When Margaret Thompson passed away unexpectedly last autumn, her family discovered something troubling. Whilst her will carefully detailed how to divide her house, savings, and personal belongings, there was no mention of her digital life—the online banking accounts, the digital photos spanning decades, the cryptocurrency wallet, or even the passwords to cancel her numerous subscriptions.
Margaret's story isn't unique. Across the UK, families are grappling with a modern inheritance crisis that most of us haven't even considered: what happens to our digital assets when we die?
Recent research suggests that UK households hold an estimated £2.3 billion worth of digital assets that could be lost forever when account holders pass away. This staggering figure includes:
But the problem extends far beyond monetary value. Families are losing irreplaceable memories, facing months of bureaucratic struggles, and sometimes discovering debts or subscriptions they never knew existed.
UK inheritance law was designed for a world of physical assets. When someone dies, their executor can visit the bank, collect documents from a filing cabinet, or sell a house. But digital assets exist in a legal grey area that creates significant challenges:
Under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, accessing someone else's online accounts without permission is a criminal offence—even if you're their spouse or child. This means that even with the best intentions, family members risk breaking the law when trying to access a deceased person's digital accounts.
Most online services have terms that make accounts non-transferable. When you die, your Netflix account, Facebook profile, or iTunes library cannot legally be passed to your children, regardless of what your will says.
Many digital assets are held by US companies like Google, Apple, or Facebook, which operate under different legal frameworks. UK probate law often doesn't apply, leaving families in legal limbo.
The impact of digital inheritance issues extends far beyond inconvenience. Our research with UK families has revealed several concerning trends:
The average UK family spends 47 hours trying to resolve digital inheritance issues, often across multiple months. This includes:
One of the most immediate problems families face is the subscription economy. The average UK household maintains 12 active digital subscriptions, from Netflix and Spotify to cloud storage and software licences.
When someone dies, these subscriptions continue running indefinitely. Families often discover:
Sarah Jenkins from Leeds discovered her late husband had been paying for 17 different subscriptions, including three different cloud storage services and two VPN subscriptions. "It took me four months to cancel everything, and by then we'd lost nearly £400 to services we didn't even know he was using."
Cryptocurrency presents unique challenges for UK families. Unlike traditional assets, crypto often exists in personal wallets that require specific keys or passwords to access. Our research found:
The case of Gerald Cotten, founder of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, illustrates this risk perfectly. When Cotten died unexpectedly, he took the passwords to $190 million worth of customer funds with him. Whilst this is an extreme example, similar situations affect UK families on a smaller scale every month.
Google, which holds more personal data than perhaps any other service, has recognised this problem with their "Inactive Account Manager." However, most UK adults don't know this service exists, and even fewer have set it up.
Without preparation, your Google account—including Gmail, Google Photos, Google Drive, and YouTube—will simply remain inaccessible to your family. Google estimates that millions of accounts become permanently inaccessible each year due to the death of account holders.
The process for families to gain access involves:
Facebook and other social media sites have become unexpected repositories of family history. Photo albums, messages, and posts create a digital narrative of someone's life that families often desperately want to preserve.
However, each platform handles death differently:
The inconsistency means families never know what digital memories they'll be able to preserve.
For the 5.6 million UK adults who run their own businesses, digital inheritance becomes even more complex. Consider:
Emma Richardson ran a successful online craft business from her home in Cornwall. When she died in a car accident, her family discovered that her business website, social media accounts, and customer database were all inaccessible. The business, which had been generating £2,000 per month, was effectively worthless without access to these digital assets.
Many UK residents hold digital assets with international companies, creating additional complications:
This international dimension can add months to the resolution process and often requires expensive international legal assistance.
Perhaps most concerning is the generational gap in digital asset awareness. Our survey of 2,000 UK adults revealed:
This suggests that younger generations, who hold the most digital wealth, are least prepared for digital inheritance issues.
The good news is that digital inheritance problems are entirely preventable with proper planning. The key steps include:
The £2.3 billion digital inheritance problem won't solve itself. As more of our lives move online, the value and importance of digital assets will only increase. Families who start planning now can avoid the financial losses, emotional stress, and time investment that digital inheritance issues create.
The question isn't whether you have digital assets worth protecting, it's whether your family will be able to access them when they need to.
About FinalVault: We help UK families secure their digital inheritance with bank-grade security and simple family access. Our platform ensures your important documents, passwords, and digital assets are safely passed to your loved ones when they need them most.