You’ve spent years building a digital life. Online banking. Social media profiles. Thousands of photos stored in the cloud. Email accounts holding decades of correspondence. Yet most wills never mention what happens to any of it. When someone dies, families are often locked out of accounts they desperately need to access or can’t find the passwords to close services that keep charging monthly fees.
Digital legacy planning solves this problem. It means creating a clear record of your online accounts and digital assets, then documenting who can access them and what should happen after you die. Done properly, it saves your loved ones months of frustration and protects both your sentimental memories and financial interests.
This guide walks you through the complete process. You’ll learn what counts as part of your digital legacy, how to create a thorough inventory of your accounts, and who should manage everything when you’re gone. We’ll also show you practical tools and templates to make the job easier, plus explain how digital planning fits alongside your broader end of life arrangements.
What is digital legacy planning
Digital legacy planning is the process of documenting all your online accounts, digital assets, and passwords, then creating instructions for what happens to them after you die or become incapacitated. Your digital legacy includes everything from your Facebook profile and Gmail account to online banking, subscription services, and photo libraries stored in the cloud.
What counts as digital assets
Your digital assets fall into several categories. Financial accounts include online banking, PayPal, investment platforms, and cryptocurrency wallets. Social and communication assets cover email accounts, social media profiles, blogs, and messaging apps like WhatsApp. Media and memories encompass photo libraries (Google Photos, iCloud), video collections, and any creative work you’ve stored online. Finally, commercial assets include domain names, online businesses, and subscription services that might have residual value or ongoing costs.
Digital legacy planning protects both your sentimental memories and your estate’s financial interests.
Without a plan, families face locked accounts and lost memories, plus ongoing charges from subscriptions they can’t cancel. This planning ensures your loved ones can access what they need and honour your wishes about what stays private or gets deleted.
Step 1. Map your digital footprint
Start by creating a complete inventory of every online account and digital asset you own. This audit forms the foundation of your digital legacy planning, and most people discover they have far more accounts than they initially thought. Set aside two to three hours to work through this systematically, as rushing leads to gaps that defeat the purpose of planning.
Create your account inventory
Begin with your email accounts because these hold the keys to everything else. Check your inbox for confirmation emails and password resets to identify forgotten accounts. Work through each category methodically: banking and finance, social media, subscription services, cloud storage, shopping accounts, and any websites where you’ve created profiles.
Use this template to document each account:
| Account type | Service name | Username/Email | Purpose | Action on death |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gmail | [email protected] | Primary personal | Delete after 6 months | |
| Banking | Lloyds | [email protected] | Current account | Executor access |
| Social | jsmith123 | Personal | Memorialise | |
| Storage | Google Photos | [email protected] | Family photos | Transfer to executor |
Record the website URL, your username or email address, and what the account contains. Add notes about whether each account holds financial value, sentimental content, or subscriptions that need cancelling.
Without a comprehensive inventory, your family will spend months discovering accounts through bank statements and email searches.
Document important details
For each account, note whether it stores valuable content like photos or documents that need preserving. Identify accounts with ongoing payments or subscriptions that should be cancelled promptly. Flag any accounts that contain sensitive information requiring immediate deletion. This level of detail transforms a basic list into actionable instructions your executor can follow without guesswork.
Step 2. Decide who should manage it
Appoint someone to handle your digital legacy after you die. This person, often called a digital executor, takes responsibility for closing accounts, transferring assets, and implementing your wishes for social media and online content. You can name your regular will executor for this role or choose someone different who’s more technically confident.
Choose your digital executor
Select someone who combines trustworthiness with reasonable technical ability. They don’t need to be a technology expert, but they should feel comfortable navigating websites, contacting customer service teams, and following written instructions. Consider whether they live nearby, as some tasks like accessing physical devices become easier with proximity.
Your digital executor should be willing to take on the responsibility and understand what’s involved. Have a direct conversation with them before finalising your plans. Explain that they’ll need to contact multiple companies, provide death certificates, and possibly spend several hours working through your account inventory.
Choose someone who will respect your privacy wishes while having the practical skills to complete the administrative work.
Give them the right tools
Document your digital executor’s details in your will or letter of wishes. Include their full name, contact information, and relationship to you. Specify exactly which digital assets they can access and what actions they’re authorised to take.
Store your account inventory somewhere your executor can find it after your death. Tell them where you’ve kept this information without sharing actual passwords yet. Many people keep this document with their will, in a safe deposit box, or with their solicitor. Your executor will use this inventory alongside death certificates to prove their authority when contacting service providers.
Step 3. Align digital wishes with your funeral plans
Your digital legacy planning works alongside your broader end of life arrangements, not separately from them. Include clear instructions about your online presence in the same documents where you record your funeral wishes. This ensures your executor handles both your physical farewell and your digital afterlife as part of one coherent plan.
Coordinate memorial announcements
Decide whether you want a funeral announcement posted on social media and who should write it. Many families appreciate having pre-written guidance about what to share publicly about your death. Specify which platforms should carry announcements and whether you want your profile picture changed to a memorial image or left unchanged.
Your funeral plans might include a memorial service held weeks or months after a direct cremation. Link your digital wishes to this timeline by stating when social media accounts should be memorialised or deleted. For example, you might want your Facebook profile to remain active until after a celebration of life event, then be memorialised afterwards.
Store everything together
Keep your digital legacy documentation with your will and funeral plan. Your executor needs to access all these instructions simultaneously when making arrangements. If you’ve chosen a direct cremation service, inform them that you’ve created digital legacy instructions so they can remind your family to locate these documents alongside your funeral wishes.
Coordinating your digital and physical legacy planning ensures nothing gets overlooked during an already difficult time.
Checklists and tools to use
You need practical resources to organise your digital legacy planning without starting from scratch. Free templates and checklists transform the planning process from an overwhelming task into a manageable series of steps. Use these resources to ensure you don’t miss critical accounts or forget important instructions for your executor.
Essential digital legacy checklist
Download and complete this checklist to capture everything your executor needs. Print it and store one copy with your will and another in a location your executor knows about:
Digital Legacy Planning Checklist
- List all email accounts with providers and usernames
- Document banking and financial accounts
- Record social media profiles and memorial preferences
- Note cloud storage locations (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox)
- List subscription services with cancellation instructions
- Identify photo and video storage locations
- Record cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges
- Document domain names and website hosting
- Note any online businesses or income sources
- Specify which accounts to close, transfer, or memorialise
- Name your digital executor and provide contact details
- Store password access method location
A completed checklist gives your executor immediate clarity about what needs handling, rather than months of detective work.
Password management approach
Store passwords separately from your account inventory. Never include actual passwords in your will because wills become public documents after probate. Instead, document where you’ve stored password information using a secure method like a written list in a home safe, instructions with your solicitor, or by telling your executor which password manager you use and where they’ll find the master password after your death.
Next steps for your digital legacy
Start your digital legacy planning today by setting aside one hour to complete your account inventory. Update this document every six months as you open new accounts or close old ones. Digital life changes constantly, so treat your legacy plan as a living document rather than a one-time task. Review your social media memorial preferences annually to ensure they still reflect your current wishes.
Schedule a conversation with your chosen digital executor within the next month. Walk them through your account inventory and explain where you’ve stored access information. They should know exactly what you expect them to do and feel confident they can manage the responsibility without confusion or second-guessing.
Finally, ensure your digital legacy planning connects with your broader end of life arrangements. If you’re considering a direct cremation, Go Direct Cremations offers straightforward funeral services that give your family time to focus on memorial planning without immediate ceremony pressures. Learn about direct cremation options that complement flexible digital and physical legacy planning.