Most people do not think about what happens to all of their digital accounts when they are making an estate plan. Yet for many, a meaningful part of their financial and personal life these days exists entirely online, often protected by passwords, two-factor authentication, and terms of service agreements that were never written with death or incapacity in mind. Others may not be able to access your accounts when you are no longer here. At Murray | Lobb Attorneys, we help clients think through what actually happens to these digital assets when they pass away, and how to make sure the people they trust can actually access them.
Digital Assets Are Broader Than People Realize
When most people hear “digital assets,” they picture cryptocurrency. In reality, the category is much wider and includes:
- Cryptocurrency and digital wallets
- Online banking, investment, and payment platforms
- Email accounts
- Cloud storage containing photos, documents, and personal records
- Social media accounts
- Subscription services and digital storefronts with stored value or loyalty points
- Domain names and monetized online content
Some of these assets have real financial value. Others, like a decade of family photos stored only in the cloud, have significant personal value that a family cannot simply replace if access is lost.
Texas Law Gives Executors a Path, But It Is Not Automatic
Texas addressed this gap by adopting the Texas Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, found in Chapter 2001 of the Texas Estates Code. This law gives fiduciaries, including executors, trustees, and agents under a power of attorney, a legal framework for requesting access to a decedent’s digital accounts.
The statute is built around a clear hierarchy of instructions. If a platform offers its own tool for designating what happens to an account after death, such as a legacy contact setting or an inactive account manager, that designation controls first, ahead of anything written in a will or trust. If no such tool exists or was never used, the law looks next to instructions in the person’s will, trust, or power of attorney. Only if neither of those applies does the platform’s own terms of service agreement determine what a fiduciary can access.
This means that simply having a will is not enough. Without a specific, properly drafted authorization for digital assets, an executor may find that a custodian, such as an email provider or financial platform, is unwilling to grant meaningful access, even with a valid will and death certificate in hand.
Content Versus Catalog: A Distinction That Matters
Texas law also draws a line between the content of communications, such as the body of an email or a private message, and the catalog of information around them, such as who a person emailed and when. Custodians are generally far more willing to release catalog information than content, unless the user’s estate planning documents include clear, affirmative language authorizing disclosure of content as well. A generic will that simply names an executor, without addressing digital assets directly, often fails to unlock this level of access at all.
Cryptocurrency Presents Its Own Unique Risk
Cryptocurrency deserves special attention because it does not behave like a traditional financial account. There is often no bank, brokerage, or customer service line to call. Access typically depends entirely on private keys, seed phrases, or hardware wallets. If those are not properly documented and passed along through a secure mechanism, the asset is not just difficult to access. It can be permanently and irretrievably lost, with no institution able to restore it. The IRS treats cryptocurrency as property for federal tax purposes, which affects how it is valued and reported in an estate, making accurate documentation even more important.
Because this risk is so severe, cryptocurrency holdings need a deliberate plan for secure storage and transfer of access information, separate from the will itself, since a will becomes a public record during probate and should never contain passwords or private keys directly.
Why Generic Estate Documents Usually Fall Short
Even estate plans that were carefully prepared years ago often predate meaningful digital asset planning altogether. And documents that do mention digital assets in passing frequently use vague, generic language that does not meet the specific authorization requirements custodians and courts look for. The result is the same regardless of the reason: an executor who is legally appointed but practically locked out of accounts the family needs, whether to settle finances, retrieve sentimental photos, or properly close out a person’s online presence.
Every platform also has its own terms of service, which can shift over time and are not always consistent with one another. A plan that accounts for this reality typically works in layers, using platform-level tools where they exist, backing that up with specific authorization in the governing estate planning documents, and separately addressing how sensitive access credentials will be securely stored and passed along.
Bringing Your Digital Life Into Your Estate Plan
The organizing question is not simply “who should inherit this,” but “will the person I trust actually be able to get to it?” That second question is where most existing estate plans, even otherwise well-drafted ones, tend to fall short. Closing that gap starts with an honest inventory: every financial platform, crypto wallet, email account, and cloud storage service a person actually uses, since an executor cannot request access to an account they never knew existed. From there, each platform’s own legacy tools need to be checked and configured where available, because Texas law lets those override anything written elsewhere.
Finally, the will or power of attorney needs to include express, custodian-specific language authorizing both catalog and content access, not a passing reference to “electronic accounts” that leaves the actual authority ambiguous.
Contact a Harris County Estate Planning Attorney to Discuss Your Situation
If your estate plan has never specifically addressed cryptocurrency, online accounts, or digital storage, it may leave your executor without a practical way to access what you intended them to have. The Harris County estate planning lawyers at Murray | Lobb Attorneys can review your existing plan and help you close that gap. Call us today at 281-488-0630 or visit our website to talk through your digital assets and how they fit into your overall estate plan.