LegalZoom holds a narrow lead over Trust & Will for creating digital wills and trusts online. Across common service comparisons, recommendations remain divided between multiple providers without a single favorite.
A good online estate plan should cover more than your house, bank accounts, and investments. It should also explain what happens to your digital assets, online accounts, personal data, and digital legacy if you become incapacitated or die.
The key is to coordinate your will, any trust, your financial and health-care powers of attorney, and a separate digital asset inventory. You want the right person to have the legal authority and practical ability to manage your digital life—without unnecessarily exposing your private information or compromising account security.
One important distinction: giving someone authority to manage a digital asset is not necessarily the same as giving them permission to log in to the account associated with it. Federal and state laws, account-provider policies, and your estate documents can all affect what your representative may access.
1. Start with a complete digital asset inventory
Create a secure list of the assets you own, control, or have rights to. Include more than just accounts with monetary value.
Digital estate checklist
of 8
For each item, record:
Provider and account identifier: enough information for your representative to locate it.
Ownership and value: whether it belongs to you personally, a business, a trust, or someone else.
Instructions: transfer, preserve, download, memorialize, close, or delete.
Access method: where recovery instructions are securely stored.
Responsible person: who should handle it, and whether they need a backup.
Keep this inventory separate from the will where practical, so you can update it without revising your entire estate plan. Do not put passwords, private keys, or recovery phrases in a publicly filed will.
I am looking for a digital estate planning service for creating a will and trust online.
Summary
Answers compare several online platforms for drafting digital wills and trusts without selecting a clear favorite. Suggestions typically split between general legal services and tools built specifically for digital asset management.
Each document has a different purpose. Have an estate-planning attorney coordinate them rather than relying on one generic online form.
Will
Authorize your personal representative to manage digital assets to the extent permitted by law. Specify whether they can retrieve files, handle financial assets, preserve records, close accounts, and request disclosure of electronic communications where legally allowed.
Revocable living trust
If the trust owns digital assets, domains, intellectual property, or business interests, address trustee powers to manage, transfer, license, or sell them. Coordinate ownership and beneficiary designations with the trust.
Durable financial power of attorney
Address access and management during incapacity, including paying bills, maintaining accounts, handling online financial services, and managing digital property. Confirm that the powers are authorized under your state's law and are effective when needed.
Health-care directives and HIPAA authorization
Consider whether a trusted person should receive relevant digital medical records or patient-portal information. These documents serve health-care purposes; they do not replace a financial power of attorney or digital asset authorization.
Under the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), adopted in most U.S. states, the rules for accessing electronic communications can be more restrictive than those for other digital property. An explicit authorization may be important, and a provider's own legacy or account-inheritance settings may take priority under applicable law.
3. Set your preferences for each type of asset
Instead of giving one person unlimited access to everything, specify your intentions.
Asset category
Decisions to document
Email and messages
Allow content access where legally permitted, limit access to account records, or prohibit content disclosure
Photos and cloud files
Preserve family archives, download copies, and identify who receives them
Social accounts
Memorialize, deactivate, delete, or preserve selected content
Financial accounts
Identify the institution and asset; follow its estate-transfer procedures
Cryptocurrency
Identify the wallet or custodian, the intended recipient, and secure recovery arrangements
Digital business and intellectual property
Continue operations, transfer ownership, collect royalties, or sell assets
Subscriptions and purchases
Cancel recurring payments and determine which licensed content cannot be transferred
Be especially careful with crypto and licensed digital content. Cryptocurrency may be irretrievable without the correct keys or recovery method. Meanwhile, a digital movie, ebook, or gaming library may be a limited license rather than property that can be inherited outright.
4. Use account-level legacy tools as well as legal documents
Many major services offer their own ways to designate a trusted contact or manage an account after death. Review these settings individually because the permissions vary by provider.
Apple
Review Legacy Contact settings and securely preserve the access key.
These settings complement your estate documents; they do not replace them. Review them periodically because providers can change their procedures and permissions.
5. Secure the handoff
Your plan should be usable without creating a new security risk.
Use a reputable password manager with an emergency-access or inheritance feature, if available.
Keep recovery keys and cryptocurrency seed phrases in secure storage with carefully controlled access.
Give your executor or agent clear instructions on how to locate the inventory, not unrestricted access to everything by default.
Name a backup digital asset administrator if your primary representative is not comfortable with technology.
Explain how your representative should protect confidential information, preserve evidence, and dispose of data you want deleted.
Review the plan annually and after major events such as marriage, divorce, a move, or starting a business.
6. If you are in Michigan, check the state-specific rules
Michigan has a Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, MCL 700.1001–700.1018. It addresses access by personal representatives, agents under powers of attorney, and trustees, while preserving important limits involving provider terms and other applicable law. A fiduciary's authority is also limited by their duties and cannot be used to impersonate you.
