Digital inheritance: who inherits it and how does it work?

Digital inheritance is an increasingly present reality in Portuguese families. Photographs stored in the cloud, email accounts, social networks, cryptocurrency wallets, monetized channels, online stores, digital files, subscriptions, domains, professional pages, and profiles with economic value are now part of many people's lives.

The problem arises when someone dies and no one knows how to access, preserve, or close that digital legacy. The family may know that there are important photographs, online income, or essential documents, but lack passwords, authentication codes, or authorizations for the platforms.

Digital inheritance raises a simple yet difficult question: who inherits digital assets, and how does access work after death?

This article explains what can be included in digital inheritance, which assets can have economic value, what privacy limitations exist, what precautions should be taken during the deceased's lifetime, and what heirs can do when they cannot access the deceased's digital accounts.

What is digital inheritance?

Digital inheritance is the collection of goods, rights, content, accounts, data, and digital assets left by a person after their death.

It may include items with economic value, sentimental value, or documentary value.

For example, a cryptocurrency wallet can have direct financial value. An email account can contain contracts, invoices, relevant messages, or login credentials for other services. An Instagram account can have professional value if it's associated with a brand, income, or a community built up over the years.

Digital inheritance can encompass email accounts, photos and videos stored online, social media profiles, YouTube channels, blogs, websites, domains, online stores, cryptocurrency wallets, payment platform accounts, files stored in the cloud, digital works, courses, ebooks, monetized content, advertising accounts, databases, software, applications, or digital projects.

Not everything digital is transferred in the same way. Some assets can be inherited. Others may be subject to platform rules, privacy limits, or contractual restrictions.

Are all digital assets included in inheritance?

Not all digital assets should be treated the same way.

The first important distinction is between digital goods with economic value and personal content without direct patrimonial value.

Digital assets with economic value may, in principle, be of interest to an estate. However, private content, personal messages, intimate conversations, or sensitive data require greater caution, because the privacy of the deceased and third parties is also at stake.

We can divide digital inheritance into three main groups:

1. Digital assets with economic value include, for example, cryptocurrencies, balances on digital platforms, online stores, domains, monetized websites, channels with advertising revenue, copyrights on digital works, professional accounts with associated income, tokens, NFTs, or other digital assets.
2. Digital possessions with sentimental value include photographs, family videos, messages, personal files, digital memories, and social media posts.
3. Digital assets with documentary value can include emails containing contracts, invoices, statements, tax documents, proof of payment, access data to services, and information about bank accounts, insurance, or investments.

This distinction is essential because the heirs' access should not be seen as automatic authorization to enter all of the deceased's private communications.

Who inherits the digital legacy?

In general terms, digital assets with patrimonial value follow the normal rules of inheritance.

In other words, they can pass to legal or testamentary heirs, just like other inherited assets. The difference lies in the practical difficulty: digital assets often exist, but are protected by passwords, two-factor authentication, terms of use, and platform policies.

Those entitled to digital inheritance may include the surviving spouse, descendants, ascendants, siblings or other relatives in certain cases, heirs designated in a will, and legatees, when the deceased left specific assets.

The identification of heirs continues to be carried out through normal means. For this, it may be necessary to... Grant of probate, especially when it is necessary to contact banks, platforms, land registries or other entities.

Does digital inheritance fall under the category of assets?

When a digital asset has economic value or patrimonial relevance, its inclusion in the list of assets should be considered.

The inventory of assets must identify the assets that make up the inheritance. If the deceased had a cryptocurrency wallet, a website that generated income, an online store, digital copyrights, or balances on platforms, these elements should not be ignored.

The problem is that many of these assets don't appear on a property deed, a tax office document, or a traditional bank statement. They may be hidden in emails, applications, devices, foreign platforms, or encrypted files.

The following may be relevant to the asset inventory: digital wallets, balances on payment platforms, domains, websites with traffic and revenue, monetized professional accounts, rights to digital works, credits resulting from online sales, equipment with asset information, and digital contracts.

If you are organizing the deceased's estate, see also the article about list of assets in the inheritance.

How can you tell if digital assets exist?

This is one of the biggest challenges. Many heirs only discover digital assets months after the death, when they find an email, an installed application, or a reference in a bank statement.

Research must respect the law, privacy, and access limits. It is not advisable to attempt to guess passwords, bypass security systems, or improperly access accounts.

You can start by checking the deceased's mobile phones, computers and tablets, visible emails or accounts set up on the devices, financial applications, cryptocurrency applications, bank statements with payments to digital platforms, web hosting or domain invoices, online advertising receipts, messages about digital sales, online service contracts, active subscriptions, external storage devices and folders with digital documents.

It can also be helpful to analyze recurring payments. A monthly hosting fee, a software subscription, or a domain registration fee can reveal the existence of a valuable digital asset.

