My wife and I have recently updated our estate planning and between us have a lot of miles/points. I did a fairly extensive review of this subject and found that all North American airlines & hotels have a proceedure for next of kin inhereting airline miles and hotel points. They differ somewhat in proceedure/documentation and some charge a fee.

With American Express Membership Rewards, the beneficiary at the time of death, must be an additional card holder on one of the deceased's cards or your out of luck.

On the assorted VISA/MC programs where the bank itself issues it's own points and then buys the card holder an airline ticket, you're out of luck unless the bank allows the beneficiary to assume the account (not likely).

With Brittish Airways & Hilton, they allow family/joint accounts which makes it a lot easier.

Something to watch out for is the now industry standard 3 year with no account activity airline miles expire policy. Many times a deceased person has not had much account activity for a long time prior to passing away and if you add to this probate time, many miles/points could be close to expiration when person(s) inheriting finally get around to these matters. The moral of this story is tell the person(s) who are inheriting about this detail of your will.