Sandy Springs Estate Planning for Cryptocurrency and Digital Assets

If you own Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs, or any other digital asset, you already know how fast the value can change. What you may not know is how easily those assets can disappear from your estate if you die or become incapacitated without a proper plan in place. At Slowik Estate Planning in Atlanta, Georgia, we work with residents throughout Sandy Springs and the greater metro area to make sure digital wealth gets the same careful attention as real estate, investment accounts, and family heirlooms. Your crypto holdings are real property. Treating them that way in your estate plan is not optional, it is essential.

Table of Contents

• What Counts as a Digital Asset Under Georgia and Federal Law
• Georgia’s RUFADAA and Why Fiduciary Access Requires Explicit Authorization
• Federal Tax Rules for Cryptocurrency in Your Estate
• Trust Structures and Asset Protection Strategies for Crypto Holders in Sandy Springs
• Building a Complete Digital Asset Estate Plan in Sandy Springs
• FAQs About Sandy Springs Estate Planning for Cryptocurrency and Digital Assets

What Counts as a Digital Asset Under Georgia and Federal Law

The IRS defines a digital asset as “any digital representation of value that is recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger, or any similar technology.” That definition is broader than most people realize. Examples include assets referred to as virtual currencies, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, stablecoins, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). If you hold any of these, they are part of your taxable estate and your estate plan must address them directly.

Georgia law approaches digital assets through O.C.G.A. Title 53, Chapter 13, known as the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA). Under O.C.G.A. § 53-13-30, the legal duties imposed on a fiduciary charged with managing tangible property apply to the management of digital assets, including the duty of care, loyalty, and confidentiality. This means your executor or trustee carries the same legal responsibilities over your Bitcoin wallet as they do over your Buckhead investment property.

The law also covers access rights. A fiduciary acting within the scope of their duties is an authorized user of the property of the decedent, protected person, principal, or settlor for the purpose of liability under applicable computer fraud and unauthorized computer access laws, including Article 6 of Chapter 9 of Title 16. In plain terms, your fiduciary can legally access your digital accounts without fear of criminal liability, but only if your estate plan grants that authority properly.

The scope of digital assets also extends beyond cryptocurrency. Online brokerage accounts, domain names, digital content libraries, and tokenized real estate interests all qualify. If your estate plan was drafted before 2018 or before you acquired significant crypto holdings, it almost certainly does not address these assets at all. That gap can cost your family real money and real time. Working with an Atlanta estate planning lawyer at Slowik Estate Planning gives you a plan built for the assets you actually own today.

Georgia’s RUFADAA and Why Fiduciary Access Requires Explicit Authorization

Many Sandy Springs residents assume that naming an executor or trustee automatically gives that person access to every account they own. Under Georgia law, that assumption is wrong. Under O.C.G.A. § 53-13-10, if a user has not used an online tool to give direction, the user may allow or prohibit in a will, trust, power of attorney, or other record disclosure to a fiduciary of some or all of the user’s digital assets, including the content of electronic communications sent or received by the user. That means you must take an affirmative step. Silence is not consent.

The law also establishes a priority system. A user’s direction under O.C.G.A. § 53-13-10 shall override a contrary provision in a terms-of-service agreement that does not require the user to act affirmatively and distinctly from the user’s assent to the terms of service. This matters because many crypto exchanges and platforms have terms of service that restrict account transfers or access after death. Your estate planning documents, drafted correctly, can override those restrictions.

What happens when a fiduciary needs to formally act? A request for termination of an account must be in writing, in either physical or electronic form, and accompanied by a certified copy of the death certificate of the user, a certified copy of the letters testamentary, letters of administration, or other letters of appointment giving the fiduciary authority over the account, and a number, username, address, or other unique subscriber or account identifier assigned by the custodian to identify the user’s account. That last requirement, the unique account identifier, is something most families simply do not have on hand. A well-drafted estate plan documents that information securely so your fiduciary can act without going to the Fulton County Probate Court to get a court order.

