Digital Assets and Accounts: What Executors Need to Know

Your uncle passed away last spring. A few weeks into settling his estate, you get an email notification: his Coinbase account just flagged suspicious login activity. You didn't even know he had crypto. Neither did anyone else. And now you're staring at an account that might hold thousands of dollars — with no password, no PIN, and a customer support line that will not help you no matter how many death certificates you fax over.

Welcome to modern estate administration.

Why Digital Assets Are Now Everyone's Problem

A generation ago, settling an estate meant tracking down bank accounts, real estate, and maybe a brokerage statement or two. Everything had a paper trail. Everything had a person at an institution you could call.

That's not the world we live in anymore. The average American adult has over 100 online accounts. They shop on Amazon, bank through apps, store photos in the cloud, send money through Venmo, and sometimes — increasingly — hold significant financial assets in digital wallets that exist entirely outside the traditional banking system.

Most of these people have never thought about what happens to those accounts when they die. Which means as the executor, that's now your problem to figure out. And unlike tracking down a forgotten savings account, there's no central registry, no universal process, and no "digital assets" line on the standard probate forms in most states.

The good news: it's solvable. The bad news: it takes some detective work and a basic understanding of rules that most estate attorneys are only now catching up on. If you're still getting your bearings as executor, our guide on what to do when you've just been named executor covers the broader picture.

The Four Categories You Need to Hunt Down

Not all digital assets are created equal. Here's how to think about them:

Financial accounts. PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle balances, Robinhood, Coinbase, Binance, stock trading apps — anything with real money in it. These are the highest priority. Some may have significant balances sitting idle.

Sentimental assets. Google Photos, iCloud, Facebook, Instagram — decades of memories. There's no dollar value here, but families often care about these more than anything else. Losing access permanently is the kind of thing people don't forgive you for.

Monetized accounts. This one surprises a lot of executors. If the deceased ran a YouTube channel with ad revenue, a Substack newsletter with paying subscribers, a blog with affiliate income, or owned domain names — those are estate assets with real value. A YouTube channel with 50,000 subscribers isn't nothing. Domain names can sell for thousands. Don't ignore these.

Subscriptions and services. Netflix, Spotify, Adobe Creative Cloud, gym apps, news sites. These are quietly draining the estate account every month while you're dealing with everything else. We'll come back to these.

Do You Actually Have the Legal Right to Access Any of This?

Short answer: it depends, and it's complicated.

Most platforms have Terms of Service that technically prohibit account sharing — even after death. For years, executors were stuck in a gray area where they had legal authority over the estate but no legal right (per the platform's TOS) to log into accounts.

That changed with RUFADAA — the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. It's a mouthful, but here's what it actually means: most U.S. states have now adopted some version of this law, which gives executors, trustees, and other fiduciaries the legal right to access certain digital assets — specifically the "catalog" of communications (a list of what exists) and financial accounts — even without explicit permission from the deceased.

However, RUFADAA has a priority order:

1. If the person set up a legacy contact or digital heir through the platform's own tools, that takes precedence.
2. If they left explicit digital asset instructions in an online tool or will, that comes next.
3. If neither exists, RUFADAA defaults kick in — and they're more limited.

The practical upshot: you have more authority than you might think, but actually getting platforms to act on it requires submitting death certificates, probate letters, and sometimes going through formal legal channels. No platform makes this easy. Understanding your legal rights and potential liabilities as executor can help you navigate these situations with confidence.

What the Big Platforms Actually Do (And Don't Do)

Google has an Inactive Account Manager — a tool Google built specifically for this. If the deceased set it up, it may have already sent you data or given you access automatically. If they didn't set it up, Google has a process for authorized representatives to request account access or data, but it's not guaranteed and can take weeks.

Apple launched Apple Digital Legacy in late 2021. If the deceased designated a Legacy Contact in their Apple ID settings, you can request access to their iCloud data (photos, files, notes, etc.) with a death certificate. If they didn't set one up, Apple's policy is essentially: no access. The data is encrypted and they cannot help you, even with a court order. This is not a threat — it's just how the encryption works.

