Digital Trust and Legacy: Mapping the Intersection of Inheritance Systems and Emerging Technologies (2010–2025)

Inheritance systems worldwide are undergoing a paradigm shift evolving from manually administered processes to technologically enabled platforms for managing both tangible and digital assets. Yet, the scholarly understanding of how technologies ranging from information systems to blockchain have transformed inheritance management remains underexplored and fragmented. This study aims to trace the evolution of inheritance systems from 2010 to 2025, with a particular focus on the digitalization of inheritance management, emerging technologies and governance models. Using a bibliometric approach, 229 documents were initially retrieved from the Scopus database. After removing irrelevant records, a refined dataset of 81 publications was analyzed using Excel and VOSviewer. The analysis included performance metrics (e.g., publication growth, citation trends, and country output) and science mapping (keyword co-occurrence and clustering). Findings reveal a significant rise in publications post-2020, coinciding with increased attention to digital assets, data privacy laws (e.g., GDPR) and emerging technologies such as blockchain. The most active contributors were from the United States, China and the United Kingdom. Highly cited articles discuss themes such as digital legacy, legal frameworks, asset authentication and ethical considerations. Thematic clustering revealed four research domains: digital legacy and estate transition, digital transformation and trust, digital asset structuring and fraud prevention in social media inheritance. This study contributes a comprehensive overview of the field’s conceptual landscape by highlighting the uneven yet accelerating integration of digital tools in inheritance systems. It also underscores the urgent need for inclusive, interdisciplinary frameworks that accommodate diverse legal, cultural and technological contexts for future inheritance governance.