This is also why a revocable living trust, administered by a qualified trust attorney, can be one of the most effective tools for managing digital assets. A trust allows your successor trustee to act immediately, without waiting for probate proceedings that could delay access to volatile assets for months.

Federal Tax Rules for Cryptocurrency in Your Estate

The federal tax treatment of crypto is one of the most important things to understand before you finalize your estate plan. For federal tax purposes, digital assets are treated as property. That classification has significant consequences both during your lifetime and at death.

During your life, every sale, trade, or use of cryptocurrency is a taxable event. Every sale, exchange, or use of a digital asset is a taxable event. If held as an investment, gains and losses are capital, either short-term if held for less than one year, or long-term if held for greater than one year. If you receive crypto as payment for services, staking rewards, or mining income, you recognize income based on the fair market value at the time of receipt.

The reporting rules are also tightening. Under the IRS’s final regulations, brokers must report gross proceeds for transactions effected on or after January 1, 2025, and must report basis on certain transactions effected on or after January 1, 2026. This means the IRS now receives detailed information about your crypto activity, much the way it receives information about stock sales. This reporting is required on Form 1099-DA beginning with transactions on or after January 1, 2025, and applies to brokers that take possession of the digital assets being sold by their customers, including operators of custodial digital asset trading platforms and certain digital asset hosted wallet providers.

At death, cryptocurrency held in your estate is included in your gross taxable estate at fair market value. The federal estate tax exemption is currently $13.99 million per individual for 2025, but that figure is scheduled to sunset after 2025 under current law, potentially dropping significantly. If you hold substantial crypto holdings alongside other assets, the combined value could push your estate into taxable territory faster than you expect. Coordinating with an estate tax planning lawyer at Slowik Estate Planning helps you plan around these thresholds before they shift.

Trust Structures and Asset Protection Strategies for Crypto Holders in Sandy Springs

Holding cryptocurrency outside of a trust creates two serious problems. First, it forces your estate through probate, which is a public court process that can take months or longer at the Fulton County Courthouse on Pryor Street. Second, it leaves your digital assets exposed to creditors and potential estate disputes during that process. A properly funded trust sidesteps both issues.

Under the Revised Georgia Trust Code of 2010, found at O.C.G.A. Title 53, Chapter 12, trustees have broad authority to manage trust property, including digital assets. The Georgia Uniform Prudent Investor Act, codified at O.C.G.A. §§ 53-12-290 et seq., requires trustees to manage trust assets with the care and prudence of a skilled investor, considering risk and return in the context of the whole portfolio. Cryptocurrency’s volatility makes this standard particularly important. Your trust document should include specific provisions authorizing your trustee to hold, sell, or transfer digital assets and addressing how valuation will be handled.

There are several trust structures worth considering. A revocable living trust lets you maintain control during your lifetime while ensuring seamless transfer at death, without probate. An irrevocable trust can remove crypto from your taxable estate entirely, which matters more as values grow. For high-value holders, a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT) or a Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT) can transfer appreciation out of your estate while retaining some benefit. Each structure has tradeoffs, and the right choice depends on your goals, your family situation, and the size of your holdings.

One issue unique to crypto is custody. If your Bitcoin is held on a hardware wallet, your trustee needs the private key or seed phrase to access it. If that information is lost, the assets are gone permanently. Your estate plan should include a secure method for documenting and transferring access credentials, separate from the trust document itself for security reasons, but referenced clearly enough that your trustee knows where to look.

Building a Complete Digital Asset Estate Plan in Sandy Springs

A complete estate plan for crypto holders in Sandy Springs goes beyond a will and a trust. It requires a coordinated set of documents, each serving a specific function. Think about the stretch of Roswell Road between Sandy Springs and Buckhead, one of the busiest corridors in metro Atlanta. If you were crossing it and something happened to you tomorrow, would your family know where your digital assets are, how to access them, and what to do with them? Most people cannot honestly say yes.

