Digital assets in your will: the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 explained
Quick answer: Until recently, English law was unsettled on whether things like cryptoassets, NFTs, in-game items and tokenised carbon credits could be 'property' you could leave in a will.
Until recently, English law was unsettled on whether things like cryptoassets, NFTs, in-game items and tokenised carbon credits could be 'property' you could leave in a will. The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 provides a statutory clarification for England and Wales: a thing is not prevented from being the object of personal-property rights merely because it is neither a thing in possession nor a thing in action (the Law Commission's 'third category' framing). The Act itself is deliberately short and does not lay down detailed rules for digital property — it removes a doctrinal obstacle. This guide explains what that means in practice for including digital assets in a UK will.
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Primary source: https://lawcom.gov.uk/project/digital-assets/
What the 2025 Act changes — and what it doesn't
Before the Act, English courts had already treated cryptoassets as capable of being property in a series of cases (notably AA v Persons Unknown [2019] EWHC 3556 and the line of cases that followed). The Law Commission's 2023 report on digital assets (Law Com No 412) recommended legislation to put that case law beyond doubt. The Act takes the narrowest possible step needed to do so — see the Law Commission's Digital Assets project page at lawcom.gov.uk/project/digital-assets and the Act's text on legislation.gov.uk for the full wording.
The Act does not codify what counts as a digital asset, create a new statutory tax regime, change the rules on Inheritance Tax, alter the FCA's perimeter, or solve the practical access problem. It is a private-law clarification — important, but it does not, on its own, mean your executor can recover your Bitcoin.
Drafting the will: clauses that work
A modern will should include a specific digital-assets clause covering: cryptoassets (whether self-custodied or on an exchange); domain names; cloud storage and email accounts; loyalty points; in-game currencies; and intellectual property held electronically (e.g. published e-books on a personal account).
Best practice is to give executors broad powers to deal with digital assets — including powers to recover, sell or transfer them — and to leave any access information in a separate, sealed letter of wishes referenced by the will but not part of it. The will gifts the assets; the letter explains how to find them.
Naming a 'digital executor' alongside the main executor is increasingly common where the deceased held significant self-custodied crypto. The digital executor handles the technical recovery; the main executor handles the legal administration.
The access problem — and three ways to solve it
The Act doesn't help if no one knows where your seed phrase is. Practical options include: (1) a steel seed-phrase backup stored in a sealed envelope with a solicitor or in a bank safe deposit box, referenced in a letter of wishes; (2) a reputable password manager with an emergency-access feature, with login details held separately by a trusted person; (3) for larger holdings, a multi-signature arrangement where the executor holds one of N keys.
Be wary of 'crypto inheritance' services that demand custody of your seed phrase or private keys in advance — they create the very single point of failure self-custody is designed to avoid. The Law Society publishes practice notes on cryptoasset estate planning that are worth reading.
Custodial assets — the platform rules
Major UK-facing crypto exchanges and broker platforms each have their own process for releasing balances to estates. Most require a death certificate, grant of probate (or Confirmation in Scotland) and identification of the personal representative; some support pre-death nomination forms. Check the platform's bereavement or estates page for its specific requirements.
Platform Terms of Service typically prohibit sharing login credentials, even with executors. Trying to log in as the deceased can technically breach those terms and, in extreme cases, computer misuse legislation. The clean route is to contact the platform formally and provide the grant of probate.
Estimating the tax: digital assets and Inheritance Tax
For IHT purposes HMRC treats cryptoassets and other digital property as part of the estate at market value on the date of death; HMRC's broader treatment of exchange tokens for individuals is set out in the Cryptoassets Manual (CRYPTO22000 series), with situs covered at CRYPTO22600. The 2025 Act does not change any of this — it puts inclusion in the estate beyond doubt but leaves the tax rules untouched.
The £325,000 nil-rate band, £175,000 residence band (where the home passes to direct descendants), spouse transfer and the 36% reduced rate where 10% or more of the chargeable estate goes to charity all apply in the usual way. To estimate the headline figure for an estate that includes crypto and NFTs, use the digital asset IHT calculator at /tools/digital-asset-iht-calculator/ — it separates the digital element from the rest.
Common questions
- Does this Act apply in Scotland?
- No. Scottish private law is separate. Scotland already recognises digital property under its own common law, but the statutory wording of the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 applies to England and Wales. Northern Ireland is also separate but recognises digital property through its own case law.
- Should I write my seed phrase in my will?
- No. Wills enter the public record once probate is granted, so anything written in the will is potentially visible to anyone. Use a sealed letter of wishes or a separate secure backup, and have the will refer to where it is kept.
- Are NFTs covered?
- Yes. The Act is technology-neutral — it confirms that digital things can be property whether they sit on a blockchain, in a cloud account or elsewhere. NFTs, in-game items and tokenised carbon credits fall within scope.
- What if I die intestate (no will)?
- Digital assets pass under the normal intestacy rules — to the surviving spouse/civil partner first, then children, then other relatives. The administrator faces the same access problem as an executor, but without a letter of wishes to guide them. Even a short, simple will is far better than nothing.