If cash is king and credit is queen, digital rewards points may just be the wildcard of your household finances. While cash represents immediate purchasing power and credit offers leveraged liquidity, rewards points function as a flexible currency that can supplement spending. But unlike cash and credit, they vanish when you die.
Most people do not include rewards points and loyalty program credits in their cash flow calculations, even when they have a large stockpile. These points and credits rarely make it into an estate plan either, even though their accumulated worth may represent real financial value. To keep your points from expiring when you do, they should be inventoried, documented, and directly addressed in your estate plan.
The Legal Gray Zone
When you log into a banking or travel app and see a rewards balance, it may look much like a digital bank statement. But your cash and your points live in different legal worlds. Your bank account holds property that you own. Your rewards account generally contains contractual benefits you may use only according to the issuer’s rules.
The Fine Print
Loyalty program terms commonly state that points have no cash value, are personal to the member, remain the exclusive property of the issuing company, and may be transferred or redeemed only as the program allows.
You may not own your points in the same unrestricted way that you own money in a bank account; you may have only a conditional contractual right to use them.
Rewards companies, therefore, have wide latitude over how their programs operate, including the ability to change redemption rates, restrict transfers, impose expiration rules, or close accounts. That latitude is not unlimited: Federal and state consumer protection laws may apply when a company advertises rewards and then unfairly prevents consumers from redeeming them. But the starting point is usually the contract the member accepted upon joining.
Such characteristics make rewards points difficult to classify for estate planning purposes. Although they carry recognizable economic value, they lack the unrestricted ownership and transfer rights associated with cash, securities, or other conventional assets, and that distinction becomes consequential the moment an account holder dies.
Why You Cannot Simply Bequeath a Mile
Because points are seen as contractual agreements and not personal property, a will cannot override the loyalty program’s contract or give an heir rights that the account holder never had. What happens at death, therefore, depends largely on corporate policy.
- Strict forfeiture. Some programs prohibit transfers to an estate or beneficiary. For example, Southwest Airlines states that Rapid Rewards points may not pass through an estate, settlement, inheritance, or will.[1] When the account is closed following the member’s death, the remaining points are forfeited.
- Discretionary transfers. Other airlines reserve the right to make exceptions. United says that it may, at its “sole discretion,” credit some or all of a deceased member’s miles to an authorized person.[2] American Airlines provides that an AAdvantage account typically terminates at death unless the airline permits otherwise.[3] In these cases, an executor or heir may request a transfer but cannot expect an automatic one as a property right.
- Administrative hurdles. Even when a company permits a transfer, it may burden an executor with bureaucratic steps that include submitting a death certificate, proof of authority, account information, and other documentation. Transfer fees or deadlines may also apply.
- Account closure and forfeiture. Credit card rewards can present an additional problem. Once an issuer has been notified of a cardholder’s death, the credit account may be restricted or closed. Depending on the card agreement and the issuer’s procedures, closing the account may cause unused rewards to expire before the executor knows they are there or has an opportunity to redeem them.
- Forced cash conversion. Some programs do not erase the account balance at death. For example, Chase Ultimate Rewards agreements state that points are not the cardholder’s property and cannot pass by inheritance.[4] However, when Chase is notified of a cardholder’s death, the remaining points are automatically redeemed for cash as a statement credit, preserving their cash value for the estate but eliminating the ability to transfer them to airline or hotel partners or for higher-value travel redemptions.
- Limited unclaimed property protection. Most traditional financial accounts are subject to state unclaimed property laws, which may require dormant funds to be transferred to the state for later recovery. Loyalty points do not always receive the same protection. Some states expressly exclude frequent-flyer miles, merchandise points, and other noncash rewards from their unclaimed property statutes.
The Scale of the Unseen Wealth
Divorce courts have occasionally classified loyalty points accumulated during a marriage as marital property because they provide a measurable economic benefit.[5] That legal recognition hints at just how much value lies within this gray zone.
The numbers are significant:
- US consumers earned $47.5 billion in credit card rewards in 2024 and redeemed approximately $43 billion during the year, leaving about $4.5 billion unused or carried forward.[6]
- Hotel programs also carry enormous obligations. Marriott reported nearly $8 billion in deferred revenue tied to its Bonvoy loyalty program at the end of 2025.[7]
- Airline loyalty programs dwarf even that: Delta SkyMiles, American AAdvantage, and United MileagePlus were collectively valued at $83.7 billion in 2026. Delta’s program alone was worth $31.7 billion.[8]
- Gift cards and store credits add another layer. A recent Bankrate survey found that 43 percent of US adults held at least one unused balance with an average value of $244.[9]
Much of this value never gets used. The loyalty industry calls unredeemed rewards breakage—value lost to forgotten accounts, inactivity, expiration rules, or death. A 2026 industry report estimates that 26.2 percent of loyalty points go unspent and 11.9 percent expire before they are used, costing US consumers up to $10 billion in potential savings annually.[10]
That loss is unevenly distributed: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that subprime cardholders forfeit rewards at more than twice the overall rate.[11] Companies account for expected breakage when measuring their outstanding rewards obligations because permanently unredeemed benefits eventually reduce their liabilities. For consumers and their families, that breakage represents value that was earned and never recovered.
