The deceased's accounts, insurances and digital assets

The modern estate of the deceased goes beyond the house and the land: accounts, contracts, digital assets. Fiqh treats them like any asset: they enter the tarika after the debts and the bequests, according to the legal shares.

Bank accounts

• The balance: it enters the succession and is divided according to the shares, after the debts and the bequests (consensus of the scholars; sura an-Nisa 11).
• Bank interest: the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (OIC) classified the interest paid on deposits among riba (resolution No. 10 (1/2), Jeddah, 1985). These sums are not distributed to the heirs: they are spent on works of general interest, without intending reward for the deceased or the heirs.
• The joint account: the co-holder keeps his share under the civil law; the share of the deceased follows the succession; documenting the contributions of each separates the estates.
• The procedure: death certificate, heirship certificate or notary; no withdrawal before the partition, for it is a seizure upon the shares of others.

Insurance

• The view of the scholarly authorities: the Council of Senior Scholars of Saudi Arabia ruled in its decision No. 51 of 4/4/1397H that commercial insurance with a fixed premium contains a major gharar and riba; the International Islamic Fiqh Academy followed it in its resolution No. 51 (3/5), 5th session, Kuwait, 1988: commercial insurance is forbidden, while cooperative insurance (ta'awuni) founded on the donation among participants is lawful, as well as social insurance. Ibn Baz ruled in the same direction: "Life and property insurance is forbidden, for the gharar and the riba it contains" (Majmu' al-Fatawa wa-l-Maqalat al-Mutanawwi'a).
• The contemporary takaful standard: AAOIFI codified it in its Shari'a Standard No. 26 (Islamic insurance): a cooperative organization where each participant gives (tabarru') to relieve the others, with a paid management kept separate from the donation fund.
• A contract already subscribed at death: present it to a scholar for regularization; the principles above guide the treatment of the capital.

Digital assets

• Crypto and wallets: the value on the day of death enters the succession; keys transmitted and declaration made.
• Online accounts and licenses: whatever has transferable value is an asset; strictly personal services end; a register of access entrusted to the wasi avoids the loss.
• Online debts (subscriptions, credits): settled before the partition like any debt.

Practical note

A written inventory of accounts, keys and contracts, handed to the wasi and updated every year: this is the contemporary version of the will required from the one who has something to bequeath (al-Bukhari 2738).