What Happens to Your Passwords, Crypto, and Social Media When You Die in Missouri?

Most Missouri estate plans still focus almost entirely on real estate, bank accounts, and physical property, while ignoring the accounts most people actually spend their time in. Email, cloud photo storage, cryptocurrency wallets, social media, and subscription services all have real value or real sentimental weight, and almost none of it is addressed in a standard will.

Here is what actually happens to your digital assets under Missouri law, and what your estate plan needs to include.

What Happens to Your Online Accounts When You Die in Missouri?

Missouri has adopted the Missouri Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RSMo §§ 472.400–472.490), which gives your executor or trustee legal authority to access many digital accounts, but only if you have granted that authority in advance and the platform’s own terms of service permit it. Without written authorization, your fiduciary may be locked out entirely, regardless of what your will says about your property generally.

This matters because most major platforms, email providers, social media companies, and financial apps, are governed first by their own terms of service and federal privacy law, and only secondarily by state fiduciary access statutes. A generic “I leave all my property to my spouse” clause in a will is often not enough to unlock an account.

What Counts as a Digital Asset in an Estate Plan?

Digital assets include any account, file, or online property that has financial or personal value, whether or not it would traditionally be considered “property.” A complete inventory typically includes:

• Financial accounts, online banking, investment platforms, PayPal, Venmo
• Cryptocurrency, wallets, exchange accounts, and private keys
• Email and cloud storage, Gmail, iCloud, Dropbox, and similar accounts often holding financial records
• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other accounts with legacy or memorialization settings
• Domain names and websites, including any business or personal sites you own
• Digital photos and videos, often stored exclusively in the cloud with no physical backup
• Subscriptions and loyalty programs, airline miles, credit card points, and paid services

How Do You Give Your Executor Legal Access to Digital Accounts?

Your will or trust should include an explicit digital assets clause granting your executor or trustee authority to access, manage, and close your online accounts, separate from the general language covering your physical property. This clause is what satisfies the authorization requirement under Missouri’s fiduciary access law and gives platforms a legal basis to cooperate.

In addition to the legal authorization, most platforms also offer their own account-specific tools:

• Google’s Inactive Account Manager lets you designate a trusted contact and set an inactivity period before access is granted
• Facebook’s Legacy Contact setting allows a chosen person to manage a memorialized profile
• Apple’s Legacy Contact feature grants access to iCloud data with a death certificate

These platform-level tools work alongside your estate planning documents, they do not replace the need for a proper digital assets clause, but they can make the practical process significantly faster.

Should You Keep a Password List, and How Should You Store It?

Yes, but never inside your will itself, since a will becomes a public court record once filed for probate. Instead, maintain a separate, secured digital asset memorandum listing your accounts, usernames, and how to access your password manager, and tell your executor or trustee where to find it.

A password manager with a designated emergency access contact is generally the safest approach, since it avoids storing a static list of plaintext passwords that becomes outdated the moment you change one.

Working With a Missouri Attorney on Digital Asset Planning

Digital asset provisions are still a relatively new area of estate planning, and generic online templates rarely address them adequately. An attorney at Mid-America Law Practice can draft a digital assets clause that gives your fiduciary real legal authority, and help you build a secure system for passing on access without exposing your credentials in a public court filing.

The full text of the Missouri Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RSMo §§ 472.400–472.490) is available through the Missouri Revisor of Statutes.

Frequently Asked Questions: Digital Assets in a Missouri Estate Plan

1. Does my executor automatically get access to my email and social media accounts?

No. Without an explicit digital assets clause authorizing access, platforms may deny your executor entry even if your will covers your property generally.

2. What happens to cryptocurrency if no one knows it exists?

It is typically lost permanently. There is no central authority to recover access without the private keys or wallet credentials, unlike a traditional bank account.

3. Should I put my passwords in my will?

No. A will becomes part of the public probate record. Keep passwords in a separate, secured memorandum and reference it in your estate plan instead.

4. What is a digital assets clause?

A specific provision in a will or trust that authorizes your executor or trustee to access, manage, and close your online accounts, satisfying Missouri’s fiduciary access requirements.

5. Do platforms like Google and Facebook have their own tools for this?

Yes. Google’s Inactive Account Manager, Facebook’s Legacy Contact, and Apple’s Legacy Contact all let you designate access in advance, working alongside your estate planning documents.

6. Are digital assets subject to Missouri probate like other property?

Digital assets with monetary value, like cryptocurrency or funds in a payment app, are generally part of your probate estate unless structured otherwise, while access to accounts themselves depends on fiduciary access authorization.

About the attorney

Azra Ahmad, Founder & Managing Attorney

Azra focuses on estate planning, elder law, personal injury and traffic law for families across the St. Louis area. She earned her JD from Saint Louis University School of Law, is licensed in Missouri and Illinois, and is a member of The Missouri Bar, WealthCounsel and ElderCounsel. Before law, she worked as a speech-language pathologist with children and seniors.

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