When someone dies, the list of things an executor has to track keeps growing, and most of it is invisible. Email accounts, cloud storage, photo libraries, streaming subscriptions, domain names, and a wallet or two of cryptocurrency all sit on the same list as the house, the car, and the bank statements. A solid digital asset and crypto estate plan turns that invisible list into something an executor can actually act on. This guide walks through the four pieces you need to get right: an inventory, password manager access, cloud and domain accounts, and cryptocurrency inheritance.
Why digital assets get missed in probate
Most estates still get settled with the same hundred-plus tasks, and the digital ones quietly fall to the bottom. Bank accounts and brokerage statements show up in the mail. The crypto on a cold wallet in a desk drawer does not. The executor duties you read about in a will assume someone can find and prove ownership of everything. With digital property, “finding” is the whole job.
There is no central registry for online accounts. There is no IRS form that lists someone’s password manager. A brokerage will send you a 1099 with a checkmark. A self-custody crypto wallet will not. Until you know an account exists, you cannot close it, transfer it, or distribute it, and in probate, unknown assets are assets the family never sees.
This is also where fraud risk spikes. The estate identity and fraud landscape is built around the recently deceased, because no one is watching the inbox. Treat the digital side of an estate the same way you treat the physical side: as a job, with a list, with timestamps.
Build a digital asset inventory before you touch anything
Do not start by trying to log into anything. Start with a list. An executor’s digital asset inventory is a working document, not a final legal filing. It has three columns: what exists, where the access lives, and what needs to happen to it.
A starting checklist that covers most estates:
- Email and recovery accounts. The primary Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, or Yahoo address, plus any recovery phone numbers or backup emails tied to it.
- Financial logins. Bank, brokerage, retirement, tax software, and any payment apps like Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle.
- Subscriptions and recurring charges. Streaming, news, software, gaming, fitness, anything on auto-pay through a stored card.
- Cloud storage and photo libraries. iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Amazon Photos.
- Domain names and websites. Registrars like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, and any hosting account.
- Social and messaging. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram.
- Cryptocurrency. Centralized exchange accounts, hardware wallets, software wallets, seed phrases, and any DeFi positions.
- Loyalty and rewards. Airline miles, hotel points, credit card rewards, retail store balances.
- Digital media libraries. Kindle, iTunes, Audible, PlayStation, Steam, and any purchased movies or music.
- Devices and their locations. Phones, laptops, tablets, and any old hardware that may still be signed into accounts.
Store this list outside the deceased’s own accounts. A printed copy in a safe, a second copy with the estate attorney, and one digital copy in a tool only the executor can reach. This is the moment Good Grief’s digital vault earns its keep: it gives executors one place to keep the inventory, the legal documents, and the task status, with the deceased’s own accounts never becoming the source of truth.
Password managers and the legal way to get in
Password managers are usually the unlock for everything else. 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, and Apple’s iCloud Keychain each store the master credential, and whoever controls that master credential controls the rest. That is also where legal risk shows up fast.
A few executor rules of thumb for password manager access:
- Do not guess, reset, or brute force. Using a deceased person’s credentials without clear legal authority can run into state computer-access laws, even when you are the named executor.
- Wait for authority, but plan ahead. Letters testamentary (the court document that proves you are allowed to act for the estate) or letters of administration (the same document for estates without a will) typically come before you exercise control over someone else’s accounts. Talk to the estate attorney before opening any vault.
- Look for an emergency access feature first. Most modern password managers let a designated trusted contact request access after a waiting period, without needing a court order. If the deceased set that up, follow the documented process.
- Check for a “Digital Estate” or “Legacy” setting. Apple, Google, and Facebook each have a legacy contact feature that can hand over limited access on death. These were designed exactly for this moment.
- Document every login in a paper log. Time, account, who authorized it, what you did. If a question comes up later, the paper trail protects the executor.
This is where a general legacy planning guide and an executor playbook meet. Pre-loss planning is the time to set up a trusted contact. Post-loss is the time to use the documented process, not improvise.
Domain names, cloud accounts, and the “small” subscriptions
The most expensive digital items to mishandle are usually the smallest. A domain name that auto-renews for one year, then lapses, can take a personal website, a small business, or a family archive offline in days. A cloud storage plan that stops paying can be wiped within a grace period that varies by provider. A forgotten email alias can become the recovery address for a bank account, and once it bounces, the lockout is on you, not on the institution.
