UHNW estate planning increasingly includes crypto, domains, cloud data, digital identities and online accounts. APX examines the access, legal and governance questions families should resolve in advance.
Executive Summary
Most estate plans were designed for assets that an executor can locate through a bank, registry, adviser or physical inventory. Digital wealth behaves differently. A private key can be worth millions and still be impossible to recover. A domain can expire while the estate is being administered. Cloud accounts may contain critical documents but remain inaccessible because nobody has the right credentials or platform authorisation.
The digital estate therefore requires two plans at once: a legal plan that establishes who should inherit or control the asset, and an access plan that makes it technically possible to execute those wishes without weakening security during the owner’s lifetime.
Key Takeaways
- Ownership and access are different problems. A will can transfer an asset legally while leaving heirs unable to reach it technically.
- Do not put live secrets in the will. Wills may become public and are not the right place for seed phrases or passwords.
- Platform tools should be configured in advance. Apple Legacy Contact and Google Inactive Account Manager can simplify selected account access.
- Domains are operational assets. Registrant records, renewal methods and transfer authority should be documented.
- Crypto requires recovery design. Self-custody, multisignature and institutional custody each create different succession mechanics.
Digital Assets Are Now Explicitly Part of Property Law
In England and Wales, the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 received Royal Assent in December 2025 following Law Commission work on the treatment of digital assets as personal property. The wider legal environment remains complex, especially when assets and parties sit across jurisdictions, but the direction is clear: digital assets belong in serious estate planning rather than in an informal password list.
1. Build an Inventory Without Building a Theft Map
The family office should know that an asset exists, where it is held, who administers it and which succession mechanism applies. That inventory may include cryptoassets, domains, cloud storage, social accounts, digital businesses, intellectual property, tokenised assets, password managers and devices containing encrypted records.
The inventory should not contain every live secret in one document. It should point authorised people toward a controlled recovery process.
2. Crypto: Custody Determines Succession
Assets held with an institutional custodian may be recoverable through legal and account-administration procedures. Self-custodied assets can be radically different: control may depend entirely on keys or seed material. Multisignature structures can reduce single-person dependency but only if signers, devices and recovery procedures are kept current.
The succession plan should therefore document the custody model, not merely the asset balance. It should also be tested. A recovery process that nobody has rehearsed may fail precisely when the principal is unavailable.
3. Apple, Google and Microsoft Accounts
Major platforms now provide formal digital-legacy mechanisms. Apple’s Legacy Contact feature allows a user to designate trusted people who can request access to certain account data after death using an access key and death certificate. Google’s Inactive Account Manager can share selected data with nominated contacts after a defined period of inactivity. Microsoft also provides digital-legacy and next-of-kin processes for certain services.
These tools are materially better than assuming relatives will simply be handed a password later. They also demonstrate an important principle: the platform’s rules matter alongside the estate documents.
4. Domain Names: Small Asset, Large Operational Risk
For a family business, investment vehicle or personal brand, a domain can be operationally critical. ICANN’s transfer framework relies on the registered name holder and registrar procedures. The family office should therefore document registrar, registrant, renewal payment method, administrative contacts and transfer procedure.
A premium domain that expires during probate can create reputational and financial consequences disproportionate to its annual renewal fee.
5. Password Managers and Recovery Keys
A password manager can be a powerful control point, but it can also become a single point of failure. Families should understand the provider’s emergency-access features, device requirements and account-recovery limitations. Critical recovery material should be stored securely, with access split where appropriate rather than concentrated in one person’s memory.
6. The Family Office Needs a Digital Executor Function
The legal executor does not necessarily need to be the person who understands wallets, domains, encrypted backups and online accounts. For complex estates, the family office may need a named technical custodian or adviser who can support the executor without receiving inappropriate authority during the principal’s lifetime.
This is closely related to the governance issues discussed in APX’s UHNW Security Audit framework: continuity and security need to be designed together.
A Practical Digital-Estate Checklist
- Maintain an asset and account inventory.
- Classify assets by custody model and jurisdiction.
- Configure platform legacy-contact tools where suitable.
- Document domain registrars and renewal controls.
- Separate legal instructions from live authentication secrets.
- Define who can assist the executor technically.
- Test crypto and password-manager recovery procedures.
- Review the plan after major acquisitions or platform changes.
APX Perspective
The digital estate is not an appendix to succession planning. For many globally mobile families it is now part of the core operating infrastructure of wealth. The best plan ensures that heirs can prove their rights, authorised advisers can execute them and the principal does not have to weaken present-day security to achieve future continuity.
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Sources & Further Reading
APX Intelligence is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, estate-planning, cybersecurity or investment advice. Digital-asset succession rules vary materially by jurisdiction and custody model.
