Most of us now live a large part of our lives online, yet almost nobody plans for what happens to it. When someone dies, their photos, accounts and subscriptions do not simply switch off. Someone has to deal with them, often with very little to go on.
What actually happens to your accounts
The short answer is that it depends on the provider, and the rules are inconsistent. Your online accounts are generally governed by the terms you agreed to, not automatically inherited like a physical possession. Some platforms have a formal process for a bereaved family. Others make it genuinely difficult, and a grieving relative can spend weeks proving who they are to a support desk on the other side of the world.
Email is the quiet linchpin. So much else hangs off it: password resets, subscription receipts, two-factor codes. Without access to the main email account, an executor can be locked out of almost everything else. Financial accounts are treated as part of the estate and handled through probate, but the login is often the only thread that leads to them, and that thread dies with the person unless it was written down.
The tools that already exist
The larger platforms have quietly built features for exactly this, and most people have never touched them. It is worth spending an afternoon setting them up.
- Apple offers Legacy Contacts, letting you name people who can access your account and data after you die.
- Google has an Inactive Account Manager that can share or delete your data if the account goes untouched for a set period.
- Facebook lets you appoint a legacy contact to manage a memorialised profile, or ask for the account to be deleted.
- Password managers can grant trusted emergency access, which is often the single most useful thing you can arrange.
None of these replaces a will, and you should not put passwords in a will, because a will becomes a public document once probate is granted. They work alongside it, giving named people a route in when it is needed.
What to record now
You do not need to hand over every password today. You need to make sure the information exists somewhere your family could reach it. Think in terms of a map rather than a keyring.
List the accounts that matter and where they live: the main email, banking and savings, any investment or crypto holdings, the password manager itself and any social or photo accounts you would want preserved or closed. Note the subscriptions that quietly take money each month, because these keep charging long after someone has gone and can be surprisingly hard to stop. Record your wishes too. Would you want your photos saved and passed on, your social profiles memorialised or everything closed down quietly? Nobody can honour a wish they do not know about.
Make it findable, and legal
A perfect record helps nobody if no one knows it exists. Tell the person who would deal with your affairs, usually your executor, where to look and how to get in. Keep the sensitive detail out of the will itself and in a secure place you can point them to. It is also worth naming, in plain terms, who you would like to handle your digital life, because it is not always the same person who is best placed to handle the finances.
Treat this as general information rather than legal advice. The law around digital assets is still catching up, and if your estate is complex it is worth speaking to a solicitor. For the practical side, though, the biggest win is simply writing things down while you still can, and keeping it current as accounts change. Revisit it once a year, the same way you might check your will, because the account you opened last spring is exactly the one nobody will think to look for.
Where FamilySafe fits
FamilySafe is built for exactly this map, the record of what exists online and who should reach it. You keep your accounts, wishes and key contacts in one secure place and choose who can access them and when. It is free to start. Your photos and accounts do not switch off when you go, so the kindest thing you can leave is a clear route through them.
