Digital Legacy Planning UK (2026): How to Manage Your Online Accounts, Passwords and Digital Assets After Death

Digital legacy planning is the process of documenting, organising, and giving instructions for your online accounts, digital assets, and digital data so that your family and executor can deal with them after you die. It matters for several reasons: (1) THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM: a typical person in England and Wales has 80–100+ online accounts — email providers, social media platforms, banking apps, cloud storage, streaming services, subscriptions, e-commerce accounts, and more. Most of these accounts are inaccessible to anyone but the account holder. Without instructions, your executor and family will not know they exist, cannot access them, and cannot close them; (2) FINANCIAL VALUE: some digital assets have real monetary value — cryptocurrency held in a wallet; domain names; e-commerce store inventory; AdSense revenue on a YouTube channel; creator fund earnings on TikTok; digital photographs that are legally copyrighted and commercially usable; NFTs; in-game assets. If these are undiscovered or inaccessible, they are lost from the estate; (3) DATA AND PRIVACY: cloud storage (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive) may hold irreplaceable personal documents, photographs, and files. Without instructions, these are inaccessible to family even where they have an emotional need to access them; (4) ONGOING COSTS: subscriptions and services continue billing after death. Without someone knowing about them, they drain the estate. Direct debit payments continue until cancelled; (5) FAMILY PROTECTION: social media accounts that are not memorialised or deleted remain active, visible to the deceased's contacts, and can be hacked or misused. Proper planning avoids these risks; (6) NOT THE SAME AS A WILL: digital legacy planning is a supplement to a will — not a substitute. The will handles legal ownership of digital assets with monetary value. The digital legacy document handles access, instructions, and passwords. Passwords should NOT be written into the will itself — the will becomes a public document after probate.

A digital legacy document (sometimes called a digital legacy inventory or digital memory guide) should contain enough information for your executor and family to find, access, and deal with every significant online account and digital asset. Content: (1) EMAIL ACCOUNTS: list each email address; the provider (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Apple Mail, etc.); and your instruction (continue for estate administration; delete after X months; forward important messages to executor). Note: most email providers will not grant access to a third party even to an executor — but Apple, Google, and Meta have bereavement processes that may allow access to specific data with a death certificate and court order; (2) SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS: for each platform, record: username/handle; your preference (memorialise; delete; leave — and the platform's process for each). Set up legacy contact or legacy settings DURING YOUR LIFETIME: (a) Facebook/Instagram (Meta): appoint a Legacy Contact in Settings — they can pin a tribute post but cannot see private messages. Or request deletion; (b) Google (Gmail, YouTube, Photos, Drive): use Google Inactive Account Manager to set what happens after inactivity — specify contacts to receive data or delete the account. This is the only way to give a trusted person access to Google data; (c) Apple: appoint an Apple Legacy Contact in Apple ID settings — nominee receives an Access Key + death certificate = temporary data access (photos, notes, contacts — but not purchased DRM content or app data); (3) FINANCIAL DIGITAL ACCOUNTS: online banking logins (executor will get access via death certificate — but knowing which banks to contact is essential); investment platforms (Vanguard, Hargreaves Lansdown, ii etc.); PayPal and other payment wallets (balance at death is an estate asset); cryptocurrency wallets (see below); (4) CLOUD STORAGE AND DEVICES: list: iCloud; Google Drive; Dropbox; OneDrive; phone passcode; computer password. Note which devices hold important data; (5) SUBSCRIPTIONS: list all recurring subscriptions (Netflix; Spotify; Amazon Prime; Adobe; gym apps; delivery services; Patreon). Your executor needs to cancel these promptly to stop estate funds draining; (6) DIGITAL PURCHASES WITH ONGOING VALUE: domain names (renew or transfer; have commercial value); premium software licences; digital photography portfolios; e-commerce stores; (7) WHERE TO STORE THE DOCUMENT: NOT in the will (public document after probate). NOT in cloud storage where your executor cannot access it. Options: (a) Printed and stored with the will; (b) Encrypted USB with the executor; (c) Secure digital vault service (many charge annually); (d) Password manager with emergency access feature (e.g. Bitwarden's Emergency Access; 1Password's Emergency Kit).