For each cloud and domain account, run this short sequence:
- Find the registrar or provider (search the deceased’s email for renewal receipts).
- Check the auto-renew status and the payment method on file.
- Decide: transfer to a family email, renew manually for one more year, or let it lapse on a known date.
- Update the contact email and recovery phone before you change anything else.
- If the account is business-critical, screenshot the dashboard and the billing page before logging out.
For domains in particular, lapsing a name can cost hundreds to recover, and in some cases the domain goes to a third-party auction. If the estate has any web presence at all, the best account and asset discovery tools include simple WHOIS lookups, registrar account searches, and credit card statement scans for “domain” or “hosting” line items.
Subscriptions are the same problem at a smaller scale. A standard American household runs twenty to thirty recurring charges, and a typical estate has at least a handful the family does not know about. The fastest path: pull the last three months of credit card and bank statements, sort by merchant name, and flag anything that looks software, media, or storage. Close, downgrade, or transfer each one in writing. Keep the cancellation confirmation.
Cryptocurrency inheritance, slowly and on purpose
Crypto is the part of a digital estate that punishes speed. Private keys cannot be reset, password reset flows do not exist, and there is no customer service line that will reverse a lost seed phrase. At the same time, exchanges and on-chain wallets are now firmly inside the regulatory perimeter, which means access usually requires legal authority, not just a password.
For executors handling crypto, the steps matter more than the speed:
- Identify what kind of holding it is. Custodial (held at an exchange like Coinbase, Kraken, or Gemini) or self-custody (a hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor, a software wallet, or a seed phrase on paper). Custodial accounts are reachable with letters testamentary and the right identity documents. Self-custody wallets are only reachable with the key or seed.
- Locate the key material, not just the device. A hardware wallet without its seed phrase is, in practical terms, worthless. Look for paper backups, metal seed plates, password manager entries labeled with the wallet name, or anything stored in a safe.
- Do not move funds to a “new” wallet on instinct. Moving crypto without documenting the source wallet, the destination wallet, and the chain can create tax and provenance problems that follow the assets for years.
- Get legal advice before accessing self-custody assets. Self-custody inheritance is governed by a mix of state law, the terms of the wallet software, and the way the keys were stored. There is no universal “executor can take the coins” rule.
- Document the chain and the cost basis. Each wallet address, the date assets arrived, the cost basis if you can find it, and the fair market value at the date of death. This is the data the executor tax checklist needs later.
For pre-planning, the safest patterns are still the boring ones: a hardware wallet whose seed phrase is stored in a safe and a second sealed copy with the estate attorney, plus a written instruction sheet that does not itself contain the seed phrase. If the deceased used a custodial exchange, a named beneficiary on the account can sometimes bypass probate entirely. If they did not, expect to use the court process.
Frequently asked questions
Do executors have the legal right to access a deceased person’s email?
Generally, yes, but only after you have legal authority, such as letters testamentary or letters of administration, and only to the extent needed to administer the estate. State laws vary, and some providers require court orders, affidavits, or death certificates before they release access. Document the request and the response.
What happens to crypto if no one can find the seed phrase?
In practical terms, the assets remain on chain, but they are inaccessible. There is no central authority to appeal to, and no recovery service that can bypass a lost seed without the original key material. This is why the inventory step matters: the seed phrase either exists somewhere safe, or the assets are effectively lost.
Should executors reset passwords on a deceased person’s accounts?
No, not as a first move. Resetting passwords without documented authority can destroy evidence, lock out heirs who had legal access, and create liability for the executor. Use the password manager’s emergency access feature, a legacy contact setting, or the court process instead.
How long does digital asset cleanup usually take?
It depends on the number of accounts and whether the deceased left a record, but most executors spend ten to forty hours on the digital side alone, on top of the general estate settlement work. Tools that track accounts, logins, and tasks in one place keep that time from doubling.
Related reading
- A Guide to Legacy Planning for the Digital Age for the pre-loss side of the same problem.
- Best Account and Asset Discovery Tools After Death for finding what you do not yet know exists.
- Protecting the Estate from Identity Theft and Fraud for shutting down the inbox before someone else uses it.
Next step
If the inventory is already feeling larger than the rest of the estate combined, Good Grief gives executors one secure place to keep the digital asset list, the legal documents, and the task status, so the invisible side of probate finally has somewhere to live.
