The first thing to say is that most Wills automatically cover your digital assets. It is the responsibility of your Executors to deal with these and unless they are specifically given away, they will form part of the Residue of your estate.
The general rule is that digital assets are property which vests in the Executors of a deceased person. However, as a general rule the duty of an executor is to deal with those assets which have value, and while things like social media accounts may well vest in the Executors, it is questionable whether they have an obligation to chase up these assets. Given this, one increasingly widely held view is that a will should appoint a “digital manager” to deal with non monetary assets. However this alone may not be enough.
Looking firstly at what are probably the easy items, namely bank accounts and loyalty schemes. Generally it is a matter of dealing with these using traditional methods, which is producing a death certificate and probate. Bitcoins and crypto currencies are the nightmare asset. Unless the executors have access to the deceased’s public and private keys, they simply will not be able to access them and there is a widespread belief that there are Bitcoins going unclaimed.
Social media assets are also something of a nightmare. Action to deal with these is to a great extent determined by the terms and conditions of the different providers. Some providers state that it is possible to in some way memorialise an account but this has to be set up in advance. Others simply provide that an account is closed, others are frozen. Occasionally the executors may be able to obtain some sort of access but this can prove to be a slow and painful process.
