What Happens to Digital Assets When Someone Dies? A Practical Guide for Business Owners and Executors

You're sitting in a meeting room. Your business partner, the person who runs the company's online banking, controls all the cloud accounting, manages the social media accounts and holds the domain registrations, has just died unexpectedly.

You need to pay staff. Process payroll. Lodge the BAS. Access client databases. Respond to the ATO.

And you discover that everything, every password, every two-factor authentication code, every platform login, was on their phone. Which is now locked. Or worse, wiped by their family.

This is not a hypothetical. It happens regularly. And Australian law has almost nothing to say about it.

What We Mean by "Digital Assets" in a Deceased Estate

When most people think about estate planning, they picture property titles, share certificates and bank statements. Physical things. Documents you can hold.

Digital assets are everything else.

We're talking about online bank accounts, cryptocurrency wallets, email accounts, social media profiles, subscription services like Netflix and Spotify, loyalty points, business cloud storage, domain names, website hosting, accounting software access, customer databases, intellectual property stored online, digital photos and videos, and online business tools like Xero, MYOB, Slack, Canva and LinkedIn.

If it exists online and has value, sentimental or financial, it's a digital asset.

For a business owner, that list expands. Your company's Google Workspace. The Facebook and Instagram pages that drive sales. The Shopify store. The AWS server hosting your platform. The marketing automation tools. The payroll portal.

And here's what most people don't realise: many of these assets are tied to one person's login credentials. Often the founder. Sometimes a key employee. Occasionally the accountant.

When that person dies, those assets don't automatically transfer to anyone. They just sit there. Locked.

The question isn't whether digital assets matter. It's whether you've done anything to ensure someone can actually access them when you're gone.

The Legal Position in Australia: No Single Digital Asset Law

You might expect that when someone dies, their executor steps in with probate and gets automatic access to everything. Property, bank accounts, investments. All of it.

That's true for traditional assets.

For digital assets, it doesn't work that way.

Australia has no dedicated legislation that gives executors or administrators the right to access a deceased person's online accounts. No Digital Assets Act. No statutory framework that overrides the terms of service each platform sets.

What you get instead is a patchwork. Existing succession law in each state and territory tells you who has authority over the estate. The deceased's will appoints an executor. Probate confirms that authority.

But that authority doesn't automatically extend to logging into someone's Gmail account or transferring their cryptocurrency wallet.

Why? Because most digital assets are governed by contracts. When you sign up for Facebook, Google, your online bank or a crypto exchange, you agree to their terms of service. Those terms usually say the account is non-transferable, personal to you, and terminates on death unless the platform decides otherwise.

So even if you're the executor, even if you have probate, you're still bound by whatever policy that platform has chosen to implement.

Some platforms cooperate. Some make it difficult. Some refuse outright.

Compare this to jurisdictions like the United States, where many states have adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. That legislation gives executors a statutory right to access digital accounts, subject to the deceased's instructions and some privacy protections.

We don't have that here.

What we have is a gap. Succession law says you're in charge of the estate. Platform terms say you can't log in without permission. Privacy law says accessing someone else's account without authorisation might be an offence. Computer misuse legislation adds another layer of risk.

You're left navigating this manually, platform by platform, hoping each one has a reasonable process.

That's the reality. Australian law hasn't caught up to the way we live and work online.

How Platforms and Providers Deal with Accounts After Death

Let's talk about what actually happens when an executor contacts a platform to say the account holder has died.

It varies. Wildly.

Banks and financial institutions generally have established processes. You provide a death certificate, proof of your authority as executor, and they'll close accounts or transfer funds. They're used to dealing with deceased estates. It's slow, bureaucratic, but it works.

Online-only banks and payment platforms like PayPal can be less straightforward. Some require notarised documents. Some respond quickly. Some take months.

Cryptocurrency exchanges are inconsistent. If the deceased held Bitcoin, Ethereum or other crypto on an exchange like Coinbase or Binance, the executor needs to prove their authority and navigate the platform's specific deceased estate process. Some are cooperative. Others impose onerous verification requirements. A few refuse to deal with anyone other than the original account holder, which creates an impossible situation.

