Featured Insight
What Happens to Your Digital Property When You Are No Longer Here?
When most people think about property, they think about land, vehicles, bank accounts, shares, houses and documents kept safely in a file. But modern wealth is changing. A person may now own or control valuable assets that exist almost entirely online. These may include crypto wallets, mobile money records, email accounts, cloud documents, websites, domain names, social media pages, digital photographs, online businesses, payment platforms, software, customer databases and intellectual property.
This is digital property.
The difficulty is that many people do not treat digital property as property. They think of it as passwords, apps, files or things stored on a phone. That becomes a serious problem when a person dies, becomes incapacitated, loses access, or when a business dispute arises. The asset may still exist, but if nobody can identify it, access it lawfully, prove ownership or manage it, its value may be lost.
Digital property can have financial, personal, business or evidentiary value. For an individual, it may include photographs, emails, cloud storage, crypto assets, online investment accounts and important personal records. For a business, it may include a website, domain name, business email, accounting system, payment platform, client database, digital contracts and social media accounts. For a content creator, it may include monetized pages, videos, digital products, audience data and brand contracts.
Kenyan law does not yet treat digital property under one single law. Instead, the legal position depends on the nature of the asset. If the asset is personal data, then data protection obligations arise. If it is an email, message, payment confirmation or digital contract, the law on electronic records and evidence may apply. If it is crypto or another virtual asset, the emerging virtual asset regulatory framework becomes relevant. If it is software, photographs, designs or written content, intellectual property law may apply. If it belongs to a company, company law, contract law and employment agreements may determine ownership and control. If it belonged to a deceased person, succession law becomes important.
This is why classification matters. Before a digital asset can be protected, one must know what it is, who owns it, where it is held, who controls access and whether it can legally be transferred.
Succession law deals with the property of a deceased person. Digital property can form part of an estate, but it creates practical problems. Some digital assets may pass to beneficiaries, such as crypto assets, digital income, intellectual property, online business interests and domain names. Others may be limited by platform terms, privacy rules or technical access restrictions. A family may know that an asset exists but still be unable to recover it if passwords, private keys, recovery phrases or account details are lost.
A digital message, email, phone note or voice note is also not automatically a valid will. The safer approach is to prepare a proper will that expressly deals with digital property. The will should give legal authority, while a separate digital asset memorandum can give practical guidance on what exists, where it is held and how it should be handled. Sensitive passwords and recovery phrases should not be carelessly placed inside a will because the will may later be copied, filed or handled by several people.
Planning should begin while the owner is alive and in control. A person should prepare a digital asset inventory, separate personal assets from business assets, confirm ownership, secure access information carefully, and update their will to include digital property. Businesses should also document ownership and access to websites, domains, payment platforms, customer databases, emails and social media pages.
Digital property is already part of modern wealth. If it has value, list it. If it requires access, secure it. If it belongs to a business, document ownership. If it should benefit your family, include it in your estate plan.
Your digital property may outlive you. The real question is whether the people you leave behind will be able to find it, protect it and lawfully manage it.
This is why digital property should be planned for early. Unlike land, vehicles or bank accounts, some digital assets may not be visible from any public record or physical document. They may sit behind an email, password, private key, phone, cloud account or online platform. If no one knows they exist, they may be lost. If no one has authority to deal with them, they may create disputes. If access is not secured, valuable accounts, records, crypto assets, online income or business platforms may become unreachable.
Digital property should be identified, documented and included in estate planning so that your family, beneficiaries or business can lawfully access, preserve and transfer it when needed.
- Digital property is now part of modern wealth.
- Online assets can be lost if no one knows they exist.
- Access is as important as ownership.
- A phone note or email is not automatically a valid will.
- Passwords and private keys should be secured, not exposed.
- Plan early so your family can lawfully access and manage your digital assets.
Need help identifying, protecting or planning for your digital property? Speak to us before valuable online assets are lost, locked away or left in uncertainty.