For more comprehensive research on heritage, consult the guide on How to find out about the assets of a deceased person.

Can heirs access the deceased's email?

Access to email is one of the most sensitive issues in digital inheritance.

Email can contain highly important financial information, such as contracts, invoices, tax documents, platform notifications, insurance details, receipts, and bank communications. But it can also contain private messages, personal conversations, and third-party data.

Therefore, heirs should not assume that they can freely access the email account just because they are heirs.

In many cases, the correct course of action involves requesting specific information from the platform, providing proof of death and heirship, or resorting to legal means when there is a legitimate interest and refusal to cooperate.

The objective should be proportionate. It may make sense to request access to documents necessary for inheritance, but wanting to read all of the deceased's private correspondence can be problematic.

What happens to social media after death?

Social media platforms have their own rules. Some allow you to transform your profile into a memorial. Others allow you to request account closure. Some allow legacy contacts or post-death management tools.

In practice, heirs may want to close the account, transform the profile into a memorial, preserve photographs, remove offensive content, prevent misuse, recover information with patrimonial value, or manage a professional or monetized account.

The situation varies greatly depending on the type of account.

A personal account with family photos is different from a professional page with income, contracts, clients, advertising, or business value.

If the account has economic value, it should be analyzed as a possible asset of the estate. If it only contains intimate or personal content, greater care must be taken regarding privacy, the presumed wishes of the deceased, and the rights of third parties.

Cryptocurrencies and digital inheritance

Cryptocurrencies are one of the most important examples of digital inheritance with economic value.

Unlike other assets, cryptocurrencies can be virtually impossible to recover if heirs do not have access to the private keys, recovery phrases, devices, or associated accounts.

Here, the difficulty is not only legal. It is also technical.

Assets can exist in digital wallets, exchanges, mobile applications, physical devices, recovery phrases stored on paper, encrypted files, and international platforms.

If no one knows where the keys are, the valuables could be lost forever.

Therefore, anyone who owns cryptocurrencies should carefully plan the transfer of ownership. Simply stating in a will that crypto assets exist is not enough. It's necessary to ensure that heirs can access them securely, without exposing the keys in public or easily accessible documents.

Digital inheritance and passwords

Passwords are the biggest practical obstacle to digital inheritance.

Many assets exist, but are inaccessible because no one knows the login credentials. Furthermore, many platforms prohibit the sharing of credentials and may block accounts when they detect suspicious access.

Ideally, a safe solution should be prepared while you are still alive.

Consider using a password manager, designating a trusted person, leaving clear instructions, separating personal data from financial assets, securely storing recovery keys, updating instructions periodically, including digital assets in your will, and avoiding directly including passwords in your will.

Putting passwords on a will can be dangerous because the will could become known to third parties or accessible during the probate process. It's best to leave instructions on how to access the will, without exposing sensitive information in an insecure way.

Can a will include digital assets?

Yes. A will can be useful for organizing the transfer of digital assets, especially when there are assets with economic value or content that the deceased wants to preserve.

It can indicate, for example, what digital assets exist, who should receive them, who should manage professional accounts, what should happen to public profiles, what content should be preserved, what content should be deleted, and who is authorized to handle certain digital matters.

Still, caution is important. The will should not reveal passwords, recovery phrases, or data that allows direct access to digital wallets.

Ideally, a will, private instructions, and secure document organization should be combined.

When there is significant property or multiple heirs, good preparation can prevent future conflicts. division of assets among heirs.

What if the deceased left instructions on a platform?

Some platforms allow you to define what happens to your account after death or after a period of inactivity.

These instructions can be of great practical importance. They can allow you to designate a legacy contact, close the account, turn the profile into a memorial, transfer certain data, send files to a chosen person, or delete information after a certain period.

However, these tools do not solve all inheritance problems. A platform may allow you to download photographs, but that doesn't mean all digital assets with economic value are covered.

There may also be conflicts between instructions given on the platform, wills, the interests of heirs, and privacy rules.

Can the head of the household manage the digital inheritance?

The head of the household manages the inheritance until its distribution. This may include procedures related to digital assets, especially when these have economic or documentary value.

The head of the household may need to identify relevant digital accounts, preserve documents, contact platforms, request the termination of paid services, protect valuable assets, inform the other heirs, include digital assets in the inventory of assets, and provide information about digital income.

But the head of the household should not act as if they have unlimited permission to invade the deceased's private life.

Their role should be guided by the administration of the estate, the preservation of assets, and transparency towards the heirs.

When there is suspicion about the actions of the head of the household, it may be relevant to analyze the... accountability of the head of household.

What if an heir accesses the digital accounts on their own?

This situation can create serious conflicts.