Your durable power of attorney must explicitly authorize your agent to manage digital assets. Without that language, your agent may not be able to act on your behalf during incapacity, even under RUFADAA. Your will should identify your digital assets by category and direct how they pass, naming a specific executor with the authority to access and manage them. Your trust, if you have one, should be funded to include your exchange accounts and any hardware wallets, with clear instructions for your successor trustee.

Beyond the legal documents, you need a practical access plan. This means a secure, updated inventory of every digital asset you own, the platforms or wallets where they are held, and the credentials needed to access them. This document should be stored somewhere your fiduciary can find it after your death but that is not accessible to anyone who should not have it during your life. A fireproof safe at home, a safe deposit box at a local bank, or a secure digital vault service can all work, as long as your trustee or executor knows it exists and how to reach it.

Slowik Estate Planning serves clients throughout Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Alpharetta, and the broader Atlanta metro area from our office in Atlanta, Georgia. We work with individuals and families who have built real wealth in digital assets and want to make sure that wealth passes to the right people, in the right way, with the least possible tax exposure. If your current estate plan does not address cryptocurrency and digital assets, contact us today to schedule a consultation.

FAQs About Sandy Springs Estate Planning for Cryptocurrency and Digital Assets

Can my executor access my cryptocurrency accounts without specific authorization in my estate plan?

Not automatically. Under O.C.G.A. § 53-13-10, Georgia’s RUFADAA requires that you explicitly grant your executor or trustee permission to access your digital assets, either through your will, trust, power of attorney, or an online tool provided by the platform. Without that authorization, your fiduciary may be legally blocked from accessing your accounts, even with a death certificate and letters testamentary in hand. A properly drafted estate plan removes that barrier entirely.

How does the IRS treat cryptocurrency in my estate for tax purposes?

The IRS treats digital assets as property, not currency. At death, your cryptocurrency is included in your gross taxable estate at its fair market value on the date of death. This value is subject to federal estate tax if your total estate exceeds the applicable exemption. Your heirs receive a stepped-up cost basis equal to the fair market value at death, which can significantly reduce capital gains taxes if they later sell the assets. Coordinating your crypto holdings with your overall estate tax strategy is essential, especially as exemption amounts are expected to change after 2025.

What happens to my Bitcoin if I die without an estate plan in Georgia?

If you die without a will or trust, Georgia’s intestacy laws under O.C.G.A. Title 53 determine who inherits your assets. However, even if the law identifies the right heir, that person still needs legal authority and practical access to claim your cryptocurrency. Without an estate plan granting fiduciary access, without a record of your wallet addresses or exchange credentials, and without letters testamentary from the Fulton County Probate Court, your crypto could be permanently inaccessible. Assets on hardware wallets with no documented seed phrase are effectively lost forever.

Should I put my cryptocurrency in a trust, or is a will enough?

A will alone requires probate, which is a public court process that delays asset distribution and exposes your estate to creditors during the process. A funded revocable living trust avoids probate entirely, allowing your successor trustee to act immediately after your death. For crypto specifically, speed matters because values can change dramatically in a short time. A trust also provides privacy, which a will filed with the Fulton County Probate Court does not. For most crypto holders with meaningful balances, a trust is the stronger choice, though the right answer depends on your specific situation.

Do I need to update my existing estate plan if I recently bought cryptocurrency?

Yes. If your estate plan was drafted before you acquired digital assets, it almost certainly does not include the language needed to give your fiduciary legal access under Georgia’s RUFADAA, authorize your trustee to hold and manage digital assets, or address how your crypto will be valued and distributed. An outdated plan is nearly as problematic as no plan at all when it comes to digital assets. Slowik Estate Planning, located in Atlanta, Georgia, can review your existing documents and update them to reflect your current holdings and goals.