venmo accounts and how would you ensure that digital balances are transferred and any obligations met?  Remember - bitcoins and cryptocurrency only have value IF your beneficiaries have access to the proper private keys (If you were lucky enough to make a small crypto purchase a while back, it might be worth a lot!).

Different Global Currencies and Cryptocurrencies

Types of Digital Assets

  • Online photos and music

  • Social media accounts

  • Financial records that you store in your smartphone, computer, and the cloud

  • Medical images and files

  • Travel rewards

  • Domain names

  • Cryptocurrency files and exchanges

  • And much more 

Estate Planning Steps to Take

1.     Develop and maintain an inventory of digital assets, both in the Cloud and at home

2.     Update your estate planning documents to make sure that your fiduciaries have the authority to act on your behalf for some or all of your digital assets

3.     Inform all impacted by your Will of your amended plans

4.     Have a contact list with all relevant advisors and people to assist with crypto assets

5.     Review staffing of current roles to make sure that qualified people are in place

6.     Conduct fire drills- run a periodic test to make sure that your estate plan goes into effect as designed

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Have you inadvertently left digital assets aside in your latest estate plan? 

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