By Mary-Ann de Mestre -
Snapshot
- Digital assets such as cryptocurrency, NFTs and social media accounts are increasingly being recognised as property by Australian courts, with landmark cases confirming their status and eligibility for inclusion in wills.
- Despite judicial progress, NSW succession law lacks clear statutory guidance on digital assets, creating uncertainty around access, control and inheritance post-mortem.
- Estate planners must proactively identify digital holdings, appoint digital executors and tailor wills to address access, ownership and platform terms to avoid costly disputes or asset loss post-mortem.
The shift from analogue to digital has been nothing short of revolutionary. As of 2024, over 5.4 billion individuals—approximately two-thirds of the global population—are internet users (Zalucki, Post‑Mortal Status of Digital Assets and Human Rights (2024) at 20). This dramatic transformation has given birth to myriad digital assets—cryptocurrency holdings, email and social media accounts, cloud storage, domain names, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and even virtual real estate within digital worlds. Their prevalence in personal portfolios raises pressing questions for estate planning and succession law: should these assets be treated like tangible property and how should wills accommodate them?
