Your Digital Life Doesn't End When You Do
By the Wishes & Stories Team
Think about how much of your life lives online. Your bank accounts. Your investment portfolio. Your email. Your photos — years of them, stored in the cloud. Streaming subscriptions, social media profiles, a PayPal balance, maybe a small side business run through a website. Possibly even cryptocurrency.
Now ask yourself: if something happened to you tomorrow, would anyone in your family know where to find any of it?
For most people, the honest answer is no. And that gap — between the digital life we’ve built and the instructions we’ve left for managing it — is what digital estate planning is designed to close.
What Is a Digital Estate?
Your digital estate is the sum of everything you own or have access to online. It falls into a few broad categories:
Financial accounts
Online banking, investment accounts (Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab), PayPal, Venmo, cryptocurrency wallets, retirement accounts accessed online.
Email and communication
Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail — these often contain financial records, legal documents, and important correspondence.
Social media
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter). Platforms have different policies on what happens to accounts after death — some offer memorialization, others deletion.
Subscriptions and services
Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, iCloud storage, cloud backups. These continue billing until cancelled.
Digital assets with monetary value
Cryptocurrency, NFTs, domain names, monetized YouTube channels, online businesses, royalty-generating content.
Sentimental digital property
Photos in Google Photos or iCloud, videos, digital journals, creative work.
Why This Matters More Than Most People Realize
Families who lose a loved one without a digital estate plan face a cascade of practical problems on top of their grief:
- Bank accounts they can't access, sometimes holding significant funds
- Subscriptions quietly draining money from accounts for months
- Years of irreplaceable photos locked behind a password no one knows
- Social media profiles left in limbo — or worse, targeted by scammers
- Cryptocurrency permanently lost because the recovery phrase wasn't documented
That last point is worth pausing on. Unlike a bank, there is no customer service number to call if you lose access to a crypto wallet. If the recovery phrase or private key isn’t documented and accessible to someone you trust, those assets are gone. Permanently.
How to Document Your Digital Estate
You don’t need a lawyer or a special tool to get started — though both can help. What you need is a systematic approach to documenting what you have and how to access it.
Take Inventory
Start by listing every digital account and asset you can think of. Group them into categories: financial, email, social media, subscriptions, and anything with monetary value. For each one, note:
- The platform or institution name
- The username or email address associated with the account
- Where the password can be found (see Step 2 — do not write passwords in plain text)
- Any special instructions (e.g., "This account has a beneficiary already designated" or "Please download all photos before closing")
Use a Password Manager — and Document It
A password manager like 1Password, Bitwarden, or LastPass stores all your login credentials securely behind a single master password. This is the right way to manage passwords in general — and it becomes especially important for estate planning.
The key is making sure your executor or a trusted person knows two things: that the password manager exists, and how to access it (the master password or emergency access feature). Most good password managers have an emergency access or legacy contact feature built specifically for this purpose.
What NOT to Do
- Don't write passwords in a notebook kept in a drawer — it's a security risk while you're alive
- Don't store passwords in an unencrypted document on your desktop
- Don't assume your family will figure it out — even tech-savvy relatives can hit walls with two-factor authentication
- Don't put passwords directly in your will — wills become public record during probate
Designate a Digital Executor
Many states now recognize a “digital executor” — a person specifically authorized to manage your digital accounts. This can be the same person as your estate executor or someone different.
Whoever you choose, make sure they know they’ve been named, understand the scope of the responsibility, and have access to your digital asset inventory and password manager instructions. A conversation now saves enormous confusion later.
Make Platform-Specific Decisions
Some platforms let you designate what happens to your account in advance. Take a few minutes to set these up:
Google
The Inactive Account Manager lets you decide what happens to your Gmail, Photos, Drive, and YouTube after a period of inactivity — including designating someone to download your data.
Facebook
You can designate a "legacy contact" who can manage your memorialized account, or request that your account be deleted after death.
Apple
The Digital Legacy feature (iOS 15.2+) lets you designate legacy contacts who can request access to your Apple ID data, including iCloud Photos.
Instagram
Accounts can be memorialized but there's no legacy contact feature — a family member must submit a request with proof of death.
Store Your Plan Somewhere Accessible
Your digital estate document needs to be findable by the right people at the right time — but not so accessible that it creates a security risk while you’re alive. Good options include:
- A fireproof home safe, with your executor knowing the combination
- With your estate planning attorney, as a supplement to your will
- A secure digital vault service like Everplans or Directive Communication Systems, which are designed specifically for this purpose
Helpful Resources
| Resource | What It Offers | URL |
|---|---|---|
| Everplans | Secure digital vault for end-of-life documents and account info | everplans.com |
| Bitwarden | Free, open-source password manager with emergency access feature | bitwarden.com |
| 1Password | Password manager with digital legacy planning features | 1password.com |
| Google Inactive Account Manager | Set instructions for your Google data after death or inactivity | myaccount.google.com |
| Facebook Legacy Contact | Designate someone to manage your Facebook after death | facebook.com/settings |
| Apple Digital Legacy | Set legacy contacts for your Apple ID and iCloud data | support.apple.com |
| NOLO Digital Estate Guide | Plain-language overview of digital estate planning law | nolo.com |
The practical side is important. So is the personal side.
Documenting your accounts protects your family from unnecessary stress. But the things they’ll truly treasure — your stories, your values, the memories only you can share — those take a different kind of planning. Wishes & Stories helps you capture the personal side of your legacy in a guided, meaningful way, and share it with the people you love.
Start your Wishes & Stories today →Ready to share your story?
It takes less time than you think. And it means more than you know.