Most Australian wills were drafted for a world of physical assets — property, bank accounts, shares held in your own name. Increasingly, a meaningful part of someone's estate exists only online, and a will that doesn't account for it can leave an executor locked out of assets they're legally entitled to distribute.
What counts as a digital asset in an estate plan?
Digital assets span a wide range: online banking and investment platforms, cryptocurrency wallets and exchange accounts, email and cloud storage, social media and photo libraries, domain names and monetised websites, loyalty points and airline miles, and for business owners, logins to accounting software, invoicing platforms, and business bank accounts. Some have clear monetary value; others, like a lifetime of family photos stored in the cloud, matter for entirely different reasons.
Does a standard will cover digital assets?
Only partly. A will can say who should inherit the value of a digital asset — for example, directing that cryptocurrency holdings pass to a named beneficiary — but it doesn't automatically grant anyone access to the account itself. Most platform terms of service are written around a single account holder and don't recognise a will as sufficient authority to hand over login access, even when the executor has a legal right to deal with the asset.
Can my executor access my online accounts after I die?
It varies significantly by platform. Some services offer built-in tools — Google's Inactive Account Manager and Facebook's legacy contact feature let you nominate someone in advance. Others require formal documentation, typically a death certificate and grant of probate, before releasing any information, and even then may only close the account rather than hand over content. Financial platforms and exchanges are usually the strictest, often requiring a solicitor to manage the process.
What about cryptocurrency specifically?
Cryptocurrency is the highest-risk category. There's no central bank or company to petition for access — control comes down entirely to whoever holds the private keys or seed phrase. If those aren't recorded and passed on securely, the asset is effectively lost forever, regardless of what the will says about who should inherit it.
How should I document my digital assets for my executor?
Keep a current inventory of accounts, platforms, and access details, but store it separately from the will itself — once probate is granted, a will becomes a public document, so it's the wrong place for login credentials. A password manager with an emergency access or legacy contact feature works well for ongoing use, and a secure digital vault service designed for estate purposes gives your executor a single, structured place to find everything when the time comes, rather than having to guess which of dozens of accounts actually matter.
This is exactly the gap a service like Custodium Vault is designed to close — a secure place to store account details, documents, and instructions that your executor or attorney can access when needed, without leaving sensitive information sitting in an unsecured document or filing cabinet.
What happens to cryptocurrency if I die without recording my keys?
If private keys or seed phrases aren't documented and stored somewhere accessible, the holdings are generally unrecoverable. Unlike a forgotten bank account, which a bank can eventually trace and release through probate, there's no equivalent recovery process for a lost crypto wallet. Anyone holding meaningful cryptocurrency should treat recording and securely storing their keys as a non-negotiable part of estate planning, not an afterthought.
How often should a digital asset inventory be updated?
Review it whenever you open a new significant account, change a major password, or acquire new digital assets — and at minimum once a year alongside a broader review of your will and estate planning documents. An outdated inventory that points to closed accounts or expired passwords can be nearly as unhelpful as having none at all.
The Metier Group helps Perth clients build a complete estate plan that accounts for both physical and digital assets through our wills and estate planning services. Contact us to make sure nothing is left inaccessible to the people you trust.