Managing a deceased or incapacitated person's online accounts, from cloud storage to social media to cryptocurrency, has become a growing headache for grieving families, particularly when no advance planning has taken place. Wired's guide explains that without a clear inventory of digital assets and instructions for what should happen to them, survivors often have no way of knowing what exists, let alone how to access or close accounts, making forward planning increasingly important as more of life's value moves online.

In the US, digital inheritance falls under state law via the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), now enacted in 48 states plus Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands, with Massachusetts and Louisiana handling things differently. The law recognises that digital property, unlike physical mail, may include private message histories the deceased expected to stay confidential, and it works alongside the federal Stored Communications Act, which bars companies from releasing account contents without permission. A named fiduciary can typically close accounts, but can only access private content such as emails, photos and messages if the deceased explicitly granted that authority in advance; assets like cryptocurrency held in a private wallet with no shared key are simply lost forever.