Most of what you think of as your digital life cannot be inherited. An email account, a streaming subscription, a social media profile: these are generally licences to use a service, granted to you personally, governed by terms you agreed to and did not read. When you die, what happens to them is decided by those terms, not by your will.

Some digital things are property and do pass to your estate: cryptocurrency, domain names, an online business, money sitting in an investment platform, the copyright in your own photographs and writing. The distinction between the two categories is the single most useful thing to understand, because it tells you what to plan for and what to stop worrying about. Singapore has no dedicated statute on digital assets after death, so the ordinary law of estates applies to what is genuinely property, and contract terms fill the rest.

What counts as a digital asset

Take an inventory view rather than a legal one first. What you actually have is likely to include:

  • Communications: email accounts, messaging histories, contact lists.
  • Media and memories: cloud photo libraries, video, music collections, ebooks and audiobooks.
  • Social accounts: profiles, pages, and years of posts.
  • Money: online banking, brokerage and investment platforms, e-wallets, payment apps.
  • Cryptocurrency: coins and tokens held on an exchange or in a self-custody wallet.
  • Commercial assets: domain names, websites, an online store, an advertising or creator account with revenue attached, a customer list.
  • Subscriptions: anything billing a card monthly, which continues billing after death until someone stops it.
  • Loyalty and points: airline miles, hotel points, credit card rewards.
  • Devices and their contents: the phone and laptop themselves are ordinary property, but the data on them may be locked behind a passcode nobody has.

When you open an account with a platform, you generally receive a personal, non-transferable right to use a service. You do not own the account. That has consequences the family only discovers at the worst moment:

  • A clause in your will purporting to “leave my account to my daughter” does not bind the platform.
  • Many platforms close, memorialise or delete accounts on notification of death, according to their own policy.
  • Access requests from relatives are handled through the platform’s process, which may or may not release content, and often takes months.
  • Purchased media, such as films, books, and music tied to an account, is frequently licensed to you personally and may simply end.
  • Loyalty points are usually governed by programme rules that determine whether they transfer at all.

There is a second problem: using someone else’s credentials, even a deceased relative’s, may breach the platform’s terms and can raise questions under computer misuse law. The intuitive workaround, “I’ll just log in as him”, is not as safe as it feels, and it can also destroy evidence of what an account contained if the estate is later disputed.

What survives, in most cases, is the content rather than the account: your photographs, your documents, the copyright in your own work. That is what planning should focus on preserving.

Cryptocurrency: real property, real risk

Cryptocurrency is different. Coins and tokens are genuinely ownable, have measurable value, and form part of the estate. An executor can and should account for them.

The problem is access. Crypto held in self-custody is controlled by a private key or seed phrase and nothing else. There is no institution holding it, no password reset, and no authority that can restore it. If the key dies with the owner, the holdings are permanently unrecoverable, regardless of what the will says or what any court orders. This is not a theoretical risk. It is the most common way that significant value is destroyed on death in this category.

Holdings on an exchange are slightly better placed, because there is a company to approach with a grant and a death certificate. But exchange processes vary, some exchanges are outside Singapore, and none of it is quick.

Practical steps if you hold crypto:

  • Write down that it exists, roughly how much, and on which platform or in which wallet type, kept with your inventory, not in the will.
  • Store the seed phrase securely and physically, and make sure someone trustworthy knows how to reach it after your death without being able to reach it now.
  • Tell your executor that crypto forms part of the estate, so it is valued and accounted for rather than overlooked.
  • Consider whether a professional executor or a lawyer is appropriate where the holdings are substantial.

Why passwords do not belong in a will

This is the single most common mistake, and it is worth being blunt about it. A will becomes a document that can be inspected once probate is granted. Anything written into it stops being confidential. Putting account credentials in the will effectively publishes them.

There is a practical objection as well. Passwords change; wills do not, or not often. A will listing credentials from three years ago is worse than useless, because it creates false confidence. And if you have to update your will every time you rotate a password, you will not do it.

The correct structure separates the two documents. The will names the executor and disposes of what is genuinely property. A separate, private inventory tells that executor what exists and how to reach it. Our guide to writing a will in Singapore covers what does belong in the will itself.

What to do instead

Keep a digital asset inventory

A single document listing every account and asset that matters: what it is, which provider, what it is for, and whether it holds value or only sentiment. It does not need to contain passwords; the point is that your executor knows what to look for. Update it once a year, at the same time you review everything else on your estate planning checklist. Store it where a trusted person can obtain it after your death: with your other estate documents, in a safe, or with the professional who holds your will.

Use a password manager with emergency access

Most reputable password managers offer a nominated emergency contact who can request access after a defined waiting period. This is the cleanest available solution: one credential to protect, one nominated person, and no passwords written on paper. Set it up, then tell your nominee it exists.

Use platform legacy tools where offered

Several major platforms allow you to nominate someone to receive your data, or to specify that the account be deleted, after a period of inactivity or on proof of death. These vary by provider and change over time, so check the settings of the services that hold anything you care about. Where a tool exists, using it is far more effective than any instruction in a will, because it operates within the platform’s own system.

Keep offline copies of what matters

The family photographs are almost always the loss people grieve most. Keep a copy on a hard drive at home, or in a shared family album that others can already access. No legal instrument protects them as reliably as a second copy.

Give your executor clear instructions

Say what you want done: memorialise this profile, delete that one, transfer the domain to my business partner, cancel these subscriptions, give the photos to my sister. Your executor is not a mind reader, and decisions about a deceased person’s online presence are ones families argue about. Written wishes settle them. The scope of the role is set out in our guide to the executor’s duties.

Where Singapore law stands

There is no dedicated Singapore statute governing digital assets on death. What exists is the ordinary framework: assets that are property fall into the estate and pass under the will or on intestacy, and the executor deals with them under the usual duties, while access to accounts is governed by contract between the deceased and the platform. Most of those platforms are foreign companies applying foreign policies.

This is a developing area, in Singapore and elsewhere. Until it settles, the practical protections above do more for your family than any drafting can. If your estate includes a digital business, meaningful crypto holdings, or intellectual property with continuing income, that is a case for proper advice, and for reading the wider guide to wills and probate before you start. We can connect you with a licensed Singapore law practice if you want your arrangements reviewed.