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Digital legacy
What happens to your phone, email, and accounts when you die
Your money and documents can be reached after you die. Your digital life cannot, unless you set it up in advance. Here is what actually happens, and the three tools that fix it.
In short: Accounts do not automatically pass to your family. Phones are locked, and the passcode also receives the codes that unlock everything else. The fix is to turn on the legacy tools Apple, Google, and your password manager already offer, then write down where your phone passcode and master key are kept.
The phone is the master key
Start here, because this is the one that locks everything else. Almost every account now sends a one-time code to your phone before it lets anyone in. Locked out of the phone, your family is locked out of the email, the bank app, and the photos. The phone passcode is the single most important thing in your digital life, and it is the thing people most often fail to leave behind.
Apple: set a Legacy Contact
Apple lets you name a Legacy Contact who can access your photos, messages, and files after you die, using an access key plus a copy of your death certificate. To set it up, open Settings, tap your name, choose Sign-In & Security, then Legacy Contact, and add the person you trust. Print the access key and keep it with your planner. It is free and takes about two minutes.
Google: turn on Inactive Account Manager
Google can hand your Gmail, Photos, and Drive to people you choose if your account goes unused for a set time. Sign in at your Google Account, open Data & privacy, and look for Make a plan for your digital legacy, also called Inactive Account Manager. Choose how long the account must be inactive, name up to ten trusted people, and pick what each can download. For many families, years of photos and email live only here, so this one setting matters a great deal.
Facebook, Instagram, and email
On Facebook, you can name a legacy contact under Memorialization, or ask that your account be deleted. Instagram accounts can be memorialized or removed by a family member with proof. For email outside Google, there is usually no legacy tool, so the realest way in is the password kept safely plus access to the phone for the verification code. Leave instructions for what you want kept and what you want closed, and keep at least one inbox open for a year, because banks and benefits send mail there long after.
Password managers: emergency access
A password manager is the safest place to keep your logins, and most have a built-in handoff. 1Password has an Emergency Kit you print and store safely. Bitwarden and LastPass offer Emergency Access, where a trusted contact can request your vault after a waiting period you set. Turn one of these on and you replace a hundred scattered passwords with one plan. If you keep passwords in a notebook instead, that is fine; just store it in your safe and note where it is.
The one rule, again
Through all of this, the rule holds: write where the keys are kept, never the keys themselves. Your passcode and master password belong in a sealed envelope in your safe or inside a password manager, not on a page anyone could read. Then point your family to that one place.
Get the full digital handoff
The Family Kit includes the Digital Legacy & Password-Access Guide, with the exact steps and a worksheet for where your keys are kept.
See the kits from $29Common questions
Is it legal for my family to log into my accounts?
Using the official legacy tools is the safe route, because it grants access the way each company intends. Sharing a raw password can violate a service's terms, so set up the built-in tools where you can.
What about cryptocurrency?
Crypto is unforgiving: lose the recovery phrase and the coins are gone for good. Store the recovery phrase in your safe, and on your planner note only that it exists and where it is kept, never the phrase itself.