A recent news article tells the story of the father of an eighteen-year-old who suddenly died from leukemia. The father was able to obtain access to his son’s bank accounts by presenting his son’s death certificate but, a year later, continues to struggle to access his son’s assets held with Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange like Bitcoin. With increasing online presences and the rise of digital assets, it is an increasingly common scenario.

As our readers are aware, surviving family members often face significant obstacles in accessing a loved one’s digital assets after death. While a fiduciary like an estate trustee (or an attorney or guardian of property during the user’s lifetime) may, in theory, be authorized to access and administer such assets, the legislation of most Canadian provinces does not yet explicitly address access rights. Furthermore, user agreements and jurisdiction issues can complicate the issue of rights associated with digital assets and their access by fiduciaries.

Addressing digital assets during estate planning is one option currently available that can assist in providing (though not necessarily guarantee) access to digital assets. It is possible that the future may see other mechanisms, with or without corresponding changes to provincial legislation that clarify fiduciary rights regarding these assets and/or otherwise facilitate their access, like the introduction of beneficiary designations in the world of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets to assist in their distribution after the account holder’s death.  As the recent news article suggests, “There’s nothing about crypto that would make it a bad fit for what we would call a ‘payable on death transfer’ just like we name a beneficiary of our Fidelity account…It’s just [that] somebody hasn’t thought of it yet.”

Thank you for reading,

Nick Esterbauer