Digital legacy checklist: what happens to your online accounts when you die, and how to prepare

Why online accounts are a problem after death

Bank statements arrive by email. Photos live in iCloud. Bills auto-pay from an account nobody else can see. When the owner dies, the family cannot get in, and the companies will not hand over a password. Most offer a legacy tool instead, but you have to turn it on while you are alive.

This guide is for US adults and the adult children helping them. It is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.

The ten categories of your digital life

1. Email. The master key; password resets for everything else land here.
2. Phone and devices. Two-factor codes and the authenticator app.
3. Password manager.
4. Banking and payment apps. Checking, brokerage, PayPal, Venmo.
5. Subscriptions and auto-pay.
6. Social media. Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn.
7. Photos and cloud storage.
8. Domains and websites.
9. Loyalty points and miles.
10. Crypto. Exchange accounts and wallets with seed phrases.

The built-in legacy tools, one by one

Apple Legacy Contact

You can name one or more Legacy Contacts on iPhone, iPad or Mac (iOS 15.2 or macOS 12.1 or later). After your death, that person requests access with the access key Apple generated when you named them, plus your death certificate. They can then see "photos, messages, notes, files, device backups, and more," but not "movies, music, books, or subscriptions you purchased with your Apple Account, and data stored in your iCloud Keychain (payment information, passwords, and passkeys)"¹.

Access lasts "three years from when Apple approves the first Legacy Contact account request," then the account is deleted, so the contact should download what they want to keep¹. Requesting access takes "The access key that your loved one created when they chose you as a Legacy Contact" plus "Your loved one's death certificate"¹. See our Apple Legacy Contact and Google Inactive Account Manager guide for the walkthrough.

Google Inactive Account Manager

Google's tool works on a timer. You choose how long Google waits after your last activity, then it emails the people you picked. "You can select up to 10 people to receive this data, and choose to share all or only specific data types." You can also tell Google to delete the account afterward. Contacts verify a phone number before downloading³.

Facebook memorialization and legacy contact

In Accounts Center you can appoint a legacy contact to look after your memorialized profile, or have the account permanently deleted after death. A legacy contact can write a pinned post, update the profile picture and cover photo, and download a copy of what you shared if you allowed it. They cannot log into your account, read your messages, or remove friends⁴. Family can also ask Facebook to remove a loved one's account.

Instagram

On a memorialized profile, "No one can log into a memorialized profile," the word Remembering appears next to the name, and posts stay visible to their original audience. You can pick Delete After Death instead of a legacy contact⁷.

Snapchat

Snapchat has no legacy contact and no memorial option: the only path is permanent deletion, accepted only from "a verified email address associated with the Snapchatter's account"²¹. Snapchat Support does not offer a way to recover saved Snaps or Memories without that account login²¹.

X (formerly Twitter)

X only deactivates. It works "with a person authorized to act on behalf of the estate, or with a verified immediate family member," and asks for the requester's ID and the death certificate. "We are unable to provide account access to anyone regardless of their relationship to the deceased"⁸.

LinkedIn

Anyone can report a member as deceased and LinkedIn will memorialize the profile. Closing it requires court papers such as "Letters of Administration issued by a court"; wills and birth certificates are not accepted⁹.

Microsoft (Outlook.com, OneDrive)

Microsoft has no legacy contact feature. It "must first be formally served with a valid subpoena or court order to consider whether it is able to lawfully release" a deceased person's information. If you hold the credentials, you can close the account yourself¹⁰.

Password managers: 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass

One trusted person with emergency access to your vault can reach every account without you writing anything down.

• 1Password gives each account an Emergency Kit, a PDF with your sign-in address, Secret Key and a blank for your password. 1Password suggests you "Print a copy to keep in a safe deposit box or with your passport or birth certificate" and give a copy to someone you trust¹¹.
• Bitwarden Emergency Access comes with premium and Families plans. You invite a trusted contact. When they request access, a wait time you set starts, and "the grantor may reject the request." Access is View (read-only) or Takeover¹².
• LastPass Emergency Access works the same way: name a contact, set a wait time, and access is granted if you do not decline within it¹³.

