What Happens to Your Digital Accounts When You Die?

When you die, your digital life does not disappear. Your email inbox, social media, cloud storage, and crypto wallets all keep existing. But accessing them or passing them on to your family is a legal and technical minefield that most estate plans completely ignore.

The platform-by-platform reality

Google

Google Inactive Account Manager lets you designate people who can download your data if your account goes inactive. Without setting this up, your family may be able to request access with a death certificate, but it is not guaranteed.

Apple

Apple introduced a Legacy Contact feature that lets you designate someone who can access your iCloud account. Without a Legacy Contact set up, your iCloud data is effectively inaccessible. Even Apple cannot provide access without the right credentials or legacy authorization.

Facebook

Facebook lets you designate a Legacy Contact who can manage your memorialized account. They cannot read your messages or log in as you.

Cryptocurrency: the highest-stakes problem

Crypto is fundamentally different from every other digital asset. Banks have account recovery processes. Bitcoin has neither. If your family does not have your seed phrase, your crypto is permanently inaccessible. Not frozen. Gone, forever, from the financial system.

The solution requires care. You need to document access instructions in a way that is secure enough not to be exploited while you are alive, but accessible enough that your executor can use it after you are gone. This typically means a sealed letter stored with your estate documents, referencing where credentials are stored, not including them in the Will itself (which becomes public record in probate).

What your Will can do for digital assets

• Name a digital executor with specific authority over your digital assets
• Reference the location of access instructions without including the credentials
• Grant your executor permission to access your accounts
• Specify your wishes for each type of account
• Designate who receives the value of your digital assets

The practical checklist

• Set up Legacy Contact or Inactive Account Manager on major platforms now
• Create a digital asset inventory: all accounts, approximate values, where access instructions are stored
• Store crypto seed phrases on metal in a secure location, not in the Will
• Write a letter of instruction for your executor explaining how to find digital credentials
• Include a digital assets clause in your Will naming a digital executor

DocSats includes digital asset provisions in all Will documents, prompting you to name a digital executor and reference your access documentation.