Digital Estate Planning: The Complete Guide
A digital estate plan is an organized record of your online accounts, digital assets, and access instructions — along with clear directions for what should happen to each one if you are unable to manage them yourself. It covers email, social media, cloud storage, financial apps, subscriptions, cryptocurrency, and every other service you access with a login.
The average person has over 100 online accounts (NordPass, 2023). Yet fewer than 5% of people have made any plan for their digital assets after death (Oxford Internet Institute). When someone dies or becomes incapacitated without a digital estate plan, their family is left guessing which accounts exist, locked out of the ones they find, and unable to cancel the ones still charging monthly fees.
This does not have to be complicated. A digital estate plan can be set up in an afternoon, and most of the work is simply writing down what you already know. This guide walks through every step.
In this guide:
What counts as a digital asset?
Why does digital estate planning matter?
How do you create a digital estate plan?
What are the platform legacy settings you should configure now?
What is a digital executor and do you need one?
What does the law say about digital assets after death?
How do you handle cryptocurrency and digital wallets?
How should you store your digital estate plan?
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a digital asset?
A digital asset is any online account, electronic file, or digital property you own or control. This includes email accounts, social media profiles, cloud-stored photos, financial apps, cryptocurrency, domain names, digital media libraries, subscription services, and any data stored on your devices. If you access it with a username and password, or if it lives on a hard drive or in the cloud, it is a digital asset.
The scope is broader than most people realize. Here is a breakdown by category:
Financial digital assets:
Online bank and investment accounts
Payment apps (Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, Cash App)
Cryptocurrency holdings (exchange accounts, hardware wallets, DeFi positions)
Digital rewards and loyalty points (airline miles, credit card points, hotel points — these can be worth thousands)
Personal and social:
Email accounts (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, ProtonMail)
Social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit)
Messaging apps (WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram)
Photo and video libraries (Google Photos, iCloud Photos, Amazon Photos)
Media and content:
Digital media purchases (Kindle books, iTunes music, Steam games — note: most of these are licenses, not owned assets, and cannot be transferred)
Websites, blogs, or online stores you operate
Domain names
Content you have created (YouTube channels, podcast feeds, Substack newsletters)
Utility and access:
Cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud)
Password managers (1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass, Dashlane)
Subscription services (Netflix, Spotify, Adobe, news sites, SaaS tools)
Smart home accounts (Ring, Nest, Home Assistant)
Online medical portals and health apps
Americans value their digital assets at an average of $119,516 (Bryn Mawr Trust survey). Even if yours are not worth that much financially, the practical and sentimental value — family photos, important emails, financial records — can be irreplaceable.
Why does digital estate planning matter?
Without a digital estate plan, your family may be unable to find your accounts, access the ones they know about, cancel recurring charges, or preserve memories stored in the cloud. They may also be locked out by platform security measures designed to keep unauthorized users away — which, in this case, means your own family.
The numbers are stark. A 2024 Caring.com survey found that 73% of grieving families reported difficulty accessing a loved one's digital accounts. A joint study by 1Password and Trust & Will found that only 36% of millennials know or have access to their parents' passwords.
Here is what happens without a plan:
Financial consequences. Payment apps may hold balances your family does not know about. Subscriptions keep charging. Cryptocurrency without documented access is permanently lost — there is no customer service line for a forgotten seed phrase. By some estimates, 20% of all Bitcoin ever mined is inaccessible due to lost keys (Chainalysis, 2021).
Legal complications. Without explicit authorization in your estate documents, your executor may have no legal right to access your accounts — even with a court order. Federal laws like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Stored Communications Act can make unauthorized access a crime, even by well-intentioned family members.
Emotional cost. Family photos stored only in the cloud disappear if the account is deleted. Years of emails with sentimental value become inaccessible. Social media profiles that families want to memorialize may be deleted instead.
The good news is that all of this is preventable with a few hours of organized work.
How do you create a digital estate plan?
Creating a digital estate plan takes four steps: inventory your accounts, document access instructions, configure platform legacy settings, and include digital assets in your legal estate documents. Most people can complete the core work in one to two hours.
Step 1: Inventory your digital accounts
Open a document or spreadsheet and list every online account you use. Go through your email for account confirmation messages, check your browser's saved passwords, and review your password manager if you use one. For each account, record:
Service name (Gmail, Chase, Netflix, etc.)
