The Digital Blind Spot in Your Estate Plan: A $750 Million Reminder
Imagine standing on top of a landfill, fully aware that your $750 million fortune is buried below — but barred by law from taking a single shovel to the ground.
That’s the reality for James Howells, a 39-year-old man who says his ex-partner accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins back in 2013. Today, his story is the subject of a new documentary series: The Buried Bitcoin: The Real-Life Treasure Hunt of James Howells.
But beyond the headline-grabbing numbers and media spectacle, his experience surfaces a quieter, more relatable issue that’s often overlooked in estate planning: digital asset readiness.
In today’s world, your “estate” isn’t just your house, car, or retirement account. It’s also:
The crypto wallet you forgot to back up
The PayPal balance you haven’t touched in years
The family photos stored in the cloud
Your email accounts, loyalty points, and social media profiles
These digital possessions hold real value—financial, legal, and emotional. Yet they’re rarely acknowledged in traditional estate plans.
For more than a decade, James Howells has fought (unsuccessfully) for permission to search the Newport landfill where he believes his digital fortune is buried. And while he’s still very much alive, his story is a cautionary tale. Because this is exactly what happens when someone dies without a clear plan for their digital life: access is lost, and what remains becomes unreachable—sometimes forever.
If the idea of losing access to your digital life—or leaving your loved ones without a roadmap—hits close to home, you’re not alone. And you don’t need to figure it out by yourself.
Check out the latest episode of The Death Readiness Podcast:
Preparing for the Day I’ll Tell My Brother: "It’s Going to Be Okay"
In this episode, I walk through what makes digital assets so complicated—and share free, practical tools (see below) to help you organize what you have and protect what matters.
Listen to the podcast here:
Practical tools for managing your digital assets:
Set up your legacy contacts for online accounts:
Google – Set up your Inactive Account Manager
Facebook – Add, change or remove your Legacy Contact on Facebook
Download information sheets:
Find your saved Google passwords with Google’s password manager
Questions? Stories to share? Reach out: jill@deathreadiness.com
