In 2026, more and more people own digital assets. These can be worth thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. It is natural for people to wonder how they can address these types of assets when making an estate plan.
The reality is that technology often moves faster than the law, so this can be fairly complex. Exactly how you address digital assets in your estate plan depends on the type of assets you have and how they are stored or accessed.
Cryptocurrency
One example is if you have purchased cryptocurrency. There are cases where people have millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, so family members certainly want to know what rights they have.
You often can incorporate cryptocurrency into an estate plan, and a key component is how the digital currency is stored. This can be done with an online wallet, meaning that there is no physical device and everything is digital. But in other cases, cryptocurrency is kept on a storage device similar to a flash drive. Ownership of this wallet and access to the funds can be governed through an estate plan.
Digital products
When it comes to digital products like movies, video games, music or e-books, however, they often cannot be incorporated into an estate plan.
The issue is that many people are not actually purchasing these products, but are instead purchasing a license. If you buy a movie online, for instance, the fine print may say that you are actually buying a license to watch that movie whenever you want. But the movie itself is still owned by the company, so you do not have anything to transfer to a beneficiary. When you pass away, your license simply expires.
Creating an estate plan
Technology can make an estate plan a bit more complicated than it may have been in the past. It is very important to understand all of the options you have when addressing digital assets.