The law in plain English: RUFADAA

Most US states have adopted the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) or a law like it. Everplans' state tracker says "Almost all 50 states have passed laws that gives a person's family (or Executor) the right to access and manage digital their assets after they die"¹⁵. A few states use their own version, so check yours.

The Uniform Law Commission's summary explains how it works¹⁴:

• It covers executors, court-appointed guardians, agents under a power of attorney, and trustees.
• Your instructions have a pecking order. An online tool from the company (like Google Inactive Account Manager) is legally binding and comes first. Next, a will, trust or power of attorney. If you left nothing, the terms of service decide.
• Content is protected. "A fiduciary may never access the content of electronic communications without the user's consent." An executor can get a "catalogue" instead: "a list of communications showing the addresses of the sender and recipient, and the date and time the message was sent." That is enough to spot a bank or insurer and request statements directly.
• The fiduciary sends the company a request with a certified copy of their appointment.

So if you want your executor to read your email, say so in your will or power of attorney.

What about money apps, crypto and other digital assets?

Some property in the "ten categories" list has no legacy-contact button.

PayPal and Venmo pass to the estate. PayPal is "only able to take instructions from the authorized executor or administrator of the deceased estate"¹⁶.

Crypto exchanges like Coinbase do not support naming a beneficiary; its Executor Services process wants a death certificate and probate documents, and takes four to eight weeks¹⁷. A self-custody wallet has no company to call: whoever holds the seed phrase controls the coins.

Domain names. GoDaddy requires a death certificate, photo ID and legal documentation naming the estate administrator before transferring a domain¹⁸.

Airline miles and card points vary by program and never transfer automatically, unlike a beneficiary designation:

Why a binder of passwords is a bad idea

Passwords change, so the binder is out of date within months. Two-factor codes go to a phone the binder cannot unlock. Anyone who finds it has everything. And logging in as a dead person can break a site's terms and, in some cases, computer access laws.

What to write down instead

Write down the map, not the keys:

• Which password manager and where its Emergency Kit is ("1Password, kit in the fireproof box").
• Who has emergency access and how ("Sarah is my Bitwarden emergency contact, 7-day wait").
• Where the phone passcode is kept. Sealed in the safe or with the attorney, not in the open.
• Which email is the master email and which legacy tool is set on it.
• Accounts by name only. Bank, brokerage, insurer, utilities, subscriptions. No passwords.

Our where to keep important documents guide covers the paper side of this map.

A product like Omliva builds this kind of family guide from your answers and prints it, without storing passwords. A notebook works too. The point is that someone knows where to look.

Account type, what family needs, built-in tool

Step-by-step digital estate planning checklist

1. Pick your master email and turn on its legacy tool (Gmail: Inactive Account Manager).
2. Set up a password manager and move every login into it.
3. Name an emergency contact in the manager. Print the 1Password Emergency Kit, or invite a Bitwarden or LastPass emergency contact. Tell that person.
4. Add an Apple Legacy Contact and keep the access key with your will.
5. Decide on each social account: legacy contact, memorialize, or delete after death.
6. List financial accounts and subscriptions by name. No passwords; your executor uses legal paperwork, not logins.
7. Store the phone passcode sealed and the crypto seed phrase in a safe; note where.
8. Add a digital assets clause to your will so your fiduciary can access content, not just the catalogue.
9. Put the map in one place, tell two people, and review it once a year.

When to get professional help

Most of this you can do in an afternoon. Bring in an estate planning or elder law attorney if you want your executor to read the content of your email (that consent belongs in the will, in your state's wording), if you own crypto or a website that earns money, or if you hold accounts in more than one country. A financial advisor can review beneficiary designations, which pass outside the will.