What Are Digital Assets? A Complete Inventory Guide for Families

When most people hear "digital assets," they think of passwords. Maybe bank account logins. Perhaps a Facebook profile. But the reality is far broader — and most families dramatically underestimate how much of their life exists only in digital form.

The average person has over 160 online accounts. Your parents likely have more than they realize: the airline loyalty program they signed up for in 2014, the cloud storage account holding decades of photos, the subscription they forgot to cancel, the cryptocurrency they bought out of curiosity three years ago.

If no one knows these accounts exist, they effectively vanish when the account holder dies or becomes incapacitated. Money is left on the table. Memories are lost. Subscriptions keep draining the bank account for months.

Building a complete digital asset inventory is the first step in any serious digital estate plan — and it's the step most families skip because they don't know how much they're missing.

What counts as a digital asset

A digital asset is anything of value that exists in digital form or is accessed through digital means. The legal definition varies by state and country, but for practical purposes, your family should inventory everything in the following categories.

Financial accounts

This is where most people start, and for good reason — these have direct monetary value.

• Online banking and savings accounts
• Investment and brokerage accounts
• Retirement accounts with online portals (401k, IRA, pension)
• PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and other payment platform balances
• Cryptocurrency wallets and exchange accounts (Coinbase, Kraken, hardware wallets)
• HSA and FSA accounts with online access
• Stored payment methods (Apple Pay, Google Pay)

Email accounts

Email is the master key to almost everything else. With access to someone's email, you can reset passwords on most other accounts. Without it, you're locked out of nearly everything.

• Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud Mail
• Work email (especially if retirement benefits or documents are accessible through it)
• Legacy email accounts that may still receive important correspondence

Social media and communication

• Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube
• Messaging apps: WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Facebook Messenger
• Online communities: Reddit, forums, Discord servers

Cloud storage and photos

This is where irreplaceable memories live — and it's often the category that causes the most grief when access is lost.

• Google Photos, iCloud Photos, Amazon Photos
• Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud Drive
• Note-taking apps: Apple Notes, Google Keep, Evernote, Notion

Subscriptions and recurring services

Active subscriptions keep charging the credit card after someone dies. The average American has 12 paid subscriptions. Your parent might have more.

• Streaming: Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Premium
• Software: Microsoft 365, Adobe Creative Cloud, antivirus subscriptions
• News and media: newspaper subscriptions, magazine apps, Substack
• Delivery: Amazon Prime, meal kits, prescription deliveries
• Cloud storage upgrades: paid iCloud, Google One, Dropbox plans

Shopping and loyalty programs

These are easy to overlook but can hold real monetary value.

• Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and other retailer accounts
• Airline miles and hotel points (some loyalty programs allow beneficiary transfers)
• Credit card rewards points
• Store gift card balances
• Cashback programs (Rakuten, Ibotta)

Health and medical

• Patient portals for doctors, hospitals, and labs
• Medicare or insurance portals
• Pharmacy accounts (CVS, Walgreens, prescription delivery services)
• Health tracking apps (Apple Health, Fitbit, MyFitnessPal)
• Telehealth platforms

Government and legal

• Social Security online account (ssa.gov)
• IRS or tax authority online accounts
• State tax portals
• DMV or driver's license portals
• Voter registration portals

Domains and websites

If your parent owns a domain name, runs a blog, or has any kind of web presence:

• Domain registrar accounts (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains)
• Website hosting accounts
• Personal blogs or websites
• Online marketplaces where they sell items (Etsy, eBay)

Hardware and device access

Digital assets can't be accessed without device access. Your inventory should include:

• Phone passcodes (iPhone PIN, Android unlock pattern)
• Computer login passwords
• Tablet passcodes
• WiFi passwords (for accessing home network devices)
• Smart home device accounts (Ring, Nest, Alexa)

How to build the inventory

The goal isn't perfection on the first pass. It's getting the major accounts documented and then filling in gaps over time.

Step 1: Start with email

Open your parent's email inbox and search for terms like "welcome," "account created," "subscription," "receipt," and "payment." Every account they've ever created sent a confirmation email. The inbox is the most reliable record of their digital footprint.

Step 2: Check browser saved passwords

Most browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox) save passwords automatically. Go to the browser's password settings and export the list. This gives you an instant snapshot of accounts your parent may have forgotten about.

Step 3: Review bank and credit card statements

Look at the last three months of statements for recurring charges. Any subscription or service that charges monthly will show up here. This catches the accounts that don't have saved passwords in the browser.

Step 4: Check the phone's app list

Every app on your parent's phone represents an account. Scroll through the home screen and app library. Many of these will be accounts they haven't thought about in years but that still hold data or charge fees.

Step 5: Document it

Write down each account with:

• The service name and website
• The username or email associated with it
• The password (or where the password is stored)
• Whether 2FA is enabled
• What should happen to the account (close, transfer, memorialize, keep)

The accounts most families miss

Based on what families report after a parent's death, the most commonly missed accounts include:

• Secondary email accounts used for spam or shopping
• Cloud photo storage synced automatically from the phone (the family doesn't know the photos exist online)
• Loyalty programs with significant point balances
• Auto-renewing subscriptions charged annually (easy to forget between billing cycles)
• Cryptocurrency bought experimentally and never mentioned
• Domain names registered years ago
• Old social media profiles on platforms the parent stopped using

Why this matters now

An inventory created while your parent is alive, cooperative, and cognitively sharp is infinitely easier than trying to reconstruct one after a crisis. The inbox search, the browser password export, the credit card statement review — all of these are simple when the person is sitting next to you. They become legal and logistical nightmares when that person is incapacitated or gone.

This is also an opportunity to set up platform legacy tools as you go. Every account you discover is an account you can secure: enable a Legacy Contact here, set up an Inactive Account Manager there, add 2FA where it's missing.

The Digital Legacy Kit includes the full inventory worksheet organized by category, with prompts for every type of digital asset covered in this guide. It's designed to be completed alongside your parent — a structured conversation tool as much as a planning document.