If the crypto was held in a personal hardware wallet or a software wallet on the deceased's computer, and no one has the private keys or recovery phrase, it's gone. Permanently. There is no customer service desk to call. No reset password link.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow family members or executors to request memorialisation or deletion. Facebook has a "legacy contact" feature you can set up in advance, giving someone limited access to manage your profile after death. Google has an "Inactive Account Manager" that lets you nominate someone to receive your data or delete your account after a period of inactivity.

If you didn't set those up, your family has to submit formal requests with death certificates and proof of relationship. It can take weeks. Sometimes longer.

Email providers like Google and Microsoft generally require a court order or explicit prior authorisation before granting access. Just being the executor isn't enough.

Subscription services, streaming platforms, cloud storage providers: mostly they'll cancel the account if you provide a death certificate. But getting access to the actual data, the files stored in Dropbox or iCloud, the photos in Google Photos, can be harder. Again, you're at the mercy of their internal policies.

Domain name registrars and web hosting providers: these are business-critical if the deceased owned the company website or held key domain names. Most registrars have transfer processes, but they can be slow and require extensive documentation. If the domain expires during the probate process and no one knows to renew it, you can lose it. Someone else can buy it.

Business software and SaaS platforms (Xero, MYOB, Slack, Salesforce, Microsoft 365): policies vary. Some allow account transfers with proper documentation. Some treat the account as non-transferable and force you to set up a new one, losing all historical data in the process. Some require the business to prove it owns the data, not the individual who set up the account.

The unifying theme: you can't assume access. You can't assume cooperation. And you certainly can't assume speed.

What Executors Can and Cannot Do with Digital Accounts

You're the executor. You have probate. You know the deceased's passwords because they kept a list.

Can you just log in?

Legally, it's murky. Practically, it's risky.

Most platform terms of service say accounts are personal and non-transferable. Logging in using someone else's credentials, even if you're the executor, could technically breach those terms. It might also raise issues under privacy legislation and, in extreme cases, computer misuse laws.

Does that mean you'll be prosecuted for checking your deceased spouse's email to find important documents? Almost certainly not. But the risk isn't zero, and it's enough to make cautious executors hesitate.

The safer path: contact the platform, provide your authority as executor, and follow their process.

But that assumes the platform has a process. And that the process works. And that you have time to wait.

Here's where it gets real. You're an executor dealing with a deceased director's business. Payroll is due in three days. You need to log into the online banking portal to authorise payments. The platform says it will take six weeks to verify your authority and grant access.

What do you do?

You make a risk assessment. You weigh the legal risk of logging in against the operational risk of missing payroll. You document your decision. You seek legal advice if the stakes are high enough.

But you shouldn't have to make that choice.

What executors can do:

• Contact platforms directly and request access using formal deceased estate procedures
• Provide death certificates, grants of probate, and proof of executor authority
• Request data downloads or account closures where appropriate
• Use pre-authorised access if the deceased set up legacy contacts or shared access in advance
• Seek court orders if a platform refuses to cooperate and the asset is valuable

What executors should not do:

• Log in using passwords without understanding the platform's terms and the legal risks
• Share access credentials with multiple family members or colleagues without clear authority
• Make assumptions about what you're entitled to access
• Ignore the possibility that accessing certain accounts could constitute a breach of privacy or computer misuse laws
• Delay seeking legal advice if you're unsure

If the deceased planned ahead and left clear instructions, designated a trusted person with shared access, or used platform tools like Google's Inactive Account Manager, this becomes much easier.

If they didn't, you're navigating blind.

Business-Critical Digital Assets: When a Director or Key Person Dies

This is where digital assets stop being an administrative inconvenience and become a governance crisis.

Picture this. Your company's sole director dies. Two-factor authentication for the business bank account is tied to their mobile phone. The phone is locked with a passcode no one knows. The telco won't unlock it without a lengthy process. The bank won't allow transactions without 2FA.

You can't pay suppliers. You can't meet payroll. The business grinds to a halt.

Or this. Your co-founder controlled the company's Google Workspace, Xero accounting, AWS hosting, Stripe payment gateway and domain registrations. All under their personal email. No shared access. No documented passwords.

They die suddenly. The company is locked out of its own systems.

This happens more often than you'd think.

Domain names and websites are particularly vulnerable. If the domain is registered in the deceased's personal name and no one knows the login details for the registrar, the domain can expire. Once it expires, anyone can buy it. Competitors. Domain squatters. Someone who wants to ransom it back to you.

