Think about everything you do online. Banking. Investing. Storing photos. Running a business. Staying connected with people you care about. Now think about what happens to all of it when you are gone.

Most estate plans were drafted before any of that existed in its current form, and most have never been updated to address it. That gap is not just an inconvenience for families. It can mean real money lost, accounts locked permanently, and years of irreplaceable memories gone because no one knew where to look or how to get in.

Pennsylvania has a law that gives fiduciaries some authority over digital accounts, but legal authority and practical access are two very different things. This guide explains both, and what you can do now to make sure your family is not left guessing.

Key Takeaways

• Digital assets range from financial accounts and cryptocurrency to email, social media, and cloud-stored photos. Each category raises different legal and practical issues.
• Pennsylvania adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (20 Pa.C.S. Chapter 39), which gives fiduciaries legal authority to access certain digital accounts, but the law has important limitations that planning can address.
• Cryptocurrency is in a category of its own. Without access to private keys or seed phrases, assets can be permanently and irretrievably lost. For self-custody wallets, no court order can recreate missing credentials.
• Leaving passwords in a will is not the right approach. A will becomes a public document through probate. Separate, secure documentation is the better solution.
• Most social media platforms have their own policies for deceased users. Understanding those policies in advance allows families to make informed decisions about memorialization or account removal.

What Counts as a Digital Asset

The term covers more ground than most people realize. Under Pennsylvania’s adoption of RUFADAA, a digital asset is broadly defined as any electronic record in which an individual has a right or interest. In plain terms, that is a lot.

Financial Digital Assets

Online bank and brokerage accounts

• PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, and similar payment platforms that may hold real balances
• Cryptocurrency holdings, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other tokens
• Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other blockchain-based assets
• Online businesses, domain names, and websites with monetized content
• Rewards points, airline miles, and loyalty program balances with real monetary value

Personal and Sentimental Digital Assets

• Email accounts containing years of personal correspondence
• Cloud storage services such as Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, and OneDrive holding photos, documents, and files
• Digital photo libraries, including purchases from platforms like iTunes or Google Play
• Social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and similar platforms
• Text message archives and voicemails stored in the cloud

Professional and Business Digital Assets

• Business email accounts and client communication histories
• Software licenses, subscriptions, and SaaS tools tied to an individual account
• Intellectual property stored digitally, including unpublished writing, code, or creative work
• Online storefronts and seller accounts on platforms like Etsy, Amazon, or eBay

For some people, these assets are mostly sentimental. For others, particularly business owners or investors with significant cryptocurrency holdings, they represent real financial value that belongs in any serious estate plan.

Pennsylvania Law and Digital Asset Access

Before RUFADAA, families were largely on their own. A grieving spouse or adult child would call a tech company, explain the situation, and be told there was nothing the company could do. A valid will and a death certificate were not enough. Platforms had no legal obligation to help, and most did not.

RUFADAA changed that. The law gives executors, trustees, and agents under a power of attorney the right to access certain digital assets, subject to a priority of instructions. That priority works like a three-tier hierarchy:

• First: Any directions left through an online tool provided by the platform itself, such as Facebook’s Legacy Contact feature or Google’s Inactive Account Manager
• Second: Instructions in a will, trust, or power of attorney that specifically addresses digital assets
• Third: The platform’s own terms of service, which often restrict or prohibit account access by anyone other than the account holder

Here is what that means in practice: if you have not used a platform’s built-in legacy tool and your estate planning documents say nothing about digital assets, your fiduciary’s access rights default to whatever the platform’s terms of service allow. For most platforms, that is not much, particularly when it comes to the actual contents of communications.

What RUFADAA Does Not Cover

The law has real gaps. It does not override a platform’s terms of service in every situation. It does not permit fiduciaries to impersonate the deceased or take actions the account holder could not have taken. And it does nothing to solve the most common practical problem: nobody knows the password.

Legal authority to access an account and practical ability to access it are two different things. Good digital asset planning takes both seriously.

Managing Passwords and Online Access

When families struggle with digital accounts after a death, the obstacle is rarely legal. It is that no one can find the login. The executor has authority on paper but no way to use it. That is an entirely preventable problem.

What Not to Do

Do not put passwords in your will. A will becomes a public document once it is filed for probate. Anyone who requests a copy through the Register of Wills in Allegheny County or Westmoreland County can read it. Putting account credentials in your will exposes every account on that list to anyone who pulls the filing.