Facebook/Meta lets you either memorialize an account (it stays up as a tribute page) or request removal. If the deceased appointed a Legacy Contact, that person can manage certain things on the memorialized account. Without one, you can still request removal with a death certificate, but you won't get access to messages or content.

Instagram (also Meta) has a similar memorialization process but no Legacy Contact feature as of this writing.

The pattern here: platforms that built "legacy" features in advance are much easier to work with. Platforms that didn't are often a dead end — literally.

Cryptocurrency: The Problem That Doesn't Have a Solution

Crypto deserves its own section because it's categorically different from everything else.

With a bank account, there's a customer service department. With PayPal, there's a process. With crypto — Bitcoin, Ethereum, anything held in a self-custody wallet — the private key is the account. No key, no access. No access, no funds. Forever.

There is no customer service number. There is no court order that will help. There is no "forgot password" option that leads somewhere useful. If the deceased held crypto in a self-custody wallet and didn't leave the seed phrase (a 12-24 word recovery phrase) somewhere you can find it, that money is effectively gone.

If you're lucky, they used an exchange like Coinbase or Kraken — those are custodial accounts, more like a brokerage, and they do have an executor process (send death certificate, probate letter, wait). If they held a hardware wallet (a small physical device like a Ledger or Trezor), you need that device plus the PIN or seed phrase.

Your job here: look everywhere for written seed phrases. Fireproof boxes, safety deposit boxes, notebooks, encrypted notes. People who were thoughtful about crypto often wrote these down. People who weren't... didn't. For more on tracking down financial accounts and understanding what happens to debt after someone dies, we have a dedicated guide.

Finding Accounts You Don't Know Exist

Most executors don't get a tidy list of accounts. You have to build one. Here's where to look:

Email inbox. This is gold. Search for terms like "welcome to," "your account," "subscription," "receipt," "payment confirmation," "invoice." Sort by sender. You'll find accounts the deceased had forgotten about themselves.

Bank and credit card statements. Look for recurring charges — $9.99/month, $14.99/month, annual renewals. These point to subscriptions and services. Cross-reference with actual accounts.

Password managers. If the deceased used 1Password, LastPass, Bitwarden, or similar — and you can get access — you just won the jackpot. Every account, every password, organized. Getting access may require the master password, which you'll need to find elsewhere.

The phone. Unlock the phone if you can (Touch ID may work briefly after death; Face ID typically won't). The apps installed are a direct window into what accounts exist.

Browser saved passwords. Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all save passwords locally. If you have access to the device and the browser profile, this can surface a lot.

Undocumented accounts are the executor's nightmare — and they compound fast. Using a centralized tool like HeirPortal gives you a place to log every account you find, track what's been handled, and share decisions with co-executors or family without the chaos of email threads. For more digital tools that can help, check out our tech tools every executor needs.

What to Do When You Find an Account

Don't log in and start clicking around. Document first.

Step 1: Document. Screenshot the account name, username/email, any visible balance or content. Write it down somewhere organized. You'll be dealing with a lot of these and you don't want to lose track.

Step 2: Preserve. Before you do anything else — close or transfer — make sure you've preserved what matters. Download photos. Export data where possible. This is especially important for Google (Takeout), Facebook (download your information), and similar platforms that let you export everything.

Step 3: Decide. For each account, you have roughly three options:

• Close it. Deactivate, delete, cancel. Appropriate for subscriptions, duplicate accounts, anything with no sentimental or financial value.
• Memorialize it. Facebook and Instagram support this. The account stays but gets flagged as a memorial. Good for social profiles where friends still visit.
• Transfer it. Financial accounts need to be liquidated into the estate. Domain names can be transferred to heirs or sold. Monetized accounts get complicated — YouTube won't transfer channels, but the associated Google account may be accessible through the formal process.

If you're working through a complete estate, this step fits into the broader executor's checklist of tasks you need to handle.

Kill the Subscriptions. Fast.