Cryptocurrency and NFTs are unique digital assets because they are controlled by cryptographic private keys — and whoever holds the private key holds the asset. If the key is lost, the asset is permanently inaccessible. Planning is critical: (1) CRYPTOCURRENCY — KEY TYPES: (a) Exchange-held cryptocurrency (Coinbase; Binance; Kraken; eToro): the exchange holds your crypto on your behalf. Your executor can access it using death certificate and probate — contact the exchange's bereavement team. Risk: exchanges can go insolvent (e.g., FTX 2022 — no recovery for most creditors); (b) Self-custodied cryptocurrency in a hardware wallet (Ledger; Trezor) or software wallet: controlled entirely by the seed phrase (12 or 24 words). If the seed phrase is not provided to a trusted person or documented in the digital legacy plan, the crypto is permanently lost on the holder's death. No court order can recover it; no exchange can help; (2) DOCUMENTING CRYPTOCURRENCY IN YOUR DIGITAL LEGACY PLAN: (a) List each exchange account (name; email used to register; 2FA method); (b) For self-custodied wallets: do NOT write the seed phrase in the will (public document). Instead: store a printed copy of the seed phrase in a fireproof safe with instructions; give the executor a sealed envelope to be opened after death; use a multi-sig wallet where multiple keyholders must agree to transact; consider a Shamir secret sharing scheme (seed phrase split among trustees); (c) Include the approximate value of each wallet/exchange account (helps executor prioritise); (3) IHT ON CRYPTOCURRENCY: cryptocurrency in exchange accounts and self-custodied wallets is an estate asset for IHT purposes. Value at the date of death (mid-market price). Executor must report on IHT400 (SA form IHT417 for overseas assets if relevant). If the wallet is inaccessible due to lost keys, the value is nil (no estate asset) — but HMRC may challenge this if there is evidence of ownership; (4) NFTs: NFTs are non-fungible tokens typically held in a crypto wallet. They may have monetary value (especially created or commercially licensed NFTs) or be purely personal. Document: the wallet address; how to access the wallet; the estimated value; whether there are ongoing licensing royalties from the NFT. Legal copyright in the underlying artwork survives 70 years from death (Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 s.12).

Each major platform has its own process for dealing with accounts after death. Most require a death certificate and evidence of the reporter's authority: (1) GOOGLE (GMAIL, YOUTUBE, PHOTOS, DRIVE, SEARCH): (a) Google Inactive Account Manager (set up in lifetime): the most effective tool — the account holder specifies an inactivity period after which nominated contacts receive specified data or the account is deleted. No death certificate needed — the inactivity triggers it automatically; (b) Bereavement request (after death, without pre-setup): next of kin or executor can request data download (Google Takeout) or account deletion via support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/6357590 — requires death certificate and evidence of authority. No direct login access granted to third parties; (2) APPLE (APPLEID, iCLOUD, ITUNES): (a) Legacy Contact (set up in lifetime): nominee + Access Key + death certificate = temporary access to photos, notes, contacts, messages, Mail, and iCloud Drive files. Does NOT give access to purchased DRM content (music, films, books), apps, passwords in iCloud Keychain; (b) Without Legacy Contact: extremely limited — Apple will issue a court-ordered data access key but this is expensive and slow; purchased content is lost; (3) META (FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, THREADS): (a) Legacy Contact (set up in lifetime): can pin a tribute post; cannot see private messages; (b) Memorialisation request: any person can submit via facebook.com/help/contact/234739086860192 with death certificate; (c) Removal/deletion request: immediate family members can request deletion with documentation; (4) MICROSOFT (OUTLOOK, ONEDRIVE, XBOX): Microsoft does not provide login access to family. Account closure requires death certificate and proof of relationship via account.microsoft.com; (5) LINKEDIN: account removal via Help Centre; no memorial option; (6) TWITTER/X: account deletion by next of kin via X Support; no memorialisation option; (7) AMAZON: account closure and remaining gift card balance refund to the estate — requires death certificate and executor documentation. Note on purchasing: digital purchases (Kindle books; Prime Video; Amazon Music) are licences — they cannot be transferred to beneficiaries and are lost on account closure.

A digital legacy document is a separate, practical supplement to the will and letter of wishes: (1) THE WILL — LEGAL OWNERSHIP: the will transfers legal ownership of digital assets with monetary value to beneficiaries. A will should reference: 'I give all my digital assets (including cryptocurrency, domain names, and online business interests) to [name]'. The will executor has legal authority to access and deal with these assets — but the will does not tell them WHERE the assets are or HOW to access them; (2) THE LETTER OF WISHES — GUIDANCE: a letter of wishes explains your intentions to trustees and executors for matters the will does not spell out in detail. It can include: which social media accounts you want memorialised vs deleted; general guidance on your digital legacy. It should NOT contain passwords (a letter of wishes may become a semi-public document); (3) THE DIGITAL LEGACY DOCUMENT — ACCESS AND INSTRUCTIONS: separate from both will and letter of wishes; the practical access guide that tells the executor: where everything is; how to access it; what to do with it. Contains: account list; login details (or where to find them); platform-specific instructions; cryptocurrency seed phrase storage details; ongoing subscription list; (4) WHERE TO STORE EACH: will: with a solicitor; HMCTS deposit; home fireproof safe — but BECOMES PUBLIC after probate; letter of wishes: with the will; NOT public after probate (private document); digital legacy document: with the will (printed and sealed); encrypted USB with executor; password manager emergency access — NEVER inside the will itself; (5) UPDATING: the digital legacy document requires more frequent updating than the will or letter of wishes — technology changes, accounts open and close, values change. Review annually and whenever you open a significant new account, acquire valuable digital assets, or change important passwords; (6) WILLSAFE UK: the WillSafe UK Digital Legacy Inventory (included in the Essentials Bundle or available separately at £19) provides a structured template covering all categories — accounts, financial assets, devices, subscriptions, and cryptocurrency — formatted for executor use.