BMO Private Wealth
By Carol Willes
May 6th, 2025
Because digital assets don’t exist in the physical world, they’re difficult for executors to track. Your family might not even be aware of your Bitcoin stash, and even if they are, no one can touch it if they haven’t been provided with passwords or keys.
When Carol Ann Noble’s husband passed away in 2016, she found herself embroiled in a court battle with Apple. According to a CBC report at the time, the Victoria resident had to take the tech giant to court to gain access to digital files the couple had shared for years through his account. She didn’t have the password and to her surprise, a notarized copy of her husband’s death certificate wasn’t enough to get it. It hadn’t crossed her mind to ask her husband for his login information before he passed.
Many people think of estate planning in terms of traditional assets like investment portfolios, homes, artwork, vehicles and the family cottage. But as our lives become increasingly digitized, it’s important to include online assets, too. Think about your loyalty plans, e-purchasing accounts, intellectual property, cryptocurrencies and NFTs – not to mention your social media profiles.
Cumulatively, these assets can be incredibly valuable. While there isn’t a lot of data on the value of Canadian digital assets, a recent U.S. survey by Bryn Mawr Trust indicated the average American estimates their digital assets to be worth more than US$190,000.
Despite the growing value of these assets, many fail to plan for what will happen to these accounts after their death. They’re easy to overlook, but you need to think about them… especially given the rise of cryptocurrencies, which about 10% of Canadians now own.
Carol Willes, Director of Estate Planning at BMO Private Wealth
In one recent meeting Carol Willes had with a couple planning their estates, the husband realized he’d never told his wife about a $5-million crypto holding – or told her how to find his key. “He wasn’t trying to keep it from her,” Willes says. “He just thought she wouldn’t be interested, and he hadn’t thought about what would happen when he passed on.”