Accounting and financial systems like Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks hold all your tax records, invoices, payroll history and BAS data. If the deceased was the only user with admin access, the company loses visibility into its own financial position. At the worst possible time.

Customer databases and CRM systems might be hosted on platforms like Salesforce or HubSpot. If access is lost, so is the entire customer relationship history. Sales pipelines. Revenue forecasts. Contact details.

Cloud storage containing contracts, IP, business plans, product designs and confidential information can become inaccessible. If it's stored on the deceased's personal Dropbox or Google Drive rather than a company account, retrieval can be impossible.

Social media and marketing accounts that drive revenue: if the company's Facebook page, Instagram account or LinkedIn profile is tied to the deceased's personal login, the business can lose control of its own public presence. Competitors have been known to capitalise on the vacuum.

ASIC and ATO portals: if the deceased was the only person with access credentials for lodging company returns or managing tax affairs, the company can fall out of compliance simply because no one can log in.

The operational risk is immediate. The financial risk can be severe. The reputational risk, if customers or suppliers find out the company has lost control of basic systems, can be terminal.

What should have been in place:

• Shared admin access for critical business systems, not single-person control
• A documented inventory of every business-critical platform, account and access credential
• Secure, accessible storage of passwords and 2FA backup codes (not just on one person's phone)
• Succession planning that specifically addresses digital assets and system access
• Regular reviews to ensure access credentials are current and shared access is maintained

If you're a director or business owner, ask yourself: if you were hit by a bus tomorrow, could your co-directors, business partners or executors actually run the business?

If the answer is no, you have a governance problem.

Practical Steps to Plan for Your Digital Assets Now

This isn't about fear. It's about being sensible.

You've built a business. You've accumulated assets. You've set up online systems that run your life and your company.

What happens to all of that when you're gone?

If you haven't done anything to plan for it, the answer is chaos.

Here's what you can do.

1. Create a digital asset inventory

Sit down and list every online account that matters. Every bank account, investment platform, email address, social media profile, subscription service, business tool, domain registration, cloud storage account and cryptocurrency wallet.

For each one, note:

• The platform or provider
• The username or email address used to log in
• Whether there's two-factor authentication and how it's set up
• Where the password is stored
• Who else, if anyone, has access
• What the account is worth, financially or operationally

This doesn't need to be complicated. A spreadsheet works. An encrypted document stored securely works. The format doesn't matter. What matters is that it exists and that the right people know where to find it.

2. Decide who should have access

Not every account needs to be accessible to your executor. Your personal social media, for example, might be something you want closed and deleted.

But your business accounts, your financial accounts, your email, your accounting systems: these need a plan.

Decide who you trust to manage these after your death. Your executor might not be the right person. Maybe your business partner is better placed to deal with operational accounts. Maybe your accountant should have access to financial records.

You can appoint different people for different categories of assets. Just make sure they know what you've decided.

3. Use platform tools where available

Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you nominate someone to receive your data or delete your account if you don't log in for a set period (you choose: three, six, twelve or eighteen months).

Facebook's legacy contact feature lets you designate someone to manage your memorialised profile, respond to friend requests and update your profile picture and cover photo. They can't log in as you or read your messages, but they can maintain your presence.

Apple's Digital Legacy program allows you to add legacy contacts who can access your iCloud data after your death.

These tools exist. Use them.

4. Update your will

Your will should explicitly address digital assets. Not just "all my property and possessions", that's too vague to give executors confidence when dealing with platforms.

Include:

• A clause giving your executor authority to access, manage, transfer or close your digital accounts
• Instructions on what should happen to specific accounts (close, memorialise, transfer)
• A reference to where your digital asset inventory is stored
• Authority for your executor to use passwords and credentials as necessary to administer the estate

Work with a lawyer who understands this area. Not all do.

5. Store passwords and credentials securely

Do not leave a handwritten list of passwords in a drawer. Do not email them to yourself. Do not save them in an unencrypted document.

Use a reputable password manager like 1Password, Bitwist or LastPass. These tools let you store passwords securely and, critically, let you grant emergency access to a trusted person.

Make sure your executor or digital legacy contact knows the master password or has emergency access credentials.

6. Share access for business-critical accounts

If you're a director, don't be the single point of failure.

Every business-critical system should have at least two people with admin access. Online banking. Accounting software. Domain registrations. Cloud hosting. Email.