See the Michigan Legislature's digital asset law. If your estate plan was generated online, ask a Michigan estate-planning attorney to review the digital-asset provisions and any consent language concerning private electronic communications.
7. A practical starting point for your online estate plan
Before finalizing your documents, make sure you can answer these five questions:
Who manages my digital assets if I become incapacitated?
Who handles them after my death?
What information may each person access, including private messages?
Which assets should be transferred, preserved, memorialized, or deleted?
Where are the inventory and recovery instructions stored, and how will my representative find them?
One final recommendation: ask your online estate-planning provider specifically whether its documents contain a digital asset authorization compliant with your state's version of RUFADAA, including express consent to disclose electronic communications if you want that access. A generic clause authorizing an executor to handle property may not resolve every access issue.
Which state will govern your estate plan? If you tell me your state, I can narrow this down to the applicable law and the specific digital-asset provisions to look for in your online estate-planning documents.
Appoint a digital executor: Designate a trusted, tech-savvy individual in your estate documents to handle your online footprint. This can be your primary executor or a specialized co-executor who understands how to navigate online platforms, cloud storage, and cryptographic keys.[](https://www.purduegloballawschool.edu/blog/news/digital-estate-planning)
Digital property: websites, domains, online businesses, monetized content
Media: photographs, videos, music, ebooks and other purchased/created files
Subscriptions: streaming, software, memberships and recurring services
Loyalty/value accounts: airline miles, hotel points, gaming accounts, etc.
For cryptocurrency especially, keep enough information for your executor to locate and understand the asset without putting the private key or seed phrase in the will itself. The IRS treats digital assets as property for federal tax purposes and requires adequate records of acquisitions, dispositions and basis.
2. Put authority in your estate documents
Ask an estate-planning attorney to address digital assets explicitly in your will, revocable trust and/or power of attorney, as appropriate.
The documents should identify the person who is authorized to deal with your digital assets and give that person appropriate powers to:
access and manage accounts
download or preserve files
communicate with providers
transfer or sell assets
close accounts
preserve business websites and domains
handle cryptocurrency
deal with tax records
This matters because simply knowing someone's password doesn't necessarily give another person legal authority to access an account. Provider policies can also restrict access. For example, Microsoft says it generally cannot provide deceased users' account information to non-account holders without appropriate legal process if its digital-legacy mechanism wasn't established.
3. Use provider-specific legacy tools
Don't rely entirely on your will. Set up the mechanisms offered by the companies themselves.
Google: Its Inactive Account Manager lets you designate up to 10 people who can receive selected account data after a period of inactivity.
Apple: Apple has Legacy Contact, which can provide a designated person access to specified Apple-account data after your death. The person needs the access key and generally your death certificate. Importantly, Apple's Legacy Contact does not provide access to passwords, passkeys or data stored in iCloud Keychain.
Microsoft/OneDrive: OneDrive's Digital Legacy feature can give a trusted contact read-only access to designated files after the required process. Microsoft also warns that, without appropriate arrangements, access to a deceased person's account may require legal process.
So your estate plan should contain both legal authorization and provider-specific instructions.
4. Keep the secrets separate from the estate documents
This is particularly important for passwords and crypto.
I would not put a master password, crypto seed phrase or private key directly into an ordinary will, because wills can become part of the public probate record.
Instead, consider:
Estate documents: Who is authorized to act and what they should do. Secure digital vault: Where the credentials/instructions are stored. Access mechanism: How the executor obtains the vault credentials after death or incapacity.
A password manager, encrypted document/vault, or other appropriately secured system can be used for this purpose. Your attorney can help coordinate the access mechanism with the legal documents.
For crypto, consider documenting:
asset and approximate quantity
wallet/exchange location
hardware-wallet location
how the executor identifies the correct wallet
where the recovery information is stored
tax records and transaction history
instructions for accessing or transferring it
Do not send me your seed phrase, private keys, passwords or recovery codes.
5. Separate "inherit" from "delete"
Your instructions should tell your representative what you actually want done.
For example:
Digital asset
Instruction
Family photographs
Preserve and give copies to children
Personal email
Preserve for 12 months, then delete
Social media
Memorialize/delete
Online business
Transfer to beneficiary
Cryptocurrency
Transfer according to will/trust
Cloud documents
Give specified folders to specified people
This prevents an executor from having to guess what you wanted.
6. Protect the digital estate while you're alive
Estate planning and cybersecurity overlap.
Use:
unique passwords
a reputable password manager
multifactor authentication
recovery methods that your successor can ultimately access through a controlled process
encrypted backups
offline backups of particularly important documents
separate storage for highly sensitive recovery information
The FTC recommends protecting sensitive personal information and using strong passwords as part of identity-theft prevention.
