'Digital inheritance' growing in Britain

Along with the house and the car, a growing number of us are bequeathing their internet passwords in our wills

Along with the house and the car, a growing number of us are bequeathing their internet passwords in our wills. Growing numbers of people are leaving their internet passwords and codes in their wills so that loved ones can access a share of Britain's £2.3billion digital inheritance.

Logging on to collect your inheritance is set to become a common occurence as a study finds many people have valuable films, video and music stored in networks such as Hotmail, Facebook and Flickr.

'With more photos, books, music and so on being stored online and in digital format, the question of what happens to these when people are gone becomes more important every day,' says Matthew Strain, partner at London law firm Strain Keville.

'Online possessions - from digital photos and videos to music and apps - have monetary and emotional value to their owners, and potentially their loved ones,' he says.

A poll of 2,000 adults found 25 per cent had more than £200 worth of digital assets stored online. Nearly 33 per cent consider the sum valuable enough to pass on to relatives and 11 per cent have already put internet passwords in their wills.

The study suggests that almost 10 per cent of us hoard thousands of emails and photos online. By 2020, a quarter of us are expected to keep our photo collction online a third of us will store all of our music online.

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