What Happens to Your Digital Assets When You Die in Illinois?
Estate planning traditionally brings to mind homes, bank accounts, investments, vehicles, and personal belongings. Today, however, a significant part of our lives can exist online.
Email accounts, cloud storage, social media profiles, digital photographs, cryptocurrency, online businesses, and other electronic records can all become part of the estate planning conversation.
For Illinois residents, planning for digital assets can help family members and fiduciaries understand what exists, what should happen to it, and who should have authority to manage it after death or incapacity.
What Are Digital Assets?
Digital assets broadly include information, property, accounts, or records that exist electronically.
Depending on your circumstances, these may include:
- Email accounts
- Social media profiles
- Cloud storage
- Digital photographs and videos
- Online financial accounts
- Cryptocurrency
- Websites and domain names
- Online businesses
- Digital intellectual property
- Subscription accounts
- Electronic documents and records
Some digital assets may have significant monetary value. Others may primarily have sentimental or practical importance.
Why Should Digital Assets Be Included in an Estate Plan?
Without proper planning, family members may know very little about your digital life.
They might not know which accounts exist, where important documents are stored, or what you wanted done with personal photographs and online profiles.
Access can also become complicated because online accounts are protected by passwords, privacy rules, terms of service, and applicable laws.
Including digital assets in your estate planning process can provide greater clarity about how these accounts and records should be handled.
Can Your Executor Automatically Access Your Online Accounts?
Not necessarily.
Being named executor of an estate does not simply give someone unrestricted access to every digital account belonging to the deceased person.
Access may depend on several factors, including:
- Illinois law
- Federal law
- The estate planning documents
- The service provider’s terms
- Privacy protections
- Whether the user provided specific directions
- Tools offered directly by the online platform
This is why digital estate planning involves more than giving someone a list of passwords.
Illinois Law and Digital Assets
Illinois has adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, commonly referred to as RUFADAA.
The law establishes rules regarding when certain fiduciaries may access or manage digital assets and electronic communications.
Depending on the circumstances, this can involve individuals such as:
- Executors
- Trustees
- Agents acting under powers of attorney
- Court-appointed guardians
However, the type of digital asset and the authority granted in your estate planning documents can matter.
An Illinois estate planning attorney can help ensure appropriate digital asset provisions are incorporated into your plan.
What Happens to Social Media Accounts?
Different social media platforms have different procedures for handling the account of someone who has died.
Depending on the provider, options may include:
- Memorializing the account
- Deleting the account
- Allowing an authorized person limited management capabilities
- Downloading certain information
- Following instructions previously established by the account owner
Some platforms also provide tools that allow users to choose what should happen to their accounts before death.
Reviewing these settings can be a useful part of digital estate planning.
What About Your Email?
Email accounts can be particularly important because they may contain information about many other parts of your financial and personal life.
Email can provide records relating to:
- Financial institutions
- Insurance policies
- Online purchases
- Business relationships
- Subscriptions
- Digital assets
- Personal communications
However, electronic communications can also receive significant privacy protection.
Your estate plan should clearly address who you want to have appropriate authority over digital information when permitted by law.
Cryptocurrency Requires Special Planning
Cryptocurrency presents unique estate planning challenges.
Unlike a traditional bank account, cryptocurrency may depend on private keys, seed phrases, digital wallets, or other methods of access.
If nobody knows an asset exists or cannot obtain the information necessary to access it, the cryptocurrency could effectively become inaccessible.
At the same time, putting sensitive access credentials directly into a will can create serious security concerns.
A more carefully designed strategy may be needed to ensure both security during your lifetime and appropriate access after death.
Do Not Put Your Passwords Directly in Your Will
A will is generally not the ideal place to maintain passwords, private keys, or other sensitive credentials.
Estate planning documents and probate records may become accessible to people who should not have that information.
Instead, consider maintaining a separate, secure method for organizing digital account information.
Your estate plan can establish legal authority while separate security measures address how necessary information can be accessed.
Create a Digital Asset Inventory
One useful starting point is creating an inventory of your important digital assets.
You might identify categories such as:
- Social media
- Financial accounts
- Cryptocurrency
- Cloud storage
- Digital photographs
- Business accounts
- Websites and domains
- Subscription services
You do not necessarily need to place every password in the inventory.
The goal is to make sure your trusted representatives know what important digital assets exist and where appropriate access information can be found.
Decide What You Want to Happen to Each Asset
Different digital assets may require different instructions.
For example, you might want:
- Family photographs preserved.
- A social media account memorialized.
- Certain accounts permanently deleted.
- Business records transferred to a successor.
- A website maintained or sold.
- Cryptocurrency transferred to designated beneficiaries.
- Personal electronic communications kept private.
Thinking through these decisions now can reduce uncertainty for your family later.
Digital Assets Matter During Incapacity Too
Digital estate planning is not only about what happens after death.
Suppose an illness or injury leaves you temporarily or permanently unable to manage your affairs.
Someone may need to handle online financial accounts, retrieve electronic records, maintain digital business operations, or manage other important accounts on your behalf.
Appropriate provisions within powers of attorney and other estate planning documents can help address these circumstances.
Digital Assets and Revocable Living Trusts
Certain digital assets with transferable ownership may potentially be incorporated into broader trust planning.
However, not every online account can simply be transferred into a trust.
Terms of service, ownership rights, account structure, and applicable laws can affect what is possible.
If you already have a revocable living trust, reviewing your digital property can help determine whether additional planning is appropriate.
Remember Digital Business Assets
Digital planning becomes particularly important for business owners.
A business may depend on assets such as:
- Domain names
- Business email accounts
- Websites
- Cloud-based documents
- Customer databases
- Online payment platforms
- Social media accounts
- Digital intellectual property
If only one person knows how to access or manage these systems, incapacity or death could significantly disrupt the business.
Business succession planning should therefore consider both physical and digital assets.
When Should You Update Your Digital Estate Plan?
Digital assets can change much faster than traditional property.
You may create new accounts, close old ones, change service providers, purchase cryptocurrency, launch a business, or move important documents to another platform.
Consider reviewing your digital planning periodically and after significant changes to your financial or personal life.
You should also review your broader estate plan after events such as marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, the death of a beneficiary or fiduciary, or a significant change in assets.
How LaCava Law Firm Helps With Estate Planning in Geneva, Illinois
LaCava Law Firm helps individuals and families in Geneva and surrounding Illinois communities create estate plans designed around their assets, family circumstances, and long-term wishes.
Modern estate planning can involve much more than determining who receives physical property. Digital accounts, online records, electronic communications, and other digital assets may also require careful consideration.
By addressing these assets alongside wills, trusts, powers of attorney, beneficiary designations, and other estate planning tools, families can create a more complete plan for both incapacity and death.
Conclusion
Your digital life can represent an important part of your estate.
From family photographs stored in the cloud to cryptocurrency, business websites, email accounts, and social media profiles, digital assets can create practical and legal challenges when no plan exists for managing them.
Illinois residents should consider identifying important digital assets, deciding how they should be handled, and ensuring appropriate authority is included in their estate planning documents.
As technology continues to become a larger part of everyday life, digital estate planning is no longer something to overlook. It is increasingly an important part of creating a complete estate plan for yourself and your family.
