Digital Asset Succession: What Notaries Handling Expat Estates Need to Know

In brief: Traditional estate inventories capture property, bank accounts, and financial assets — but increasingly miss a substantial and inaccessible layer: digital assets. For notaries working with cross-border clients in Spain and Portugal, the digital asset gap is becoming one of the most common practical obstacles heirs face after death.

The Gap That Appears After the Notarial Process

The notarial process works as designed. The will is located. The heirs are identified. The Certificado de Últimas Voluntades is obtained. EU Regulation 650/2012 determines which law governs. The estate inventory is drawn up.

And then the heirs realise they cannot access a substantial part of the decedent's assets.

Not because there is a legal dispute. Not because of a procedural gap. But because the assets exist in a form that the traditional notarial toolkit was not designed to address:

These assets are not marginal. For many expats, particularly those in the 45–65 age range who have built cross-border financial lives, digital accounts can represent a meaningful share of net worth — and an irreplaceable portion of personal legacy.

The Legal Position of Digital Assets Under EU Succession Law

Under EU Regulation 650/2012, the governing law applied to the succession also applies to digital assets held as property. Cryptocurrency, for example, is treated in Spain and Portugal as bienes muebles (movable property) and forms part of the heritable estate.

This is straightforward in principle. In practice, it creates a structural challenge:

The right to inherit does not automatically produce the ability to access.

A certified heir with the correct documentation can walk into a bank and obtain access to the decedent's accounts. The same heir, presenting the same documentation to a cryptocurrency exchange, faces a very different situation:

The blockchain does not recognise legal heirship. It recognises cryptographic keys.

The Password Problem: Why Email Matters Most

For most people, their primary email account is the master key to their entire financial life. Bank notifications, tax statements, pension updates, investment platform confirmations, property management correspondence — all flow through it.

When heirs cannot access the email account, they face a cascading problem: they cannot trigger password resets on financial platforms; they cannot identify which services the decedent used; they cannot file estate claims with platforms that require identity verification sent to the registered address.

Most email providers have limited mechanisms for post-death access:

If none of these were configured by the decedent, access typically requires judicial intervention — adding months to an already complex estate administration.

What This Means for the Notarial Process

For notaries working with cross-border clients, particularly those with complex digital lives, the practical implications are significant:

Incomplete estate inventories. Digital assets that no one knows about cannot be inventoried. Heirs may later discover accounts, wallets, or assets months or years after the succession is formally closed — complicating tax positions and potentially requiring re-opening proceedings.

Blocked estate administration. When heirs cannot access the decedent's email or accounts, basic tasks like cancelling subscriptions, closing platforms, accessing financial records, or managing ongoing digital properties become protracted.

Crypto with no recovery path. Self-custodied cryptocurrency with no seed phrase record is simply lost. There is no legal mechanism, no notarial authority, and no judicial order that can recover access to a blockchain wallet without the private key material.

Personal legacy that disappears. Photographs, letters, voice messages, family memories stored in cloud services — without prior configuration, these are frequently locked, then deleted. The legal estate may be settled perfectly; the personal legacy is irrecoverable.

A Practical Recommendation for Expat Clients

For notaries working with cross-border clients in Spain and Portugal, particularly those with investment accounts, cryptocurrency, or significant digital financial activity, raising the digital asset question as part of succession planning discussions is increasingly relevant.

The conversation does not require technical expertise on the notary's part. It simply draws attention to the gap:

"Your will addresses your property and financial assets. Have you made arrangements for your digital accounts, your online investment platforms, and access credentials? Have you ensured your trusted family members will be able to access your email and your major accounts?"

This question, raised at the point of will drafting or estate planning review, prompts clients to address an area that will otherwise create practical difficulties for their heirs — and that no notarial instrument alone can resolve.

How Sucesio Addresses the Digital Layer

Sucesio was designed as a complement to the traditional will and the notarial process — not a replacement. Its function is to close the gap between legal succession (which determines who inherits) and practical access (which determines how heirs actually obtain what they are entitled to).

With Sucesio, a client prepares an encrypted digital vault containing:

While the client is alive: Nothing is transmitted. Monthly check-ins confirm the client is active.

After death: A designated trusted contact confirms the death — and transmits exactly the information the client defined, to exactly the people they chose.

All data is encrypted with AES-256, hosted in Europe (Ireland), and fully GDPR-compliant. Sucesio does not have access to unencrypted client data.

For Notaries: Partnership and Referral

Sucesio works with notaries, solicitors, and legal professionals across Spain and Portugal who wish to offer their expat clients a practical solution for the digital succession gap.

If you are a notary or succession specialist working with cross-border clients and would like to know more about how Sucesio complements the traditional notarial process, we welcome your enquiry.

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This article is provided for general informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. Notaries and legal professionals should consult current Spanish and Portuguese succession law for advice specific to individual client situations.