Do not rely on a family member remembering what you told them verbally. Grief is disorienting. The volume of tasks involved in settling an estate is overwhelming. Verbal instructions do not hold up. Written documentation, stored securely, is the only approach that reliably works.

Practical Solutions

• Use a reputable password manager that allows you to designate an emergency access contact who can request access after a waiting period
• Maintain a separate, secure digital asset inventory: a written document listing your accounts, where they are held, and how to access them, kept somewhere your executor can actually find it
• Store that inventory in a fireproof safe, with your attorney, or in another secure location your executor knows about, not in your email inbox or in a folder on your desktop labeled ‘important’
• Use platform-specific legacy tools where available: Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Facebook’s Legacy Contact, and Apple’s Digital Legacy feature all let you designate what happens to your account and who can access it
• Review and update the inventory whenever you open new accounts or change significant passwords

What to Include in a Digital Asset Inventory

Category	What to Document
Financial Accounts	Institution name, account type, login email, access instructions, approximate balance
Cryptocurrency	Exchange accounts and login credentials, hardware wallet location, seed phrase storage location (separately secured), type and approximate holdings
Email and Cloud Storage	Provider, login email, recovery options, what is stored and whether it needs to be preserved or downloaded
Social Media	Platform, username, your preference for memorialization or deletion, any legacy contact already designated
Subscriptions and Services	Service name, billing method, whether to cancel immediately or after a period of time

Planning for Crypto and Digital Investments

Cryptocurrency is genuinely different from every other asset in an estate plan, and the difference matters enormously. With a bank account, if your family cannot access it, there are processes for that. Institutions have estate departments. Courts have authority. Things can eventually be sorted out.

With cryptocurrency, that is not true. Crypto is controlled by whoever holds the private key or seed phrase. There is no bank, no customer service line, and no regulatory body that can restore access to a wallet if those credentials are lost. If your heirs cannot get in, the assets are simply gone. Permanently.

How Crypto Is Held

Cryptocurrency is typically held in one of two ways. Exchange-held accounts, such as those on Coinbase or Kraken, function more like traditional brokerage accounts. The exchange controls the private keys, and heirs may be able to access the account through the exchange’s estate claim process, provided they can document their authority.

Self-custody wallets, including hardware wallets like Ledger or Trezor, place control entirely with the owner. Access requires the device and, critically, the seed phrase: a sequence of words generated when the wallet was created that can restore the wallet on any compatible device. Without the seed phrase, the assets are inaccessible if the device is lost or damaged.

What This Means for Planning

• Document the existence and approximate value of all cryptocurrency holdings in your digital asset inventory
• Store seed phrases and hardware wallet access instructions separately from your other documents, in a secure location your executor or trustee can find
• Avoid storing seed phrases in plain text or unsecured digital locations. A photo of a seed phrase on your phone or in cloud storage is a serious security risk. Physical, offline storage is the standard recommendation
• Consider whether a trusted third party, such as a custodian service or a secure escrow arrangement, makes sense for significant holdings
• Address cryptocurrency specifically in your will or trust, naming it as an asset and authorizing your executor or trustee to manage and transfer it

When clients have digital asset questions, an estate planning team can work through both the legal authority needed to manage these assets and the practical documentation that makes that authority usable. Legal paperwork without access instructions helps no one.

Preserving Digital Photos and Accounts

Ask most people what they would grab first in a house fire, and they will say photos. The same instinct applies here, and it is worth taking seriously.

For many families, the digital assets that matter most are not financial. They are the photographs, videos, and personal records stored across platforms and devices that cannot be recreated once they are gone. And unlike a fire, the loss often happens quietly, one account expiring or being locked after another.

The Impermanence Problem

Cloud storage accounts are tied to individual logins. When a platform cannot verify the account owner’s identity, or when a family member cannot produce the right credentials, access is typically denied. Some platforms delete inactive accounts after a set period. Others require a verification process that can take months and may ultimately be unsuccessful.

Apple’s iCloud, Google Photos, and similar services each have their own policies for account access after death. Without prior planning, families can find that years of irreplaceable photos are effectively locked behind a login nobody has.

Platform-Specific Legacy Options

• Apple Digital Legacy: Allows you to designate legacy contacts who can request access to your iCloud account after your death, including photos, notes, messages, and files
• Google Inactive Account Manager: Lets you specify what happens to your account after a period of inactivity, including downloading your data or sharing it with designated people
• Facebook Legacy Contact: Allows a designated person to manage your memorialized profile, including pinning posts and responding to friend requests, or you can request account deletion instead
•  Instagram: Allows memorialization requests or removal requests from verified family members, but does not provide login access to heirs

Each of these takes a few minutes to set up. Combined with language in your will or power of attorney that expressly authorizes a fiduciary to use these tools, you give your family both the practical access and the legal backing they need.

