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A digital legacy plan tells the right people what exists online, what you want done with it, and how they can act lawfully after your death or incapacity. Start with a complete inventory, assign a disposition and responsible person to every item, configure each provider’s legacy feature, coordinate the plan with your will or other estate documents, and store the instructions where your chosen people can find them.
This plan supports—but does not replace—a will, trust, power of attorney, or jurisdiction-specific legal advice. Account contracts, privacy rules and local law can prevent an executor or family member from simply logging in, transferring a licensed purchase or reading private communications.
What a digital legacy plan covers
Digital assets are not limited to social-media profiles. An estate may include information, property, subscriptions and devices that follow different legal and technical rules. Build the plan around the assets you actually use:
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- Social-media profiles, direct messages and stored media
- Cloud drives, backups and photo libraries
- Websites, domains, hosting accounts and online business properties
- Banking, brokerage, payment, insurance and other financial services
- Cryptocurrency, wallets, exchanges, recovery phrases and hardware devices
- Computers, phones, tablets and removable storage
- Streaming, software, gaming and other subscriptions
- Purchased films, music, books, apps, games and other licensed digital content
- Documents, creative work, customer records and accounts used for work or a side business
The aim is not to give another person unlimited access. It is to document the asset, state the outcome you want, and provide an authorized route for the person responsible to carry it out.
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The American Bar Association’s estate-planning guidance discusses inventories, account-specific authorization and secure credential handling: ABA guidance on protecting digital assets. The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel also lists digital-asset categories and planning questions in its family estate-planning guide.
What happens to online accounts after death?
There is no single automatic outcome. A provider may memorialize a profile, release limited data, close the account, or require a court document, death certificate, account-specific request or other proof. Some content is transferable; some is only licensed to the original account holder and cannot be passed to an heir.
An executor’s appointment does not automatically unlock every account. The Uniform Law Commission’s Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) is a model law, not a nationwide rule. Its framework generally extends a fiduciary’s authority to certain digital property, including computer files, web domains and virtual currency, while restricting access to electronic communications such as email, texts and social-media messages unless the user consented in an appropriate record. The law actually governing you depends on the jurisdiction and its enacted version. Review the ULC’s current-act description at Uniform Law Commission: Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, Revised.
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Step 1: Make a thorough inventory
Use a spreadsheet, encrypted document or other protected record that you can update. Record enough information for a trusted person to identify each asset without putting reusable passwords in an ordinary will or general estate-planning document.
Fields to record for every account or device
- Provider and account identifier: service name, username, email address, customer number, domain or wallet address.
- Purpose and contents: for example, family photos, business files, tax records or cryptocurrency.
- Desired action: preserve, transfer where permitted, download, memorialize, close or delete.
- Responsible person: the person who should handle the administrative, personal, business or financial task.
- Dependencies: a recovery email, authenticator, hardware key, device passcode, wallet seed phrase or subscription billing method.
- Provider procedure: a link to the provider’s current death, inactivity or account-closure instructions.
- Last review date: when you last checked that the account and instructions were current.
Search your password manager, browser-saved logins, device settings, bank statements, email receipts, app-store purchase history and domain-renewal notices to find forgotten accounts. Check old phones, external drives and paper records for offline credentials or recovery codes. Include accounts with no financial value if they contain irreplaceable photographs, correspondence or creative work.
Step 2: Decide the outcome for each asset
Write a specific instruction rather than a general wish such as “take care of my online accounts.” Possible outcomes include:
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| Outcome | When it may fit | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Preserve | Family photographs, research, writing or business records need long-term retention. | Specify the file format, storage location and who may access it. |
| Transfer | A domain, business page or property can lawfully move to a successor. | Confirm that the provider permits transfer and identify required proof. |
| Download | You want an archive of messages, photos, files or transaction records. | Export tools may omit metadata, private messages or licensed content. |
| Memorialize | A social profile should remain as a remembrance page. | Memorialization features usually give limited management rights, not full account access. |
| Close | A subscription, mailbox or profile has no continuing purpose. | Closing can destroy information, so state what must be downloaded first. |
| Delete | You want sensitive material permanently removed. | Deletion may be irreversible and may conflict with tax, employment or legal-retention needs. |
Do not promise an heir a purchased film, book, song, application or subscription merely because it appears in an account. A digital purchase may be a personal license rather than transferable property. State the desired result and let the responsible person follow the provider’s terms and the governing law.