If you're the sole director, make sure your executor, business partner or trusted advisor can access these accounts without needing to go through a six-week verification process.

7. Review and update regularly

Digital assets change. You open new accounts. You close old ones. Passwords get reset. Two-factor authentication gets reconfigured.

If your inventory and access plan is five years out of date, it's useless.

Set a reminder: once a year, review your digital asset plan. Update the inventory. Check that shared access still works. Make sure your executor knows where everything is.

8. Talk about it

This is uncomfortable. Most people don't want to think about their own death, let alone have detailed conversations about Gmail passwords and cryptocurrency wallets.

But if you don't talk about it, your family and business partners will be left guessing.

Tell your executor where the inventory is. Tell your business partners that you've set up shared access. Tell your spouse that you've nominated them as a legacy contact on your social media.

A ten-minute conversation now can save months of frustration later.

What to Expect If You're the Executor or Advisor

You've been appointed executor. The person has died. You have the death certificate. You're applying for probate.

Now what?

Here's a realistic timeline and task list for the first 90 days.

Week 1: Secure immediate access and assess priorities

Your first job is to identify what accounts exist and which ones need urgent attention.

If the deceased left a digital asset inventory, this is straightforward. If they didn't, you're detective work: check email for account notifications, scan bank statements for subscription payments, look through their computer and phone if accessible, talk to family members and business partners.

Priority accounts:

• Online banking and payment platforms
• Business-critical systems if they were a director or owner
• Email, because it's often the gateway to resetting other accounts
• Accounts with real financial value: investment platforms, cryptocurrency, online trading accounts

For urgent accounts, contact the platform immediately. Provide the death certificate. Ask about their deceased estate process. Find out how long it will take.

Weeks 2-4: Follow formal processes for financial accounts

Banks and financial institutions are usually cooperative, but slow. Expect to provide:

• Certified copy of the death certificate
• Grant of probate (or application, if probate is still in process)
• Proof of your identity as executor
• Completed deceased estate forms

Some platforms require these documents notarised or certified by a lawyer. Some want original documents. Be prepared for requests that feel bureaucratic and frustrating.

For cryptocurrency exchanges, expect even more verification. Some will freeze the account until you provide extensive documentation. If the deceased held crypto in a personal wallet and you don't have the private keys, there's nothing you can do. It's lost.

Weeks 4-8: Handle email, social media and personal accounts

Email providers like Google and Microsoft rarely grant access without a court order. If the deceased used Gmail, you can request data through Google's deceased user process, but don't expect to be able to log in and read messages.

For social media, follow the platform's process:

• Facebook: request memorialisation or deletion
• Instagram: linked to Facebook, same process
• LinkedIn: contact support to close the account
• Twitter/X: submit a request with death certificate

If the deceased set up a legacy contact on Facebook or Instagram, this is much easier. If they didn't, expect delays.

Weeks 8-12: Clean up subscriptions and low-priority accounts

You'll find dozens of subscription services: Netflix, Spotify, news sites, software tools, online storage, loyalty programs.

Cancel what you can. For some, you'll need to contact support. For others, cancelling the linked payment method stops the subscription automatically.

Loyalty points and rewards programs often can't be transferred, but some (Qantas, Velocity) have deceased member processes. Check the terms.

Don't ignore low-value accounts just because they're small. Unused accounts sitting open are a security risk.

Ongoing: Document everything

Keep records of every email, every phone call, every document you send to a platform. If someone later questions your actions, if there's a dispute over access, or if a platform refuses to cooperate and you need to seek a court order, you'll need that trail.

If you encounter a platform that refuses access or imposes impossible requirements, seek legal advice. Sometimes a lawyer's letter is enough to move things along. Sometimes you need to apply to court for directions.

When to get help

You're out of your depth if:

• The deceased held significant cryptocurrency and you can't access it
• A business is at risk because you can't access critical systems
• There's a dispute among family members or business partners over who should control accounts
• A platform is refusing to cooperate and the asset is valuable enough to justify court action
• You're unsure whether accessing an account using known passwords would breach laws or terms of service

Executors have a duty to act prudently and in the best interests of the estate. If digital assets are complex or valuable, getting specialist advice isn't optional.

When Problems Arise: Disputes, Lost Value and Regulatory Consequences

Most digital asset issues are frustrating but manageable. Slow platform processes. Lost passwords. Accounts that take weeks to close.