When to Speak With an Attorney

Digital asset planning does not require a separate legal engagement. It fits naturally into a broader estate plan review. You should talk to an attorney about your digital assets if:

• Your existing will or trust says nothing about digital assets or fiduciary access authority
• You hold cryptocurrency, NFTs, or other blockchain-based assets with meaningful value
• You own an online business, monetized content, or domain names that generate income
• You have concerns about who should have access to your personal accounts and communications after your death
• You want to make sure your executor has the broadest possible authority to act under Pennsylvania’s RUFADAA

Clients throughout Allegheny County, Westmoreland County, Fayette County, and the Pittsburgh area work with Bumbaugh | George | Prather | DeDiana to bring their estate plans up to date. Digital assets are not a separate conversation; they are part of the same plan.

Contact UsSchedule an estate planning consultation with Bumbaugh | George | Prather | DeDiana today. The team will review what your current documents say about digital asset access, identify where gaps exist, and help you put the right language and practical documentation in place. The firm serves clients from its Irwin office, with convenient access for clients throughout Westmoreland County, Allegheny County, Fayette County, and the Pittsburgh area.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens to social media accounts after death?

Each platform has its own policy. Facebook allows accounts to be memorialized, which freezes the profile in a commemorative state, or deleted upon request from a verified family member. Instagram follows similar options. Google accounts can be managed through the Inactive Account Manager if the account holder sets it up in advance; otherwise, family members can submit a request but access is not guaranteed. Twitter (now X) allows account deletion requests from immediate family but does not memorialize accounts. In most cases, platforms do not provide login credentials to family members, regardless of their legal authority. The most reliable approach is to use each platform’s legacy tools in advance and document your preferences in your estate plan.

Can families access online accounts after someone dies?

It depends on the platform, the type of account, and what planning was done in advance. Pennsylvania’s RUFADAA gives executors and trustees a legal right to access certain digital assets, but that legal right does not always translate into practical access if credentials are unknown. Financial institutions generally have estate claim processes that allow fiduciaries with proper documentation to access accounts. Social media and email platforms are more restrictive. The most effective approach combines legal authority granted in estate planning documents with practical documentation of account credentials and access instructions stored securely and separately from the will.

How are cryptocurrency assets inherited?

Cryptocurrency passes through an estate like any other asset, but the mechanics of transfer are entirely different. For exchange-held accounts, heirs typically need to go through the exchange’s estate claim process, providing a death certificate, letters testamentary, and other documentation. For self-custody wallets, inheritance is only possible if the heir can access the wallet, which requires either the device and PIN or the seed phrase. Without those credentials, the assets are permanently inaccessible. Planning for cryptocurrency inheritance means documenting holdings, securing seed phrases in a location your executor or trustee can access, and authorizing your fiduciary in your estate planning documents to manage and transfer digital assets.

Should digital assets be addressed in a will or trust?

Both documents can and should address digital assets. A will or trust should expressly authorize the executor or trustee to access, manage, transfer, and close digital accounts. Without that express authorization, fiduciaries may lack clear legal authority under RUFADAA even if they have the practical means to access accounts. For cryptocurrency or other digital assets with significant value, a trust may offer advantages over a will, including avoiding probate and providing ongoing management authority. An estate planning attorney can help you determine the right approach based on the types and value of your digital holdings.

What is a digital asset inventory and do I need one?

A digital asset inventory is a secure document that lists your online accounts, how to access them, and what you want done with them. It is not a legal document, but it is an essential practical tool that makes your estate planning documents actually usable. Without it, even an executor with full legal authority may have no way to locate your accounts or access them. The inventory should be stored separately from your will, in a secure location your executor knows about, and updated regularly as accounts change. It should never be stored in your email or in unencrypted cloud storage.

Can a power of attorney cover digital assets?

Yes, and it should. A durable power of attorney can and should expressly authorize your agent to access and manage digital assets on your behalf during your lifetime if you become incapacitated. Under Pennsylvania’s RUFADAA, an agent’s authority to access digital assets depends on whether the power of attorney expressly grants that authority. A generic power of attorney drafted before digital assets were a common planning concern may not include the necessary language. If your existing documents do not address digital access, a review with an estate planning attorney is worthwhile.