Death can quietly become one more path to breakage, and unlike expiration or inactivity, that loss often happens before anyone realizes there was something worth saving.
How to Preserve and Protect Your Loyalty and Rewards Points
To ensure that the value you earned is not erased by expiration dates or corporate account sweeps, take the following steps to shield your loyalty wealth.
Audit and Create a Living Inventory
Treat loyalty points, airline miles, cash-back balances, gift cards, and travel credits with the same care and attention you give to traditional bank accounts.
- Track your accounts. Compile a list of the loyalty programs you use, including account numbers, approximate balances, and estimated redemption values.
- Monitor expiration rules. Identify programs with inactivity or expiration provisions. A small qualifying transaction—such as buying a coffee or transferring a nominal block of points—may be enough to keep some accounts active.
- Update the inventory. Periodically review the list and remove closed accounts, add new programs, and track unusually large balances.
Securely Document Access Information
An executor cannot administer an account that they do not know exists. Access, however, must be balanced with security and privacy. Avoid placing passwords and other sensitive information directly in a will, which may become part of the public probate record.
- Use secure storage. Keep account credentials and recovery information in an encrypted password manager or another protected digital vault.
- Provide access instructions. Explain how your executor or another authorized person can locate the inventory and request access through the company’s procedures.
- Use available legacy tools. When a password manager, email provider, or digital storage service offers emergency access or legacy contact features, consider designating a trusted person.
Brief Your Executor About High-Value Programs
Some programs may transfer balances or permit postdeath redemption when an executor follows their procedures and provides the required documentation. Make sure your executor knows which accounts hold the greatest value and where the supporting information is stored.
- Flag significant balances. Identify major airline, hotel, credit card, and retail programs that should be checked immediately after death.
- Document program requirements. Note whether a program permits transfers, discretionary exceptions, postdeath redemption, or no transfer at all.
- Address digital assets in your estate plan. Work with an estate planning professional to authorize your executor to access and manage digital accounts and electronic records. This authority cannot override a loyalty program’s terms, but it empowers the executor to identify accounts, request information, and pursue any available transfer or redemption rights.
Make Your Invisible Estate Seen
With billions of dollars in rewards going unused or expiring each year, loyalty points are worth a place in the estate planning conversation.
Your accumulated miles and points represent not only real, calculable wealth, but a significant investment of your money and time. You may miss the chance to use them, but that does not necessarily mean somebody else cannot benefit.
A gift of digital rewards could be a unique way to reward somebody in your estate plan. Making that gift possible, however, requires researching the program rules, documenting your wishes, and giving your executor the authority and information needed to keep the rewards usable.
[1] Augusta Stone, What happens to your points and miles after you die?, The Points Guy (Apr. 10, 2026),
https://thepointsguy.com/loyalty-programs/points-and-miles-after-you-die.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Bari Weinberger, Travel Rewards: Don’t Miss These Valuable Overlooked Assets in Divorce, Law.com (Oct. 7, 2022),
https://law.com/njlawjournal/2022/10/07/travel-rewards-dont-miss-these-valuable-overlooked-assets-in-divorce.
[6] Jack Caporal, Credit Card Rewards: Who Earns the Most Points?, Motley Fool Money (June 12, 2026),
https://www.fool.com/money/research/credit-card-rewards-statistics.
[7] U.S. Sec. and Exch. Comm’n, Form 10-K, Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2025,
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1048286/000104828626000007/mar-20251231.htm.
[8] Marisa Garcia, Revealed: The world’s most valuable airline loyalty programmes, with Delta SkyMiles topping the list at $31.7 billion, Aerospace Glob. News (Apr. 2, 2026),
https://aerospaceglobalnews.com/news/worlds-most-valuable-airline-loyalty-programmes-2026.
[9] Katie Kelton, CCC, Survey: 43% of Americans have at least one unused gift card, Bankrate (Sept. 23, 2024),
https://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/news/gift-cards-survey.
[10] Antavo Global Customer Loyalty Report: More Than a Quarter of US Loyalty Programme Points Go Unspent With an Estimated $10 Billion in Savings Lost Annually, BusinessWire (Feb. 3, 2026), https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260203778943/en/Antavo-Global-Customer-Loyalty-Report-More-Than-a-Quarter-of-US-Loyalty-Programme-Points-Go-Unspent-With-an-Estimated-%2410-Billion-in-Savings-Lost-Annually.
[11] Consumer Fin. Prot. Bureau, The Consumer Credit Card Market, Report to Congress, p. 143 (Dec. 2025),
https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_consumer-credit-card-market-report_2025.pdf.