Username or email associated with the account
Account type (financial, social, storage, subscription, etc.)
Whether the account holds money, files, or content others would need
Any two-factor authentication methods (authenticator app, phone number, hardware key)
You do not need to be exhaustive on the first pass. Start with the accounts that matter most — financial accounts, email, cloud storage — and add others over time.
Step 2: Document access instructions
Your family does not need every password. They need to know which accounts exist and how to gain access when the time comes. There are three practical approaches:
Password manager with emergency access. If you use 1Password, Bitwarden, or Dashlane, these services offer emergency access features that let a designated person request access to your vault after a waiting period you define. This is the most secure option.
Encrypted document or vault. Store a master list of accounts and access instructions in an encrypted file, a secure note in your password manager, or a dedicated digital vault like Safe After Me. The key is that the list is encrypted at rest and your designated person knows how to reach it.
Physical backup. A printed list stored in a fireproof safe or with your attorney. Less convenient to update, but a reliable fallback.
Whichever method you choose, tell your executor or trusted family member that the plan exists and where to find it. A digital estate plan locked behind a password nobody knows is not a plan.
Step 3: Configure platform legacy settings
Major platforms now offer built-in tools to designate what happens to your account. These take five to ten minutes each and should be configured now — not later. See the next section for a detailed walkthrough.
Step 4: Include digital assets in your legal documents
Mention digital assets explicitly in your will or trust. Name a digital executor (this can be the same person as your general executor). In states that have adopted RUFADAA (46 states as of 2025), your estate documents can authorize your fiduciary to access, manage, and distribute digital assets.
Without this legal authorization, even a court-appointed executor may be denied access by platforms citing their terms of service and federal privacy laws. A single sentence in your will — authorizing your executor to access digital accounts and assets — can make the difference.
For help with the broader estate planning picture, see The Complete Estate Planning Checklist for 2026.
What are the platform legacy settings you should configure now?
Google, Apple, and Facebook each offer built-in legacy tools that let you designate what happens to your account after death or extended inactivity. These settings take a few minutes each to configure and can save your family weeks of frustration.
Google Inactive Account Manager
Where to set it up: myaccount.google.com/inactive
Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you choose what happens to your Gmail, Drive, Photos, YouTube, and other Google data after a period of inactivity you define (3 to 18 months). You can designate up to 10 trusted contacts to receive a notification and download specific data types. You can also set the account to auto-delete.
How it works: After the inactivity period passes, Google sends a text to a phone number you provide during setup. If there is no response, the plan activates — contacts are notified and given access to download your data. Contacts cannot log into your account; they receive a download link.
Important: Google also enforces a separate 2-year inactivity deletion policy (announced May 2023). Even without Inactive Account Manager configured, Google may delete personal account data after 2 years of inactivity with advance notice.
Apple Digital Legacy
Where to set it up: Settings → [Your Name] → Password & Security → Legacy Contact (iOS/macOS). Portal: digital-legacy.apple.com.
Apple lets you designate up to 5 Legacy Contacts. Each receives a unique access key you can share via Messages, email, printout, or AirDrop. After submitting the access key plus a death certificate, Apple provides a temporary Legacy Contact Apple ID to access and download data for a limited period.
Can access: iCloud Photos, emails, Notes, Messages (from backup), Contacts, Calendars, iCloud Drive files, Health data, Safari bookmarks, Voice Memos.
Cannot access: iCloud Keychain (saved passwords), licensed media (purchased movies, music, books), in-app purchases, payment information, or subscriptions.
Facebook and Instagram Legacy Contact
Where to set it up: Settings → Personal Details → Account Ownership and Control → Memorialization.
Facebook lets you choose a legacy contact (who must be a Facebook friend) to manage your memorialized profile. They can write a pinned memorial post, respond to friend requests, update your profile and cover photos, and download your data if you pre-authorize it. They cannot read private messages, remove existing friends, or log into your account.
As of August 2025, Meta has expanded legacy contact functionality to Instagram for the first time, beginning with a pilot in Israel. Previously, Instagram only offered memorialization requests from verified family members.
Other platforms to address
X (Twitter): No legacy contact feature. Accounts can be deactivated by family members who submit a deactivation request with a death certificate and proof of relationship.
