The Estate Planning Gap: Why Digital Assets Are Being Lost

Australians Hold Billions in Digital Assets — Yet Most Estate Plans Don’t Include Them.

Australia’s wealth landscape is changing. With more than six million Australians now holding cryptocurrency and digital assets, these holdings have evolved from fringe interests into mainstream components of modern estates. For estate lawyers and fiduciaries, this represents a significant shift in the definition of “client wealth.”

Digital assets — including cryptocurrencies, tokens, and NFTs — are intangible, globally distributed, and accessed through cryptographic keys, not paper titles. Traditional estate planning frameworks, built around physical assets and centralised systems, are increasingly unfit for purpose.

Failing to account for this new asset class exposes clients to loss and legal professionals to avoidable liability.

The Legal Risks of Overlooking Digital Assets

Digital assets introduce unique complexities across four key areas of estate administration:

• Discovery and Access: Assets without keys are effectively lost.
• Valuation and Disclosure: Rapid price fluctuations and lack of visibility complicate reporting.
• Security and Custody: Improper handling risks hacks or irrevocable asset loss.
• Regulatory and Professional Exposure: Inadequate planning may violate fiduciary duty, AML obligations, or probate requirements.

A Trusted Custody Partner for the Digital Era

Wealth99 is Australia’s only non-institutional platform to provide institutional-grade digital asset custody — secured through Zodia Custody, a Standard Chartered and NAB-owned custodian, built to meet global banking standards.

For legal professionals, this means:

• Regulated, Bank-Backed Custody Infrastructure
• Anti-Hack Security Protocols and Multisig Safeguards
• Wealth99 FinPro: Real-Time Asset Visibility for Advisers
• Probate-Ready Access Workflows
• Seamless Integration with Legal Entities and Trust Structures

A New Standard in Estate Planning

As digital wealth becomes a material part of client portfolios, law firms and estate practitioners must modernise their toolkits. Wealth99 provides the infrastructure, transparency, and protection needed to confidently manage digital assets — and to meet the evolving standards of fiduciary responsibility.

Get the Guide: Cryptocurrency in Australian Estate Planning

Our latest briefing unpacks the key legal, regulatory, and technical issues surrounding crypto and estates — helping legal professionals stay ahead of the curve. You can download the guide here:Navigating the Digital Frontier: Cryptocurrency in Australian Estate Planning.

For further support and guidance on integrating digital assets into your practice, feel free to connect with our Specialist team.