Digital Assets and Estate Planning in North Carolina: What Happens to Your Online Life
August 2, 2026 · Ryan P. Duffy
When most people think about estate planning, they picture physical things — a house, a car, a bank account. But what about your Bitcoin wallet? Your Instagram account with thousands of followers? Your Amazon store? Your cloud-stored photos of your kids growing up?
Digital assets are now a significant part of what most North Carolinians own — and most estate plans completely ignore them. That’s a problem we can fix with thoughtful planning in the digital age.
Attorney-reviewed: Reviewed by Ryan P. Duffy, a North Carolina and South Carolina estate planning attorney. Last reviewed: May 25, 2026. Estimated read time: 6 minutes.
Key takeaways
- Digital assets can include cryptocurrency, online accounts, cloud photos, business platforms, loyalty points, and social media accounts.
- A fiduciary may need express authority to access or manage digital property.
- A secure inventory is often more useful than listing passwords directly in a will.
Digital assets are easy to overlook because they do not sit in a file cabinet. The plan should give trusted people both legal authority and practical access instructions without creating security problems.
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Schedule a Free ConsultationWhat Counts as a Digital Asset in the Digital Age?
Digital assets encompass far more than most people realize. They include everything you own or control online — and the list keeps growing as our digital lives expand and our financial footprint moves online.
- Financial digital assets: Cryptocurrency holdings, digital wallets like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App, online bank accounts, and investment accounts accessed digitally.
- Personal digital accounts: Email accounts, social media profiles, cloud storage, streaming subscriptions, and online loyalty reward programs.
- Business digital assets: Domain names, websites, online stores, digital products, content libraries, and monetized social accounts.
- Creative digital assets: Digital photos and videos stored in the cloud, music, artwork, writing, and any intellectual property in digital form.
The value of your digital assets can be substantial — sometimes representing a significant portion of your overall estate. Yet without explicit planning, many of these valuable assets simply disappear or become inaccessible when you die or become incapacitated.
North Carolina Law on Digital Assets: What RUFADAA Means for You
North Carolina law and federal regulations together create a complex framework governing digital asset access after death. North Carolina adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), which gives legal tools to help your loved ones access these assets — but only if your estate plan addresses them directly.
Under North Carolina’s RUFADAA, a named fiduciary — your executor, trustee, or agent under a power of attorney — can be authorized to manage digital accounts and property on your behalf. A digital fiduciary is someone with the legal authority to access, control, and wind down your digital accounts after you die or become incapacitated.
The critical nuance: the law prioritizes your expressed wishes. Platform-level legacy settings win first. Your estate planning documents control next. If your documents say nothing? Your executor is left fighting tech companies with limited legal leverage.
How to Incorporate Digital Assets into Your Estate Plan
The first step in digital estate planning is knowing exactly what you own. That means creating a digital asset inventory — a master document listing all your online accounts, digital property, and access credentials stored securely (never in your will).
Your digital asset inventory should include:
- All email accounts and usernames
- Social media profiles and associated pages or groups
- Financial accounts — banking, investment, and digital wallets
- Cloud storage accounts, including all data stored in the cloud
- Domain names, websites, and hosting accounts
- Streaming services and subscription accounts
- Specific digital holdings with monetary or sentimental value
Once you have your inventory, the next step is to formally incorporate digital assets into your estate plan. Your will, trust, or power of attorney should grant your executor or trustee explicit authority to access and manage these accounts according to your wishes.
Digital Assets in Your Estate: Traditional vs. Digital Property
One thing that confuses many North Carolina families is the difference between traditional and digital property when it comes to inheritance. With physical property — your house, car, or bank accounts — the law is relatively clear. Assets pass through probate or to named beneficiaries.
Digital assets are governed differently. Many are controlled by Terms of Service agreements, not property law. That means platforms — not your heirs — may ultimately decide what happens to those accounts. Facebook can delete your profile. PayPal may freeze funds. Email providers may refuse access to even an authorized executor without the right legal documentation in place.
This is why addressing both physical and digital property in your comprehensive estate plan matters so much. They require different approaches, and failing to plan for your digital holdings could mean your family loses access to meaningful — and sometimes financially significant — parts of your estate.
Protecting Digital Assets in Your Estate: Cryptocurrency Planning
Cryptocurrency is where digital estate planning gets particularly critical. Unlike a bank account, crypto is decentralized and access-controlled by private keys. Lose the key, and those assets are gone forever. No customer service, no court order, no recovery.
If you hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other digital assets, your estate plan needs to address:
- Secure key storage: Where are your private keys or seed phrases stored, and who knows how to find them?
- Wallet access: Whether hardware, software, or exchange-based, your executor needs clear instructions to access these assets.
- Transfer instructions: Your digital fiduciary needs to understand how to properly manage your digital assets and execute transfers — crypto does not work like a traditional bank account.
Throughout North Carolina, we see more estates each year where crypto and digital holdings represent five or six figures. These valuable assets can be permanently lost without explicit planning and clear documentation left behind for your family.
Protect Your Digital Assets: Common Mistakes to Avoid
Here’s where most North Carolina families go wrong when it comes to digital assets in their estate plans:
- Not mentioning digital assets at all. A generic will or trust does nothing to address your specific digital accounts. You need to expressly authorize your executor to access these assets.
- Storing passwords in the will. Your will becomes a public record after probate. Never put passwords or private keys in it. Use a secure, separate document instead.
- Failing to keep your estate plan current. Your digital life changes constantly. Review annually to keep your estate plan current as you open new accounts and acquire new digital property.
- Ignoring platform-specific legacy tools. Many platforms offer legacy contact settings. Use them — but don’t rely on them alone. North Carolina law and federal regulations may interact with platform terms in ways that require additional legal documentation.
- Underestimating the value of your digital assets. Social media accounts, online businesses, and specific digital content libraries can all be valuable assets. Treat them accordingly.
How an Experienced Estate Planning Attorney Can Help
Building a comprehensive estate plan that covers both physical and digital property requires legal expertise. An experienced estate planning attorney can help North Carolina families navigate both North Carolina’s estate planning laws and the patchwork of federal regulations and platform terms that govern digital accounts.
We can help you:
- Draft a will or trust that expressly authorizes your executor to access and manage your digital accounts according to your wishes
- Create a durable power of attorney with explicit digital asset provisions for incapacity planning
- Safeguard your digital legacy with a secure, organized digital asset inventory system
- Address specific digital holdings like crypto, online businesses, and monetized content accounts
- Keep your estate plan current as your digital life evolves
At Estate Planning of the Carolinas, we help North Carolina families and South Carolina families build estate plans that account for the full picture — including everything stored in the cloud, your digital wallets, and all the digital assets that make up your digital life today.
Ready to Protect Your Digital Legacy?
Don’t let your digital assets fall through the cracks. A comprehensive estate plan — built with the help of an experienced North Carolina estate planning attorney — can safeguard your digital legacy and make life easier for your family when they need it most.
Schedule a free consultation today to discuss how we can help you manage your digital assets as part of a complete estate plan — one that covers every valuable asset you own, both physical and digital alike.
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