An heir who has access to the deceased's mobile phone, email, or computer may be able to access accounts, transfer files, delete messages, move assets, or change passwords.

Even if he says he's just "taking care of things," this action could harm the other heirs.

Problems can arise when an heir deletes data, transfers cryptocurrencies, changes passwords, closes accounts without agreement, removes documents, accesses private messages, hides digital income, keeps inherited equipment, or uses professional profiles and accounts.

When there is a risk of digital assets or documents disappearing, it may be necessary to act quickly to preserve evidence and prevent its dissipation.

In situations where property or documents are at risk, see also the article on inventory of inheritance assets.

Digital inheritance and the privacy of the deceased.

Digital inheritance cannot be analyzed solely as assets. It also involves privacy.

The deceased person may have left behind personal messages, intimate photographs, confidential conversations, health data, professional communications, or information about third parties.

Heirs may have a legitimate interest in accessing certain data, but this interest must be balanced with the protection of privacy and the confidentiality of private life.

Therefore, it is important to distinguish between access to goods with economic value, access to documents necessary for inheritance, access to family memories, and access to private communications without patrimonial relevance.

Not everything in a digital account should be opened, copied, or shared.

The best solution is prevention during life, leaving clear instructions on what should be preserved, handed over, closed, or disposed of.

How to protect your digital legacy while you are alive?

The best way to avoid conflict is to plan.

Those who lead an active digital life should leave organized instructions, especially when there are items of economic value involved.

Some useful precautions include making a list of relevant digital assets, identifying accounts with economic value, securely storing access information, using a password manager, designating a trusted person, setting up legacy contacts on platforms, separating personal content from professional content, including digital assets in a will, updating instructions when changing accounts or platforms, and avoiding leaving passwords scattered on paper or in messages.

The goal is not to allow indiscriminate access to everything. The goal is to ensure that heirs can find and protect what should be included in the inheritance.

What should heirs do after death?

After a death, the heirs must act with caution and method.

The first step is to preserve existing devices and documents. You should not delete accounts, restore mobile phones, delete emails, or change passwords without understanding the consequences.

Next, they should try to identify digital assets with patrimonial or documentary value.

It may be necessary to obtain a death certificate, establish heirship, identify the deceased's devices, verify legally accessible digital documents, analyze bank statements, locate subscriptions and recurring payments, contact platforms, request the termination of unnecessary services, preserve accounts with economic value, include relevant digital assets in the inventory of assets, and prevent unauthorized access to private communications.

If there are bank accounts associated with digital services, it may be helpful to consult the article on... how to access the bank account of a deceased person.

Common mistakes in digital inheritance

Digital inheritance is still a relatively new topic for many families. Therefore, mistakes are frequent.

One of the most common mistakes is ignoring valuable digital assets. Many families look for houses, bank accounts, and vehicles, but forget about domains, websites, cryptocurrencies, online income, or business accounts.

Another mistake is deleting accounts too early. A seemingly unimportant account may contain documents, invoices, contracts, or clues about other assets.

It is also dangerous to access emails without assessing legal limits, share passwords among multiple heirs, forget about active subscriptions, fail to keep the deceased's devices, not include digital income in the list of assets, or confuse personal memories with patrimonial assets.

A simple mobile phone can contain essential information about assets, contracts, accounts, insurance, debts, and income. Treating it as an unimportant object can be a costly mistake.

When should you seek legal advice?

Legal support is especially important when there are valuable digital assets, blocked accounts, foreign platforms, cryptocurrencies, professional profiles, online income, or conflicts between heirs.

You should also seek help when an heir has exclusive access to devices, there is suspicion of digital asset transfer, there are monetized accounts, there are important documents in email or the cloud, platforms refuse to cooperate, no one knows how to access the assets, there are privacy concerns, the digital inheritance was not included in the list of assets, or the division is blocked due to lack of information.

A lawyer can help separate what constitutes property, what is private, and what should be preserved for division.

Conclusion

Digital inheritance is no longer a topic of the future. It is present in almost all successions, even when the family is not yet aware of it. Photographs, emails, accounts, cryptocurrencies, websites, online income, and digital documents can have sentimental, economic, and legal value.

The biggest challenge lies in balancing the rights of heirs, the privacy of the deceased, and the rules of the platforms. Not everything should be accessible. But anything of patrimonial value should not disappear due to a lack of planning.

If you have digital assets, organize the information while you are alive. If you are dealing with the inheritance of someone who has passed away, preserve devices, identify relevant accounts, and avoid hasty decisions.

To resolve questions about digital inheritance, online assets, blocked accounts, or the division of digital assets, speak with our team. Probate and inheritance lawyers. For a legal analysis tailored to your case, you can also consult a... Solicitor.