Most estate plans were written before your digital life was worth anything. Cryptocurrency wallets, online accounts, domain names, digital businesses, these can be permanently lost if your executor has no access and no instructions. Your estate plan needs to account for everything you own, including what lives in the cloud.
Massachusetts has adopted the Massachusetts Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (MUFADAA), which gives fiduciaries, executors, trustees, and agents under power of attorney, a framework for accessing digital assets. But the law only helps if your estate plan is drafted to work within it.
What Counts as a Digital Asset
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies held in self-custody wallets can be permanently lost if private keys are not documented and accessible to your executor or trustee.
Accounts at Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, and similar platforms hold real financial value and transfer through beneficiary designations or probate like traditional accounts. A fiduciary administers these accounts by presenting letters of authority to the institution directly, not by logging into the decedent's account profile, which would violate the platform's terms of service. The key planning step is ensuring your executor knows the accounts exist and where they are held.
Domain names can have significant market value and require timely renewal. An online business generating revenue is a marital or estate asset requiring administration and possible sale or transfer.
iCloud, Google Photos, and Dropbox accounts may hold irreplaceable personal archives. Without access, these are often permanently lost. Terms of service vary widely on transferability.
Email accounts may contain financial records, business correspondence, and account recovery information your executor needs to administer the estate. Access depends on platform policies and your advance authorization.
Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn allow memorialization or deletion, but only if your executor knows about the accounts and has authorization. Some platforms offer legacy contact designations.
The Private Key Problem
Self-custody cryptocurrency, held in a personal hardware wallet or software wallet rather than an exchange, is controlled entirely by the private key or seed phrase. If the person who holds that key dies and no one else knows it, the funds are permanently inaccessible. There is no bank to contact, no court order that can unlock it, and no recovery process. This has resulted in an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars in cryptocurrency being permanently lost worldwide.
For cryptocurrency holders, the estate planning task is twofold: documenting the existence of all wallets and accounts, and making private key or seed phrase information accessible to a trusted person (or secured in a way your executor can access) without also making it accessible to anyone who shouldn't have it. This typically involves a secure storage solution, a fireproof safe, a safety deposit box, or a specialized custody arrangement, with clear instructions in your estate plan about how to access it.
Never put private keys or seed phrases in your will. Wills are probated publicly in Massachusetts. A will that contains your cryptocurrency private key is a public document that any thief can use to empty your wallets before your estate is even administered. Store sensitive access information separately and reference the secure location in your estate plan.
How the MUFADAA Works in Massachusetts
Under Massachusetts law, your executor, trustee, or power of attorney agent may have a legal right to access your digital assets, but that right is limited and depends on how you have authorized it. MUFADAA creates a three-tier priority system:
- Online tool: If you designated a "legacy contact" or similar designation directly through the platform (Facebook, Google, etc.), that person's access rights come first.
- Estate planning documents: If your will, trust, or power of attorney expressly authorizes access to digital assets, that authorization controls, subject to the platform's terms of service.
- Default platform terms: If neither applies, the platform's own terms of service govern what your fiduciary can access, which is often very limited.
The practical implication: your estate plan should expressly authorize your executor and trustee to access, manage, and distribute your digital assets. A general authorization clause in a will or trust does not automatically satisfy this requirement under MUFADAA, the language should be specific.
Creating a Digital Asset Inventory
The most practical step you can take today is creating a digital asset inventory: a list of all online accounts, platforms, and digital assets with instructions for how your executor can access each one. This document should be kept separate from your will (which is public), stored securely, and updated regularly. It should cover financial accounts, email, cloud storage, cryptocurrency, subscription services, and any other digital account your estate will need to close or administer.
A digital asset that cannot be accessed by your estate is effectively gone. Access requires planning, and planning requires doing it before it is needed.