Step 3: Assign people and permissions
One person may not be the best choice for every category. You can designate separate responsibilities, subject to the documents and law in your jurisdiction.
Administrative and legal records
The executor or another estate representative may coordinate provider notices, domain renewals, tax records and account closures. Confirm that the person named in your legal documents is willing and able to perform these tasks.
Personal memories and communications
A trusted family member or friend may be better suited to select photographs, preserve writing or carry out a memorial request. Give clear boundaries about whether private messages should be read, exported or left untouched.
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A business partner or successor may need access to domains, hosting, customer records, advertising accounts and company files. Separate business assets from personal accounts and document any employment, partnership or corporate ownership rules.
Financial and cryptocurrency assets
Use a person who understands the security and reporting requirements. Identify wallets, exchanges, hardware devices and recovery materials without placing seed phrases in an exposed document. For valuable or complex holdings, obtain professional legal and tax advice.
Ask each proposed person for consent in advance. Explain the role, the limits of access and where the instructions will be stored. A backup person is useful if the first choice dies, becomes incapacitated or cannot serve.
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Step 4: Configure provider tools while you can
Platform settings are account-specific and can change. Configure them directly, save the resulting key or confirmation, and review them whenever the account, device or trusted person changes.
Apple Legacy Contact
Apple lets an account holder add one or more Legacy Contacts from compatible account settings. The contact must retain the generated access key and, when requesting access, provide a death certificate. Apple’s support instructions say regional requirements may vary. The feature does not provide access to purchased films, music, books or subscriptions, and it excludes iCloud Keychain data such as passwords and passkeys. See the current instructions at Apple Support: How to add a Legacy Contact for your Apple Account (published April 16, 2026).
Store a printed access key with your protected estate records if that is how you choose to preserve it, and tell the intended contact where it is. Do not assume the key replaces the death certificate or other documentation Apple may request.
Facebook Legacy Contact
Facebook’s Legacy Contact applies after a profile is memorialized. Depending on the settings and available feature, the contact can write a pinned post, respond to new friend requests, update the profile or cover photo and perform other listed memorial-management actions. Facebook states that the contact cannot log in as the account holder, read messages or edit past posts. Review the provider’s current description at Facebook Help Centre: Legacy contacts.
Google Inactive Account Manager
Google’s Inactive Account Manager is an option identified by estate-planning professionals for planning around inactivity. Its trigger is inactivity rather than a direct death request, and available settings can change. Open the current feature from your Google Account settings, choose the inactivity period and recipients only after checking the present Google help instructions, then record what you configured.
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Step 5: Handle passwords and recovery information safely
Do not put account passwords, authentication secrets or cryptocurrency recovery phrases in a will that may become part of a public probate record. The ABA recommends using a password manager to organize credentials. A password manager can be useful, but its emergency-access behavior and account-recovery rules differ by provider; verify the feature you intend to rely on.
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Give the designated person a reliable way to locate the instructions without handing over unnecessary access during your lifetime. Your record might identify the password manager, the emergency-access procedure, the location of a hardware key and the place where recovery codes are stored. Keep the actual secrets protected and separated where appropriate.
For devices, document the model, operating-system account, passcode-recovery route and whether the device contains data that must be preserved. For cryptocurrency, record the wallet type, asset location and instructions for finding the recovery material; never publish a seed phrase in an email, unencrypted note or ordinary estate document.