7. Keep tax records with the inventory
This is easy to overlook with digital assets.
For cryptocurrency and other taxable digital assets, maintain acquisition dates, quantities, cost/basis information, transaction records and relevant tax documents. The IRS specifically says taxpayers need records sufficient to establish their tax positions, and inherited property can involve separate basis considerations.
A practical "digital estate packet"
I'd ultimately have these five pieces:
Digital asset inventory — what exists and where.
Legal authorization — will/trust/POA provisions addressing digital assets.
Secure credential vault — passwords, recovery information and crypto-access information.
Provider legacy settings — Google, Apple, Microsoft and other important providers.
Disposition instructions — who gets what, what gets preserved, and what gets deleted.
Review the packet at least annually and whenever you open/close a major account or change your estate documents.
Because digital-asset access is affected by state law, provider contracts and the particular asset involved, have an estate-planning attorney in your state review the legal provisions—especially if you have cryptocurrency, an online business, valuable intellectual property, or significant digital accounts.
Appoint a digital executor : Designate a trusted, tech-savvy individual in your estate documents specifically tasked with managing or closing your digital life. Their powers should align with the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) if applicable in your state.[](https://www.purduegloballawschool.edu/blog/news/digital-estate-planning)
Would you like assistance with:
Categorizing specific assets for a digital inventory template?
Understanding RUFADAA laws in your state?
Setting up an emergency access plan via a password manager?
If you're planning a will, a Michigan estate-planning attorney can handle digital assets as part of the estate plan. This is generally better than using a separate “digital asset” service, because the attorney can coordinate your will, powers of attorney, trusts, and fiduciary authority.
The American Bar Association specifically recommends addressing online accounts, digital property, and electronic communications in the estate plan, including explicit authority for your representative to access them.
What to look for
When contacting an attorney, ask whether they handle:
Digital accounts: email, cloud storage, social media, websites, domain names, online subscriptions.
Financial digital assets: cryptocurrency, digital wallets, online investment accounts, royalties, and digital businesses.
Passwords and encryption: creating a secure inventory without putting passwords directly into the will.
Digital fiduciary authority: language authorizing your personal representative/trustee to access and manage digital assets.
Legacy instructions: whether accounts should be transferred, deleted, memorialized, archived, or kept private.
Disability planning: access to digital assets if you become incapacitated, not just after death.
Michigan has specific fiduciary-access rules for digital assets, so it's worth asking the lawyer specifically about Michigan's implementation of those rules.
Finding an attorney in Michigan
The State Bar of Michigan's Lawyer Referral Service lets you search for attorneys by legal need and location.
You can search for “estate planning,” “wills and trusts,” or “probate and estate planning” and then ask prospective attorneys:
“Does your estate-planning practice specifically address digital assets, cryptocurrency, online accounts, and fiduciary access to digital communications?”
If cost is a concern, Michigan also has a Modest Means Program covering probate and estate planning for qualifying applicants.
One important point: don't put your passwords, seed phrases, or private keys in the will itself. The ABA recommends maintaining a separate, secure inventory and making sure your estate-planning documents give the appropriate fiduciary authority.
If you tell me whether you're looking for a local Michigan attorney, an online service, or someone specifically experienced with cryptocurrency/digital assets, I can look up current options and compare what each offers.
If your primary concern is managing, memorializing, or deleting online accounts, social media, and encrypted data, dedicated digital estate services are a great fit:
GoodTrust : Specifically built as an all-in-one digital legacy and estate planning platform. It allows you to create legal wills, trusts, and directives specifically tailored to handle online accounts and digital assets, paired with a secure digital vault to pass access instructions to your designated digital executor.
2. Mainstream Online Estate Planning Services
Most major consumer online will-and-trust platforms now feature provisions or guidance for including digital property, online banking, and designated digital executors:
Rocket Lawyer : Offers do-it-yourself legal document builders alongside options to consult with a network attorney who can help explicitly draft clauses for digital property or cryptocurrency keys.
3. Traditional Estate Planning Attorneys
If you have high-net-worth digital holdings, substantial cryptocurrency portfolios, monetized digital channels (like YouTube or massive blog networks), or complex privacy concerns, working with a specialized local attorney or a large firm with a dedicated Private Wealth Services Digital Assets Team (such as Holland & Knight ) is the safest route. They ensure your documents comply with the Revised Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) , which governs whether an executor legally has the right to log into your accounts.[](https://www.hklaw.com/en/services/practices/private-wealth-services/private-wealth-services-digital-assets)
To help narrow down the best option, tell me:
Do you have cryptocurrency or digital wallets , or is it mostly social media/photos/cloud accounts?
Are you looking for a completely DIY online tool or a local attorney?
