What Happens to Your Digital Accounts When You Die?

Most people have between 70 and 100 online accounts. They hold photos, messages, money, and years of memories. When you die, what happens to all of it? The answer depends on the platform, the law, and whether or not you have planned for it.

The legal position in England and Wales

Digital assets are a relatively new legal frontier. Unlike physical property, most online accounts are governed by Terms of Service agreements rather than property law. The key distinction is between:

• •Assets you own — cryptocurrency, domain names, digital files stored locally or in private cloud storage. These can be inherited and transferred.
• •Licences you hold — most digital content (iTunes purchases, Kindle books, streaming subscriptions) is licensed, not owned. Licences typically die with you and cannot be transferred or inherited.
• •Accounts you use — email, social media, banking apps. These are covered by individual platform policies, which vary enormously.

Major platforms: what actually happens

Apple (iCloud)

Apple introduced a Digital Legacy feature that lets you designate up to five legacy contacts who can access your account after death. Without this, Apple will not transfer account access to family members. Thousands of families have lost irreplaceable photos because no legacy contact was nominated. To set one: go to Settings → [your name] → Password & Security → Legacy Contact.

Google

Google has an Inactive Account Manager that lets you choose what happens to your data after a period of inactivity — whether it gets deleted or shared with designated people. You can also nominate someone to download your data. Without this, access requires a formal legal process and is not guaranteed.

Facebook / Meta

Facebook lets you designate a Legacy Contact to manage your memorialised account. You can also choose to delete your account entirely when you die. Without either setting, your account will eventually be memorialised if reported, but your legacy contact (if none is set) will have limited options.

Cryptocurrency

This is where digital planning matters most. Cryptocurrency held in a self-custody wallet (where you control the private keys) is genuinely lost if your executor cannot access the keys. There is no central authority, no password reset, no customer service. If the keys are not recorded and securely stored somewhere your executor can find them, the funds are gone permanently.

Cryptocurrency held on an exchange is slightly different — exchanges have processes for estate claims — but these vary and require significant documentation.

Online banking

UK banks have well-established processes for dealing with deceased account holders. Your executor will need a death certificate and a grant of probate (for estates over approximately £5,000 in most cases). The funds form part of your estate and are distributed according to your will. This part of digital planning is relatively well-handled — but your executor needs to know which accounts exist.

The practical problem: your executor has no idea what you have

Even if every platform has a smooth inheritance process, your executor cannot use it if they do not know the account exists. Most people have email addresses their family does not know about, subscriptions they have forgotten, pension dashboards, investment accounts, domain names, and decades of cloud photos.

The solution is simple: a Digital Legacy Inventory — a document that lists your accounts, where they are, how to access them (instructions, not passwords), and what you want done with each one. Stored alongside your will, it gives your executor what they need to do their job.

What to include in your digital legacy plan

Our Digital Legacy Inventory template covers all of the above with prompts for each category, plus guidance on secure storage. It is included in the Essentials Bundle.