Digital legacy planning in Scotland: what's different

Most digital legacy advice written for "the UK" is really written for England and Wales. Scotland has its own legal system, its own terminology, and its own pace of change, and if you're planning your digital legacy from Scotland, a few of those differences are worth knowing.

Confirmation, not probate

In England and Wales, an executor applies for probate. In Scotland, the equivalent process is called Confirmation, granted by the local Sheriff Court, and it works a little differently in practice, including how executors are expected to identify and value an estate's assets before it's granted. Digital assets fit into that valuation just like any other property, which means an executor who doesn't know an account exists can't include it.

The law here is still catching up, like everywhere else

Digital assets as a legal category are a genuinely new area across the whole of the UK, and the detail of how Scots law treats them specifically is still developing. That's not a reason to wait. If anything, it's a reason to be extra deliberate about documenting things yourself, rather than assuming a tidy legal framework will fill the gaps for you. A written record of what you have, where it is, and who should know about it holds up regardless of exactly how the law evolves around it.

What to actually do about it

The practical advice doesn't change much whether you're in Edinburgh or Exeter:

• Keep a record of your significant accounts and digital assets somewhere your executor can actually find, separate from a will that becomes a public document once Confirmation is granted.
• Name trusted contacts explicitly, rather than assuming your executor will simply know who should be told what.
• Revisit it occasionally. A list from five years ago is a list of half-closed accounts and forgotten logins today.

Kistkeep was built with Scotland specifically in mind from day one, not as an afterthought to an England-first product, but as one of the first markets it was designed for.