Your photos, emails, social accounts, and digital purchases are worth real money and memories — but without a plan, your family may never access them. Digital estate planning sounds technical, but it is mostly just good housekeeping. Here is where to start.
Make an Inventory of What Matters
List your important accounts: email, cloud storage, banking, social media, crypto wallets, and anything with subscriptions or stored value. For each, note what it holds and roughly what it is worth. Your email account is the master key — almost every other account can be reset through it, so securing access to it matters most.
Use Built-in Legacy Tools
Apple, Google, and Facebook all offer legacy contact or inactive-account settings that grant a trusted person access after a set period of inactivity. These take five minutes to configure and cost nothing. Turn them on today — they are the single easiest win in digital estate planning.
Store Passwords Accessibly (and Securely)
A password manager with emergency access lets a designated person get in when needed, without you handing over passwords now. Write down recovery codes for your most critical accounts and keep them somewhere safe your family knows about. Never store this information only in your head or only on one device.
Write Clear Instructions
Decide what should happen to each account: memorialize social profiles, download and delete photos, close paid subscriptions. Put these wishes in writing alongside your regular will, and tell your trusted person where the document is. Digital assets without instructions become digital headaches for the people you love.
This is not a morbid task — it is a gift to the people who will handle your affairs. Spend one weekend setting up legacy contacts, a password manager, and a simple instruction document, then review it once a year. Future you — and your family — will be grateful you took care of it while it was easy.