LinkedIn: Family members can request memorialization or account removal through LinkedIn's help center with a death certificate.
Amazon: Digital content (Kindle, Audible) cannot be transferred. Account access requires contacting Amazon customer service with documentation.
Streaming services (Netflix, Spotify, Disney+): These should be cancelled by whoever manages the estate. Subscriptions do not transfer.
For the full platform-by-platform breakdown, see What Happens to Your Online Accounts When You Die?.
What is a digital executor and do you need one?
A digital executor is the person you designate to manage your digital accounts and assets after your death or incapacitation. They handle tasks like closing accounts, preserving important files, cancelling subscriptions, and distributing digital property according to your instructions. You should name one — either as your general executor or as a separate role.
In most cases, your digital executor is the same person as your general executor named in your will. But there are good reasons to split the role: your general executor might be a parent or older relative who is not comfortable navigating online accounts, while a tech-savvy sibling or friend would be better suited to the digital work.
What a digital executor needs to do:
Access and review your digital account inventory
Download and preserve important files, photos, and data
Close or memorialize social media accounts per your wishes
Cancel active subscriptions to stop recurring charges
Transfer or secure financial digital assets (PayPal balances, cryptocurrency)
Manage email accounts long enough to identify bills, correspondence, and accounts you may have missed
To name a digital executor: Include specific language in your will or trust authorizing the person to access and manage your digital accounts. In RUFADAA states (46 states), this legal authorization is what gives your fiduciary the right to request access from platforms. Without it, platforms can deny access based on their terms of service.
For guidance on choosing any executor, see How to Choose an Executor for Your Estate.
What does the law say about digital assets after death?
Forty-six states have adopted RUFADAA (the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act), which provides a legal framework for fiduciary access to digital accounts after death or incapacitation. RUFADAA establishes a three-tier priority system: first, the user's own platform settings (like Google Inactive Account Manager); second, instructions in estate planning documents; and third, the platform's terms of service as a default.
RUFADAA is a significant improvement over the previous legal landscape, where families had no clear legal path to access a loved one's accounts. But it has important limitations.
What RUFADAA allows:
Fiduciaries (executors, trustees, agents under power of attorney) can request access to a user's digital assets if authorized in the user's estate documents
Platforms must comply with legally valid requests from authorized fiduciaries
Users can grant or deny fiduciary access through platform tools or estate documents
What RUFADAA limits:
Fiduciaries get access to the catalogue of digital assets (account metadata — who you communicated with, when, subject lines) by default
Access to the content of electronic communications (the actual text of emails, messages, DMs) requires the user's explicit, affirmative consent — either through platform settings or estate documents
Even with authorization, platforms may require a court order for certain types of access
States without RUFADAA: Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma have not adopted it. If you live in one of these states, including explicit digital asset provisions in your estate documents is even more important, as there is less legal infrastructure to support your executor's access requests.
Federal laws still apply. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the Stored Communications Act (SCA) create federal-level restrictions on unauthorized access to accounts. RUFADAA was designed to work within these federal constraints, but the interaction between state and federal law in this area is still evolving.
The practical takeaway: explicitly authorize digital asset access in your will or trust, configure platform legacy settings, and document your wishes. These three steps cover the vast majority of situations your family will face.
How do you handle cryptocurrency and digital wallets?
Cryptocurrency requires special planning because access depends entirely on private keys or seed phrases — and there is no recovery mechanism if they are lost. If nobody knows your seed phrase, your crypto is gone permanently. Document the location of your private keys, seed phrases, hardware wallets, and exchange account credentials, and store these instructions separately from the assets themselves.
Exchange-held cryptocurrency
If your crypto is held on an exchange (Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Binance.US), your executor can contact the exchange with a death certificate and letters testamentary to request account access. Each exchange has its own process and timeline. Document which exchanges you use and how to reach their estate or bereavement departments.
Self-custody wallets
Hardware wallets (Ledger, Trezor) and software wallets require the seed phrase — typically 12 or 24 words — to recover. Without it, the funds are irretrievable. Store your seed phrase in a fireproof safe, a secure vault, or split it across multiple secure locations. Do not store it digitally in an unencrypted file, and do not store it in the same place as the hardware wallet.