This is the most overlooked piece of digital estate administration. Every month that passes, the estate is paying for Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Adobe, the New York Times, three meal kit services, a meditation app, and a genealogy subscription the deceased signed up for years ago and forgot about.

None of these companies will proactively contact you. They'll just keep charging.

Once you've identified recurring charges via bank statements, cancel them. You don't need legal authority for most of these — you just need to log in (using credentials you've found through the methods above) and hit cancel. For anything requiring proof of death to cancel without login access, a death certificate and account information usually suffices.

Start this process early. Every month you wait is money out of the estate.

The Bigger Problem: Nobody Wrote Any of This Down

Here's the uncomfortable truth underneath all of this: most of the difficulty you're experiencing exists because the person who died never documented their digital life. No account list, no passwords, no instructions. Just a cloud of accounts scattered across decades of sign-ups.

If you're struggling with how to talk to aging parents about estate planning — including their digital accounts — having that conversation now can save future executors from starting at zero.

This is why tools like HeirPortal exist — not as a place to store passwords (please don't store passwords in random places), but as a place for people to document what they have, who should get access, and what their wishes are for each account. The decisions get made once, shared with the right people, and when the time comes, executors aren't starting from scratch.

It's the difference between a filing cabinet with labeled folders and a room full of unlabeled boxes. Same stuff inside — completely different experience for the person sorting through it.

If you're going through this right now, HeirPortal can at least help you organize what you're finding and share it with co-executors or family members without endless email threads and duplicate effort. And if this experience has made you think about your own digital life — yeah, same. Go document yours.

Quick Reference: What to Do First

1. Get access to email — mine it for accounts
2. Pull 12 months of bank/credit card statements — find recurring charges
3. Check the phone and browser saved passwords
4. Look for a password manager
5. Document everything you find before taking action
6. Prioritize financial accounts and crypto (time-sensitive)
7. Export/preserve sentimental content (photos, messages)
8. Cancel subscriptions immediately
9. Submit formal requests to platforms for accounts requiring death certificates
10. Memorialize or close social accounts per family wishes

The digital estate isn't going to settle itself. But with a systematic approach, you can get through it — and maybe, afterward, convince your own family to leave better breadcrumbs than this. For the complete picture of everything you need to do as executor, our Executor's Complete Guide to Probate walks through the entire process from start to finish.

FAQ

How long do I have to deal with digital assets during probate?

There's no universal deadline, but you should start immediately. Some platforms delete inactive accounts after a set period, and subscriptions silently drain the estate every month. Financial accounts like crypto can fluctuate in value. Prioritize financial and subscription accounts in the first few weeks.

Can I access someone's email after they die?

It depends on the email provider. Google allows authorized representatives to request access through a formal process with a death certificate and court documents. Apple is more restrictive — without a designated Legacy Contact, iCloud data is generally inaccessible. Check each provider's specific policy.

What if I find cryptocurrency and don't have the password?

If the crypto is held on an exchange like Coinbase or Kraken, contact their support with a death certificate and Letters Testamentary — they have processes for estate access. If it's in a self-custody wallet (hardware or software), you need the seed phrase or private key. Without it, the funds are permanently inaccessible.

Do I need to report digital assets to the probate court?

Yes. Digital assets with financial value — including crypto holdings, monetized accounts, domain names, and platform balances — are part of the estate inventory. You're legally required to include them in the estate accounting just like any other asset.

Should I close social media accounts or memorialize them?

That depends on the family's wishes. Facebook and Instagram offer memorialization, which keeps the profile visible as a tribute. Some families prefer this; others want accounts removed. Discuss it with beneficiaries before taking action — this is the kind of decision that can cause family conflict if handled unilaterally.

What happens to subscription services after someone dies?

They keep charging until you cancel them. Companies will not proactively stop billing because someone passed away. Review bank and credit card statements for recurring charges, then cancel each one. Some services require a death certificate to close the account without login credentials.

Managing digital assets is one of the newest and most confusing parts of being an executor — but it's also one of the most important. Take it step by step, document everything you find, and don't hesitate to ask for help when a platform makes the process harder than it needs to be.