How to manage your digital legacy

Your digital life might be bigger than you think. Most people have dozens of accounts, so even a partial list is still helpful.

Write down the types of account you have: email, social media, photos, banking, subscriptions, medical, and government.

Then decide, for each account, what should happen to it: delete it, memorialise it where the platform offers that, or pass the data on.

Our free downloadable Digital Account Inventory template has a column for each of those choices.

Note: Do not include your passwords in your inventory. This avoids the legal risks around sharing login access. Your family only needs a list of accounts.

Anything you made yourself is generally your property and can pass through your will. But it isn’t enough for the photos to be saved somewhere. Someone has to be able to find them and open them. Get copies onto a device you control while you can. Google Takeout and iCloud downloads are both ways you could choose to do this.

Google, Apple, Facebook, and Instagram each let you decide, in advance, who deals with your account after you die. They are free, official, and take about ten minutes each to set up. Our free downloadable Setting up the legacy tools guide walks through all four of these platforms, screen by screen.

Pick someone you trust to close accounts, cancel subscriptions, notify online contacts, and follow your wishes. It can be more than one person.

Tell them where your list is kept. They don’t need to see it yet. Keep it somewhere safe: a password manager, a sealed envelope, a USB, or with your lawyer. You may see the term “digital executor”. It’s a useful way to think about the role, but it isn’t a legal appointment and it doesn’t let anyone log in to your accounts. Your trusted person still needs to go through the platforms’ official processes.

A standard will gives your executor power over your “estate” — wording written for houses and bank accounts, not for email and social media. Digital-specific clauses record your intentions and strengthen your executor’s position.

What this might look like:

Start with what you want. Before you speak to anyone, decide which accounts matter, who you want each one to go to, and where you’ve already set instructions with the platform legacy tools. If you fill in our Digital Account Inventory template, this does most of this job, so bring it with you.

Then take it to your lawyer. Their role is to turn your decisions into words that fit inside your will. Ask them to cover three things: that you hold digital assets, who each is to go to, and that your executor should follow the legacy tool settings you’ve already made.

How it might read. This example is illustrative only — your lawyer will draft what suits you: “I direct my executor to deal with my digital assets, including my online accounts and any data stored in them, in accordance with any written record of my wishes and any legacy contact or inactive account settings I have made with the relevant platform.”

If you hold cryptocurrency, tell your lawyer as its legal status is unsettled.

If you lose capacity, your attorney will hit real barriers getting into your accounts. The platforms built their tools around death, not incapacity.

Express digital terms in your EPoA won’t remove those barriers, but they put your attorney in the strongest position the law currently allows.

This example is illustrative only: “My attorney may access, manage, close, and deal with my digital assets and online accounts, and may request and receive data held in those accounts, to the extent the law and the relevant platform allow.”

You’ll need:

• The death certificate — you will need this for almost everything.
• The will — this confirms who the executor is.
• Probate, for some platforms — LinkedIn is one. Probate is the court document confirming the will is valid.

Banks have formal procedures for a death. You can’t get into the account directly, but through the official process the bank can freeze accounts, arrange for bills to be settled, and close online access.

Google, Apple, Meta and most platforms have a dedicated process. Search “[platform name] deceased account” on their help pages. Have the death certificate ready. If the person set up a legacy tool while they were alive, this step gets much easier.

Netflix, Spotify, Kindle, apps. These were personal licences that ended at death, and nobody inherits them. Your job is to cancel them so the estate isn’t charged. Families often find them still billing months later, so it’s worth doing as early as you can.

Dormant accounts are at risk of being misused, and they’re also an identity theft risk. Work through the person’s list if they left one. If they didn’t, close what you find as you go. Decide what stays — photos, emails with sentimental value, family records — and what goes.

Everything on this pathway gets harder once capacity is gone. If the person can still plan, work through Pathway 1 with them: the list, the backups, the legacy tools, the conversations.

Enduring Power of Attorney (EPoA): A document you sign while you still have capacity, appointing someone to manage your affairs immediately or if you want to make sure that someone else can manage your affairs if you lose the capacity to do so. To learn more, you can read our ‘Understanding Powers of Attorney in NSW’ or ‘Understanding Powers of Attorney in VIC’ resources.

Digital asset terms are clauses that clearly describe what the attorney is allowed to do with the person’s online accounts, digital files, and digital property. Depending on the person’s circumstances, these terms might authorise the attorney to:

• identify and manage online accounts
• contact banks, platforms, and service providers on the person’s behalf
• access, copy, download, or back up important digital records and files, where legally permitted
• manage, transfer, or protect digital financial assets, including cryptocurrency, and
• request that accounts or subscriptions be changed, suspended, or closed.

These terms can make the attorney’s authority clearer, but they do not guarantee access. A platform may still refuse to recognise the EPoA, and the terms do not automatically allow the attorney to use the person’s password or bypass security protections. Ask a lawyer to tailor the wording to the person’s circumstances and the law in their state or territory.

Being realistic makes planning easier. Some challenges include:

• Platform terms saying the account is personal and non-transferable, and that passwords must stay confidential.
• Two-factor authentication and biometric locks that can block access even when you have legal authority.
• No published process for platforms to recognise an
  Australian EPoA — and it is uncertain that an overseas platform would recognise one at all.
• The same section 478.1 criminal access risk that we outlined in Pathway 2 also applies to attorneys.

How certain the law is:

Broadest — most likely to include digital assets

Why:

NSW defines property to include “any valuable benefit”. WA expressly includes “anything or chose in action”, which is broad enough to cover intangible rights.

How certain the law is:

Middle ground

Why:

Definitions exist, but they focus on traditional property categories and don’t clearly include digital assets.

How certain the law is:

Highest uncertainty

Why:

Queensland has no general definition of property in its succession law, and defines “household chattels” narrowly around physical items. The ACT restricts “real property” to land, and its definitions may not capture digital assets at all.

How certain the law is:

Treat as high uncertainty

Why:

Definitions are largely restricted to interests in land.