Step 6: Coordinate the plan with legal documents
Take the inventory and disposition instructions to a qualified estate-planning attorney in the jurisdiction whose law governs your estate. Ask the attorney to address digital assets and electronic communications in the appropriate will, trust, power of attorney or other record. The goal is to create effective consent and authority, not to insert a generic clause that may conflict with local law or provider terms.
- Ask which jurisdiction’s law controls if you live, work or hold property in more than one place.
- Confirm whether the document authorizes access to communications as well as ordinary files and property.
- Check whether the named fiduciary can request records, manage domains, transfer business accounts or handle virtual currency.
- Ask how the plan should address incapacity, not only death.
- Keep the legal documents and the secure digital-inventory instructions cross-referenced but do not duplicate sensitive credentials in both.
RUFADAA is a useful framework for discussing these questions, but the Uniform Law Commission’s model text is not itself binding everywhere. Your attorney should verify the enacted law and the wording of your documents.
Step 7: Store the instructions and make them findable
Use protection appropriate to the sensitivity of the material: an encrypted digital record, a password manager, a lockable document safe or a combination of methods. A safe is an optional storage aid, not a legal requirement. Apple specifically describes keeping a printed Legacy Contact access key with estate-planning documents as one possible approach.
Tell each responsible person how to locate the instructions, but do not disclose secrets in an ordinary message. A simple location notice can identify the attorney, safe, password-manager account or sealed envelope without containing the credentials themselves. Make sure a backup person can find the same information if the primary person cannot act.
Step 8: Review after life or technology changes
Set a calendar reminder at least annually and review the plan whenever any of these events occurs:
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- You open or close an important account, domain, wallet or subscription.
- You replace a phone, computer, hardware key or authenticator.
- You change a password, recovery email, phone number or trusted contact.
- You marry, divorce, separate, have a child or change the people you trust.
- You move to another state or country or change the governing estate documents.
- A provider changes its legacy, inactivity, export or memorialization process.
- Your online business, employment or cryptocurrency holdings change materially.
During each review, test that links and instructions still work, remove closed accounts, confirm that access keys and recovery codes are present, and update the last-review date. Reconfirm that the named people still agree to serve.
A practical worksheet
For each account, complete one row using a protected copy of this structure:
| Field | Example entry |
|---|---|
| Provider and identifier | Photo service; account email or customer number |
| What it contains | Family photographs from 2010–2026 |
| Desired outcome | Download originals, preserve for family, then close |
| Responsible person | Named family contact; backup contact listed separately |
| Required proof or key | Provider request, death certificate or stored access key, as applicable |
| Credential location | Password manager or sealed record location—not the password itself |
| Last checked | Date and initials of the reviewer |
Use one row per account, not one row per provider. A single provider may contain a mailbox, paid storage, photos and licensed purchases with different instructions.
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Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Assuming the executor can log in
Appointment as executor does not itself override privacy restrictions or provider contracts. Provide legally valid consent and follow the provider’s process.
Putting every password in the will
Wills may be exposed during probate and become outdated. Keep credentials in a protected system and document how an authorized person can find them.
Treating a legacy contact as a full account owner
Apple and Facebook, for example, impose specific proof requirements and exclusions. Read the feature’s current rules and record what it cannot do.
Forgetting devices and recovery dependencies
An account may be inaccessible without a phone, authenticator, hardware key or recovery code. Inventory those dependencies alongside the account.
Promising that digital purchases are inheritable
Licensed content may not be transferable. Instruct the responsible person to preserve receipts or download what the provider permits, rather than promising ownership.
Never updating the plan
An accurate inventory becomes misleading when accounts, people, jurisdictions and provider policies change. Schedule reviews and record the date of each check.
Bottom line
Create the inventory first, assign a desired outcome and responsible person for every item, configure each provider’s own legacy controls, and align the plan with locally valid estate documents. Keep credentials and access keys protected but make their location known to the people who must act. That combination gives your fiduciaries a practical roadmap without assuming that any single platform, model law or password automatically grants access.
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