Digital Estate Planning: How to Leave Your Online Accounts and Assets in Order

Digital estate planning means deciding who can manage or inherit your online accounts, photos, subscriptions and digital money after you die. A will alone often isn't enough, because companies follow their own legacy tools and terms of service as well as the law. A workable plan has five parts: an account inventory, the legacy settings on the big platforms, a password manager with emergency access, will wording for digital assets, and a private note saying where it all is.

What counts as a digital asset?

Florida's version of the model law defines a digital asset as an electronic record in which you have a right or interest. In everyday terms, it covers four groups:

• Accounts and access. Email, social media, cloud storage, phone and computer logins, and the password manager that opens them.
• Money and property online. Online banking and investment accounts, PayPal-style payment accounts, cryptocurrency, domain names, online shops and anything that earns income. Our cryptocurrency after death guide covers the extra risks with crypto.
• Sentimental items. Photos, videos, messages, writing and family recipes. These often matter most and exist nowhere else.
• Purchases and subscriptions. Streaming, software, music, e-books and memberships. You usually have a licence to use these, not something you can pass on. Apple says a Legacy Contact can't access movies, music, books or subscriptions bought with your Apple Account.

Why isn't a will enough?

Two things limit what a will can do.

First, privacy law. Federal law generally restricts providers from disclosing the contents of communications without lawful consent (18 U.S.C. § 2702). Google, for example, says it cannot provide passwords or login details, and reviews each request about a deceased person's account carefully.

Second, the company's own rules. Most states have adopted a version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. Florida's version shows the usual order of priority:

1. A direction you give through the company's online tool comes first, as long as the tool lets you change or delete it at any time.
2. If there is no tool setting, directions in your will, trust or power of attorney apply.
3. If there is neither, the company's terms of service decide.

Even with legal authority, an executor usually gets a catalog, such as a list of whom you contacted and when. The content of messages generally needs your earlier consent (a will can give it) or a court order. A company can also choose to give full access, partial access or a copy of the data. State versions differ, so ask an estate attorney how yours works.

How do you build a digital estate plan?

1. Make an account inventory. List each account, the email address it uses and what it holds. Leave passwords off this list. Our estate inventory checklist gives you a place to start.
2. Turn on the legacy tools on the platforms you use most (see the table below).
3. Use a password manager and set up its emergency access. Details follow.
4. Name who will handle your digital life, and add wording to your will, trust and power of attorney.
5. Store the key information on paper. Write down the location of your master password, phone passcode and recovery codes, and keep it with your important papers.
6. Tell your executor where things are. Keep the plan out of reach of anyone else.
7. Review it every year and when you change phones, email addresses or password managers.

Which platform tools should you set up?

See our guides to the Google Inactive Account Manager, Apple Legacy Contact, Facebook after death and Instagram after death. For other platforms, read how to manage a deceased person's social media.

Google's tool is worth setting up even if you use Google lightly. If you haven't, Google says it can delete an account that has been inactive for at least two years, along with its activity and data.

How do you pass on passwords safely?

Passwords are the weakest link in most plans. Typing them into a will exposes them if the will becomes public, and a note on the fridge can be seen by anyone. Better choices:

• A password manager with emergency access. Bitwarden lets a premium user name trusted contacts who can request access to the vault, with view or takeover access. Access is granted when you approve it or after the wait time you set. 1Password uses an Emergency Kit, a PDF with your account details and a space to write your account password. It suggests keeping a printed copy in a safe deposit box or with your passport, and giving a copy to someone you trust.
• A sealed paper record with your master password and recovery codes, kept in a safe place that your executor can reach.
• Phone and device passcodes. Apple says its Legacy Contact can't access iCloud Keychain, which holds saved passwords, so a locked phone can put passwords out of reach.

Our guide to password management after death goes further. Also remember two-factor codes: if a code goes to your phone, your family may need the phone and its passcode to reach the account.

What should your will and power of attorney say?

Ask your attorney to add wording that names who may manage your digital assets and what they may do, including access to the content of electronic communications. Under Florida's version of the model law, a power of attorney gives your agent authority over the content of your messages only if it expressly says so. A power of attorney generally ends at death, so the will or trust must cover the time after.

The wording should:

• name the person or people with authority over your digital assets
• say whether they may see message content, or only a list of accounts and contacts
• cover cryptocurrency, domain names and online businesses if you have them
• avoid including passwords or recovery phrases

Our digital will guide explains the difference between online wills and plans for online accounts, and our guide to a power of attorney explains what that document does and doesn't cover.

What happens if you do nothing?

Your family may be left guessing. Accounts can stay open, receive charges or be closed by the company, and the executor may need court papers to get anything. Photos stored only in a cloud account can be lost. Our guides to closing email accounts, photo storage after a death and cancelling subscriptions explain what families face when there is no plan.

Where to keep your documents is a separate question, and our guide to digital vaults for death documents covers it.

What to do next

1. Spend an hour listing your accounts, devices and subscriptions.
2. Set up your Google and Apple legacy tools, plus Facebook's legacy contact if you use it, and check the settings in your other apps.
3. Turn on emergency access in your password manager, or fill out its emergency kit and put it somewhere safe.
4. Ask your attorney to add digital-asset wording to your will, trust and power of attorney.
5. Tell your executor where the plan is kept, and review it each year.