What to document
Which exchanges you use and your account emails
Which wallets you hold and their types (hardware, software, paper)
Location of hardware wallets
Location of seed phrases (stored separately from wallets)
PINs for hardware wallets
Any DeFi positions, staking, or liquidity pools
Approximate values (updated periodically)
Tax implications for heirs
Cryptocurrency is treated as property by the IRS. Inherited crypto receives a stepped-up cost basis to the fair market value at the date of death, which can significantly reduce capital gains tax when your heirs eventually sell. Document your original cost basis as well, as the estate's tax return may need it.
For the full cryptocurrency guide, see Cryptocurrency and Digital Assets: What Your Family Needs to Know.
How should you store your digital estate plan?
Store your digital estate plan in a secure, encrypted location that your executor or trusted family member knows about and can access. The best approach combines a digital vault for the inventory and instructions with a physical backup for the most critical access details.
What works:
An encrypted digital vault (like Safe After Me) that your designated family member can access through a secure sharing mechanism
A password manager with emergency access configured (1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane)
A sealed envelope in a fireproof safe at home, with a note in your letter of intent telling your executor where to find it
What does not work:
A spreadsheet on your desktop with no encryption
A sticky note in a desk drawer
Passwords stored only in your memory
A safe deposit box your family cannot open without the documents inside it
The most common failure mode is not insecurity — it is that nobody knows the plan exists. Tell your executor. Tell your spouse. Tell your adult child. You do not need to share every password. You need to share that the plan exists and where to find it.
For broader document storage guidance, see Where to Store Your Legal Documents (And Where Not To).
Frequently asked questions
What is a digital estate plan?
A digital estate plan is an organized record of your online accounts, digital assets, and instructions for what should happen to each one after your death or incapacitation. It includes an inventory of accounts (email, social media, financial apps, cloud storage, cryptocurrency), access instructions, platform legacy settings, and legal authorization for your executor to manage digital property. It complements your traditional estate plan.
What happens to online accounts when someone dies?
Each platform has its own policy. Google can share data with designated contacts or delete the account. Facebook and Instagram memorialize profiles. Apple provides limited data access to Legacy Contacts. Most streaming and subscription services simply need to be cancelled. Without advance configuration of legacy settings, families often face weeks of paperwork submitting death certificates and identity verification to each platform individually.
Do I need to list every password in my estate plan?
No. Your family needs to know which accounts exist and how to gain access — not necessarily every password. The most secure approach is to use a password manager with emergency access enabled and include a note in your estate plan explaining how to access the password manager. Alternatively, store account credentials in an encrypted vault and tell your executor where to find it.
What is RUFADAA and why does it matter?
RUFADAA is the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, adopted by 46 states. It gives your executor legal authority to access your digital accounts after your death — but only if you have explicitly authorized it in your estate documents or through platform settings. Without RUFADAA authorization, platforms can refuse access even to court-appointed executors, citing privacy laws and terms of service.
What happens to cryptocurrency when the owner dies?
If nobody has the private keys or seed phrases, cryptocurrency is lost permanently — there is no recovery process. Exchange-held crypto can be accessed by executors who contact the exchange with a death certificate and legal documentation. Self-custody wallets require the seed phrase. Inherited cryptocurrency receives a stepped-up cost basis for tax purposes. Document your holdings, wallet locations, and seed phrase storage separately and securely.
How do I set up Google Inactive Account Manager?
Go to myaccount.google.com/inactive. Choose an inactivity timeout (3–18 months), add up to 10 trusted contacts with phone numbers for verification, select which data types to share with each contact, and optionally set the account to auto-delete. The process takes about five minutes. When the inactivity period expires and you do not respond to a verification text, your contacts are notified and given download access.
Can my executor access my email after I die?
It depends on your state and your estate documents. In the 46 states with RUFADAA, your executor can access your email metadata (sender, recipient, date, subject lines) by default, but accessing the content of emails requires your explicit written consent in your estate documents or platform settings. Without authorization, email providers can legally deny content access even to a court-appointed executor.
How often should I update my digital estate plan?
Review your digital estate plan at least once a year — ideally at the same time you review your broader estate planning checklist. Add new accounts as you create them, remove accounts you have closed, and verify that your platform legacy settings and password manager emergency access are still properly configured. Major life events (marriage, divorce, new financial accounts) should trigger an immediate review.
