Malaysia: Digital assets can now be included in wills

Digital assets such as cryptocurrency, online trading accounts, e-wallets and cloud storage accounts can now be included in wills, said Rockwills International Group managing director Saw Leong Aun.

Saw said Rockwills had developed certain clauses that helped clients to leave digital assets in their wills for their beneficiaries or instructions on how their digital assets would be managed.

He said digital assets fell into two categories, namely financial such as online trading accounts, online businesses, e-wallet and airlines’ travel points; and emotional or sentimental value like photographs on social media and self-composed songs saved on cloud storage accounts.

“All these accounts require access code or password.

Without instructions specified in wills, families will not be able to access these digital accounts, he said.

Saw said an increasing number of clients have enquired ways to include digital assets in their wills, which was also a growing trend worldwide.

“From our own statistics, majority of our clients are the X Generation between the age of 31 to 50 years old.”

He said this generation was aware of social media, including young families who owned a house and were likely to operate part-time business or involve in online trading.

“Both their physical and digital assets can be covered in their wills,” he said in an interview here yesterday.

Digital assets can now be included in wills