Estate Planning for Crypto and Other Digital Assets: What You Need to Know

Estate planning has evolved past simply writing a will and placing other documents in a safe deposit box. With the rise of the internet, cloud storage, and crypto currency comes a new style of planning for one’s death.

Your executor still needs to know what assets you have and how to access them, and tt is the access that is the trickiest part in planning for handing off your digital assets to your heirs. “It’s most important to explain (to them) the kinds of assets, key locations, and access controls you’re using for security. Access controls are things like PINs, passphrases, multisignature or timelock requirements,” explains Pam Morgan, a probate attorney who has written a book on cryptoasset inheritance planning.

The vast majority of states with laws on digital assets have adopted a model law that was written broadly enough to include things that haven’t been invented yet, says Ben Orzeske, chief counsel for the Uniform Law Commission. So far, 42 states have enacted laws allowing executors to manage digital assets in much the same way they do traditional holdings of estates.

See Ted Knutson, Estate Planning for Crypto and Other Digital Assets: What You Need to Know, Forbes, August 14, 2018.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.) for bringing this article to my attention.