Digital Assets

Our lives are increasingly lived online. Digital assets include anything stored electronically that holds value, whether financial, reputational or sentimental.  These range from online accounts and intellectual property to NFTs and digital currencies. Often, such assets are overlooked in traditional estate planning.

These assets are subject to complex licensing agreements and terms of service that can restrict access or transferability. Without proper planning, executors and trustees may face significant hurdles in administering a digital estate.

We help clients take proactive steps to manage and protect their digital estate, both during their lifetime and after their death. This includes:

• Incorporating digital assets into wills and trust documents
• Ensuring executors have the authority to access and manage online accounts
• Understanding how licensing agreements affect ownership and transfer
• Using secure storage and communication tools to protect sensitive data

Whether it is safeguarding a family’s legacy or protecting a lifetime’s work, our approach to digital assets is rooted in strategic insight. We combine legal expertise with a deep understanding of our clients’ goals, ensuring digital lives are protected with the same care as tangible assets.

Recent experience

• Advising a high net worth individual on the succession planning of a digital art collection stored across multiple platforms, ensuring access and transfer rights were preserved post-death.
• Supporting a family office in structuring a trust to hold cryptocurrency assets, working with institutional-grade custodians to ensure legal ownership and insurance coverage.
• Assisting a trustee in responding to a complex data subject access request involving video surveillance footage, balancing privacy rights with legal obligations.