But sometimes, things go wrong in ways that create real legal and financial problems.

Disputes over control

Family members disagree about what should happen to social media accounts. One wants memorialisation. Another wants deletion. The executor is caught in the middle.

Business partners discover that the deceased controlled all access to the company's systems. They want immediate access. The executor, who is also the deceased's spouse, refuses to share credentials. The business threatens litigation.

Co-founders held cryptocurrency jointly. The surviving founder claims it was a business asset. The deceased's family claims it was personal. No one documented the arrangement. Now it's a dispute over estate assets.

These situations escalate quickly. What starts as a disagreement over access becomes a fight over ownership, control and value. If the dispute reaches court, it's expensive and time-consuming.

Lost value through delay

Cryptocurrency is volatile. If an executor can't access a deceased person's crypto holdings for six months while they work through platform verification, and the market crashes during that time, the estate loses value. Beneficiaries blame the executor for delay.

Domain names expire. If a valuable business domain isn't renewed because no one knew it was due, and someone else buys it, the loss can be significant. Retrieving it can cost thousands, if it's possible at all.

Subscription services continue charging. If an executor doesn't identify and cancel them quickly, the estate pays for months or years of unused services.

Online businesses lose customers. If a company's e-commerce store, social media presence or customer communication systems go dark because no one can access them, revenue drops. Sometimes permanently.

Regulatory and tax consequences

Businesses have obligations to maintain records, lodge returns and respond to regulators. If those records are locked in inaccessible cloud accounting systems or email accounts, the company can fall out of compliance.

The ATO requires records for tax audits and disputes. If key documents are in an email account the executor can't access, defending an audit or objection becomes much harder.

Digital assets like cryptocurrency and online investments are taxable. If the executor can't identify or value them, the estate's tax position is unclear. If the ATO later discovers undisclosed assets, penalties and interest apply.

Company directors have obligations under the Corporations Act. If a director's death leaves the company unable to meet those obligations because digital systems are inaccessible, remaining directors and officers face risk.

Litigation involving digital evidence

The deceased was involved in a commercial dispute or regulatory investigation. Critical evidence, emails, contracts, financial records, is stored in their online accounts.

If the executor or the company can't access those accounts, evidence is lost. That can affect the outcome of litigation, the strength of a defence, or the ability to respond to regulators.

Opponents in litigation have been known to argue that lost digital evidence should lead to adverse inferences. Courts don't look kindly on parties who can't produce relevant documents, even if the reason is that the person who held them has died and the accounts are inaccessible.

What triggers these problems

Almost always, the same factors:

• No planning: the deceased didn't document their digital assets or set up shared access
• Single points of failure: one person controlled everything
• Family or business partner conflict: existing tensions made worse by uncertainty and lost access
• High-value or time-sensitive assets: cryptocurrency, domains, business systems where delay causes real harm
• Complex ownership arrangements: digital assets held in ways that aren't clearly personal or business, leaving room for argument

Prevention is straightforward. Proper planning, clear documentation, shared access for business-critical systems, and open communication with family and business partners.

But if prevention didn't happen and you're facing a dispute or loss, seek advice early. The longer these situations drag on, the worse they become.

Moving Forward: Clarity in an Uncertain Area

Digital assets are part of modern life. Part of your business. Part of your estate.

Australian law hasn't kept pace. There's no single statute that gives executors clear rights. Access depends on platform policies, which vary wildly. Planning depends on you taking action, because the default position is that your accounts lock and no one can access them.

That's uncomfortable. But it's manageable.

If you're a business owner, ask yourself: could your business survive if you died tomorrow and took all the login credentials with you? If the answer is no, you know what needs fixing.

If you're planning your estate, ask yourself: have you made it possible for your executor to find and access your digital assets? If the answer is no, start with a simple inventory.

If you're an executor dealing with this now, be methodical. Prioritise financial and business-critical accounts. Follow platform processes where they exist. Seek advice when things are complex or disputed.

Digital assets shouldn't be an afterthought in estate planning. They're too valuable, too important and too easy to lose.

The right approach brings clarity. And clarity is what executors, families and business partners need most when someone dies.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Digital asset laws and platform policies change regularly. The treatment of digital accounts after death depends on the specific facts, the platforms involved, and the deceased's planning. If you're dealing with digital assets in a deceased estate or planning for your own, seek advice tailored to your circumstances.