Photos, email, subscriptions and online money can be locked away after a death. A little planning now saves your family a lot of trouble later.
Our lives now run through dozens of accounts, from email and photo libraries to bank apps and subscriptions. Without a plan, families can spend months trying to get access, or lose irreplaceable photos entirely.
Step 1: Make an inventory
List your important accounts, grouped so your executor or family knows what matters:
- Money: online banking, investment, payment apps, cryptocurrency.
- Communication: email and phone accounts, which often unlock everything else.
- Memories: photo libraries and cloud storage.
- Bills and subscriptions: anything that charges automatically.
- Social media: accounts that might be memorialized or closed.
Store the list somewhere secure, such as a password manager with an emergency access feature, or a sealed document with your estate papers. Update it once a year.
Step 2: Use the platforms’ own tools
Many major services let you plan ahead:
| Service type | Tools to look for |
|---|---|
| Email and cloud accounts | Inactive account or legacy contact settings |
| Phones and photo libraries | Legacy contact features that give someone access after death |
| Social media | Legacy contacts, memorialization or deletion requests |
| Password managers | Emergency access for a trusted person |
These tools are usually found in account or security settings. Setting them up takes minutes and avoids long requests later.
Worth doing
Choose who should receive what. You might want one person to manage social media and another to receive photos and financial records.
Step 3: Make it legal
Most U.S. states have adopted laws, based on the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, that let you give your executor or another fiduciary authority over digital accounts. Under these laws, instructions you give through a platform’s own tool generally take priority, followed by your will or other documents.
Tell the lawyer preparing your will about your digital accounts. Don’t write passwords into the will itself; it may become a public record when it’s filed with the probate court.
Verdict
An account list plus each platform’s legacy settings handles most of the problem. Everything else belongs in your estate plan.
While you’re making your list, it’s a good time to close accounts you no longer use and cancel subscriptions you don’t need.
The essentials
- Keep an up-to-date list of your important online accounts, stored safely.
- Many major platforms offer legacy contact or inactive account tools; set them up now.
- Most states have laws, based on a model act, that set out how executors can access digital accounts.
- Don’t put passwords in your will, which can become a public record.
Reader questions
Can my family just log in with my password?
Using someone else’s password can break a service’s terms of use, and laws on account access vary. Legacy tools and legal processes are the safer route.
What happens to subscriptions after a death?
They usually keep charging until someone cancels them or the payment card is closed. An account list helps your family find and stop them.
What about cryptocurrency?
Without access to the keys or account, it can be lost for good. Make sure a trusted person knows it exists and how to access it securely, ideally with professional advice.
We describe how services generally work; features, settings and terms change often, and they differ between companies. This is general information, not legal advice. Check the provider’s current policies and official sources such as FTC.gov.