The short answer: most of what we work for is meant for someone else. Online, that only works if you truly own what you build, and if the people you love can reach it when you can't. That takes a small plan: know what you own, switch on the legacy tools your accounts offer, and record how to recover every wallet.
"Most men don't need money to be happy. They want money to make people they love happy." It is a line widely shared online under Morgan Freeman's name. We couldn't trace it to a confirmed source, but it holds up on its own. Most of what we earn, make and keep is, in the end, for somebody else.
What does it mean to own something digital?
For many of us, the things we would want to hand on aren't in a drawer. They are photos in the cloud, a catalogue of songs or designs, a collection, a domain, a parcel of virtual land. Some of these you own. Many you only rent.
The difference shows up at the worst moment. Apple's Legacy Contact lets someone you choose reach your photos, messages, notes and files after you die, but purchased movies, music, books and subscriptions are not included, and neither are saved passwords and passkeys. That is what a licence is: you had access, not ownership.
Creative work is different. Under U.S. law, copyright lasts for the author's life plus 70 years, and copyright ownership can pass by will like other personal property. The songs, images and code you make are a body of work your family can inherit, share and look after.
Assets recorded on a public ledger are similar. The record shows who holds them, and anyone can verify that ownership. But a record only helps if someone can reach the wallet.
Why do the people we love get locked out?
Mostly because nobody planned. Caring.com's 2025 survey found that only 24% of Americans have a will, and the most common reason among those without one was that they "just haven't gotten around to it."
Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you name up to 10 people to receive parts of your account if it goes quiet for a period you set. Facebook lets you choose a legacy contact to look after a memorialised profile, though that person can't log in or read your messages.
Those settings carry real weight. Ohio is one of the states that has adopted a version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, and under Ohio's text a direction you give through a provider's online tool overrides a contrary instruction in your will. A checkbox in account settings can outrank the document your lawyer drafted. Make sure the two agree.
What should you write down?
- An inventory. Accounts, collections, domains and creative catalogues, and where each one lives.
- Legacy settings, switched on wherever they exist, naming the same people your will names.
- Wallet recovery, stored offline somewhere your executor can find it. A recovery phrase is the wallet itself, so never type it into a website or send it by email. Our security guide for asset owners covers the basics.
- A note of intent. What to keep, what to sell and what simply to share.
This is not legal advice. Rules vary by state and country,; an estate lawyer can help.
Where does Nexaria fit?
Nexaria is built around holding, not handing over. When you link a wallet and list a collection on the Nexaria marketplace, nothing is transferred and your NFTs stay in your own wallet. As our security page puts it, we protect the platform; you protect your access. That is ownership as it should be, with a duty attached: we can't hand your keys to your family, because we never had them. The plan has to be yours.
The bottom line
Money, art, a collection, a name: none of it makes anyone happy sitting behind a password nobody knows. Own what you can, write down how to reach it, and tell the people you love where to look. A companion piece is in the Smith App Studio Journal.
