Digital Assets in a Georgia Estate Plan
What Happened
A Georgia estate planning firm published a detailed analysis in September 2026 identifying digital assets as the most commonly overlooked category in Georgia estate plans. The article, written by Georgia Wills, Trusts and Probate Firm, LLC, documents a growing gap between the digital wealth many Georgians hold and the estate plans designed to transfer it. For many residents, the combined value of cryptocurrency holdings, online business accounts, and digital files now exceeds the value of their physical property.
The firm identifies four specific failure points that leave digital estates vulnerable. First, executors and trustees often lack the access credentials needed to enter accounts, even when they hold legal authority to do so. Second, cryptocurrency held in private wallets disappears permanently if the private key is lost. Third, most estate plans written before 2015 contain no digital asset provisions at all, and many plans drafted since then address the subject only in general language. Fourth, the timeline for acting on digital assets after death is shorter than families typically expect, with some platforms deactivating accounts automatically after a period of inactivity.
The article highlights Georgia's adoption of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act as a meaningful legal foundation, while noting that the law's practical reach has limits. Online platforms retain the right to set their own access rules through their terms of service, and those platform-level policies take priority over a fiduciary's statutory authority. A legacy contact designation made directly on a platform overrides what the estate plan says about digital asset authority. This interaction between state law and platform policy creates a planning gap that requires action both in the estate documents and on each individual platform.
What It Means
For Georgia families, the digital asset planning gap carries real financial consequences. Cryptocurrency in a private wallet with no documented private key represents an asset that the estate cannot recover regardless of its value. An e-commerce business that continues receiving orders after the owner's death needs someone with administrative access within days, not months. Georgia's probate process typically runs 9 months to 12 months, a timeline that extends far beyond the window many digital platforms allow before taking automated action on inactive accounts. The creditor claim period in Georgia runs 3 monthsO.C.G.A. § 53-7-41(d) ("within three months from the date of publication of the personal representative's last notice") (Verified 2026-09-08 against GA Code § 53-7-41 (2025))Verified Sep 8, 2026View source from the date of the last published notice, meaning estate administration moves quickly even when digital asset inventories remain incomplete.
Georgia's adoption of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act gives executors and trustees a legal foundation for managing digital accounts. But that legal authority only reaches as far as the access information allows. A trustee with explicit authority in the trust document but no knowledge of a cryptocurrency wallet's seed phrase cannot liquidate that position to pay estate expenses. The practical result is that the estate plan needs two components working together: explicit written authority naming the fiduciary as the person responsible for digital assets, and a secure, accessible inventory documenting what accounts exist and how to reach them. Neither component works without the other. Georgia trusts can incorporate both, and the trust document's digital asset provisions operate outside of probate entirely, giving the successor trustee faster access than a will-based approach would allow.
The interaction between Georgia law and platform terms of service creates a layer of planning that extends beyond the estate documents themselves. Platforms including major social media networks, cloud storage providers, and cryptocurrency exchanges each maintain their own deceased user policies. Some platforms allow users to designate a legacy contact who receives access after death. Others require a formal legal process before recognizing any fiduciary authority. A few deactivate accounts automatically after inactivity thresholds that may be reached before estate administration concludes. Georgia residents with significant digital holdings face a practical obligation to review each platform's policies during life and take the platform-specific steps those policies require. An estate plan that grants broad digital asset authority but does not prompt this platform-level review leaves the fiduciary with legal rights that individual platforms may not honor. Families with digital assets that carry financial value — domain names, monetized content accounts, digital storefronts, cryptocurrency holdings — face the most acute version of this problem, because the financial loss from inaccessible assets compounds over time during estate administration. For a deeper look at how digital assets fit into a broader estate plan, the SimplyTrust Digital Assets Directory covers major account categories and what each requires for estate planning purposes.
Context from SimplyTrust
SimplyTrust trust documents include provisions for digital assets under Schedule L, which covers email accounts, social media profiles, cloud storage, photo libraries, and messaging apps. A separate schedule addresses cryptocurrency and blockchain-based assets. The digital trustee role within a SimplyTrust trust gives a named individual independent authority to manage, close, or memorialize non-financial accounts, while financial digital assets operate under the primary trustee's direction. This structure maps directly onto the planning framework the Georgia firm describes: explicit authority in the document, a named fiduciary with a defined scope, and provisions that acknowledge each platform's terms of service and applicable state law. Georgia residents with existing estate plans that predate 2015 or that address digital assets only in general terms face the specific gap the source article identifies. The SimplyTrust Trust FAQ covers how digital assets integrate into a revocable trust, including the distinction between financial and non-financial digital assets and the authority each type of trustee holds.
Families navigating digital asset planning alongside the broader question of probate exposure in Georgia can use the SimplyTrust Probate Cost Calculator to estimate what Georgia probate typically costs based on estate size. Attorney fees in Georgia run on a reasonable compensation standard, typically between 2.1%O.C.G.A. § 53-7-6(4) (PR authorized "to provide competent legal counsel for the estate...either the personal representative or the attorney employed may, by petition to the probate court...obtain a judgment fixing the attorney's fees and expenses"; no statutory percentage) (Verified 2026-09-08 against GA Code § 53-7-6 (2025))Verified Sep 8, 2026View source and 3.4%O.C.G.A. § 53-7-6(4) (PR authorized "to provide competent legal counsel for the estate...either the personal representative or the attorney employed may, by petition to the probate court...obtain a judgment fixing the attorney's fees and expenses"; no statutory percentage) (Verified 2026-09-08 against GA Code § 53-7-6 (2025))Verified Sep 8, 2026View source of the estate, with a court filing fee of $175O.C.G.A. § 15-9-60(e)(1) (2024 Ga. L. Act 515 / SB 232, eff. 1/1/2025)Verified Sep 8, 2026. A funded trust avoids probate entirely, which means the successor trustee — including the digital trustee — can act on digital assets without waiting for court authorization. That speed advantage matters most precisely where digital assets are most vulnerable: in the first days and weeks after death, when platforms are still active, accounts are still accessible, and time-sensitive business obligations have not yet accumulated.
