Digital legacy

A person’s legacy consists of all their assets. It is often not realised that data on the internet and the contracts concluded here remain after death and are therefore part of the legacy as a ‘digital legacy’.

A digital legacy can be associated with considerable financial risks for heirs because they are unaware of the deceased’s digital legacy or have no access to it. For this reason, it is important to prepare the digital legacy in order to minimise the burden on future heirs.

Answering important questions about the digital legacy

Firstly, the most important questions about the digital legacy should be clarified:

• What digital assets do I own?
• Where are my digital assets stored?
• How can my digital executor gain access to my digital assets?
• Who should be my digital executor?
• What should happen to my digital assets?
• How can I protect my digital assets?
• What are the legal provisions relating to digital estates?

Answering these questions and putting the answers in writing will ensure that digital assets in the estate can be managed securely and responsibly.

What is a digital legacy?

The digital legacy is the entirety of digital assets and includes all electronically available data, contractual relationships and assets. The digital legacy includes financial assets such as a PayPal balance, balances in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as well as social media profiles. This includes contractual relationships with providers of digital services, but the content of the corresponding accounts also forms part of the digital estate.

The digital legacy includes, among other things:

• Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies
• NFTs used for storage and owner verification in the trade of digital artworks
• All contractual relationships with providers of digital services
• Offline data on a device, e.g. documents, images, videos
• Digital goods, e.g. music, films, electronic books
• Communication, e.g. correspondence, email accounts, mailboxes on servers
• Social networks, e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Facetime, Instagram
• Payment / purchasing, e.g. online banking, PayPal, eBay, Amazon
• Websites incl. domain etc.
• Wearables, e.g. smartwatches, fitness wristbands
• Smart Home
• Airdrops
• Digital assets from games

How can I manage my digital legacy?

It makes sense to categorise and document digital assets during your lifetime. This makes it easier for future heirs to manage the digital estate. It is also important to document what should happen to accounts after death, for example.

At best, the following arrangements are made:

• Will
• Listing of the digital legacy
• Powers of attorney for accounts

It is important when listing the accounts,

• Name of the provider
• Username and
• Password / Private Key

to keep this list up to date and to ensure that the list can be found.

What legal regulations apply to digital inheritance?

Inheritance law does not differentiate between the ‘analogue world’ and the ‘digital world’. Pursuant to Section 1922 (1) of the German Civil Code (BGB), a person’s assets are transferred to the heir or heirs upon their death. This means that the digital estate also passes to the heirs upon the death of a person.

How can online accounts and profiles be inherited?

In principle, legal succession also applies to the digital estate if no will or inheritance contract exists

However, it is possible to regulate the transfer of online accounts and profiles in a will: for example, it is possible to arrange bequests and thus allocate certain accounts to certain people in the event of your death. It is also possible to arrange for the execution of a will with the task of ‘managing the digital estate’.

Secure access to digital assets!

In order to secure access to digital assets, the necessary passwords and private keys for access must be passed on to the heirs after death. Otherwise, access is irrevocably lost.

This is because, in the absence of a central administration centre such as a bank, there is no legitimacy check of the disposing party, for example by presenting a certificate of inheritance, when these digital assets are transferred. Without knowledge of the digital assets, passwords or private keys, heirs therefore have no possibility of access.

It is therefore important to secure the access data and ensure that heirs also receive it.

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