It feels logical: your will already spells out who gets what, so why not just write down the password to your crypto wallet or email account right there? Because of one detail most people don’t know — a will becomes a public court record during probate.
What ‘public record’ actually means
Once a will is filed with the probate court, in most cases anyone can request and read it. That includes the specific bequests, the named beneficiaries — and anything else written into the document. A password, seed phrase, or PIN written directly into a will isn’t private to your family; it’s readable by anyone who looks up the case file.
What to do instead
- Store passwords and crypto seed phrases in a password manager or dedicated digital vault, not the will itself.
- In the will or trust, reference that such a system exists and name who has authority to access it — without writing out the credentials.
- Give your executor or digital executor a separate, secure way to learn how to access the vault when the time comes (a sealed letter of instruction, a trusted attorney who holds the information, or a vault’s own emergency-access feature).
A trust offers more privacy, but the rule still applies
Unlike a will, a properly funded trust generally does not become a public record — which is one more reason many estate planning attorneys now recommend trusts for anyone with meaningful digital assets. Even so, best practice is the same: keep credentials in a dedicated secure system, and reference access rights in the legal document, not the secrets themselves.
Related reading
This is part of our series on digital estate planning for Fort Worth families.
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