What happens to digital assets when you die in Queensland?

Your life is increasingly digital - and so is your death. Cryptocurrency, photo libraries, email, social accounts, online businesses, loyalty points: all of it becomes an estate problem the day you die, and Australian law has not fully caught up. Here is what executors and Will-makers need to know.

What counts as a “digital asset”?

Broadly, anything digital with value or meaning: exchange-held or wallet-held cryptocurrency and NFTs, domain names and online stores, monetised YouTube or gaming accounts, cloud-stored photos and documents, email, social media, subscriptions, and frequent-flyer or loyalty balances (which are contract rights, not cash - and often die with you unless terms say otherwise).

The access problem

Two layers control digital assets: the law (your estate owns them; your executor has authority under the Will and, where needed, a grant of probate) and the platform’s terms of service (which usually grant no automatic access to anyone). Executors regularly hit a wall where the deceased’s own “I Agree” click binds the account to terms permitting no transfer. The practical workarounds:

• Platform legacy tools set up before death: Google Inactive Account Manager, Apple Digital Legacy contacts, Meta legacy contact
• Probate for exchange-held crypto and monetised accounts
• Direct negotiation with platform support (results vary wildly)

Crypto is the sharpest edge

Crypto in self-custody wallets is only as inheritable as the private keys. No keys, no assets - permanently. Estate planning for crypto means a secure, documented recovery path: a hardware wallet with seed phrase stored in your solicitor’s safe, or a written access protocol your executor can follow, referenced (not spelled out) in your Will.

Planning your digital estate

1. Inventory accounts, devices, subscriptions and crypto (kept secure and updated).
2. Use platform legacy tools now - they cost nothing.
3. Clause in your Will giving the executor power to access, manage, transfer, memorialise or delete digital assets, and authority to deal with service providers.
4. Credentials in a vault - password manager emergency kit or solicitor’s safe, referenced in the Will but never printed in it.
5. Business-critical accounts (domains, storefronts) documented with succession instructions.

We include digital asset clauses in our Wills as standard, and advise executors untangling crypto estates.

• Superannuation death benefits
• Testamentary trusts: the full guide
• Wills & Estates practice area