The problem nobody talks about

When someone dies today, they don’t just leave behind a bank account, a house and maybe a car. They also leave an email inbox, an Amazon account, streaming subscriptions, cloud storage full of photos, social media profiles, online banking logins and dozens of other accounts that accumulated over an entire digital life.

And unlike a traditional estate, there’s no probate court that automatically takes inventory of your digital life. Nobody knows which accounts exist. Nobody has the login credentials. And paid subscriptions can keep running for months because they’re charged to a credit card or bank account that the heirs can’t immediately oversee.

When I sat down to deal with this myself a while back – not because of any sad occasion, but simply out of common sense – I was surprised how many accounts I had that my wife didn’t even know about.

What the big platforms offer

The good news: some of the major platforms now have built-in legacy planning features. The bad news: almost nobody uses them.

Google (Inactive Account Manager): Google offers one of the most thoughtful solutions. At myaccount.google.com/inactive, you can specify what happens if your account goes unused for a certain period – three, six, twelve or eighteen months. You can designate trusted contacts who then receive access to selected data: emails, photos, Drive files, YouTube content. Alternatively, you can set the account to be automatically deleted once the period expires. Setup takes less than five minutes.

Apple (Legacy Contact): Since iOS 15.2 and macOS Monterey, you can designate one or more legacy contacts in your Apple ID settings. After your death, these people can request access to your iCloud data – photos, notes, emails, files – using a special access key and your death certificate. You’ll find the setting under “Password & Security” → “Legacy Contact.”

Facebook and Instagram (Memorialization): Meta lets you designate a legacy contact who can memorialize your profile after your death. The profile then displays “Remembering” before your name. Alternatively, you can request that your account be deleted after you pass away. Look for this under “Settings” → “Personal Information” → “Account Ownership and Control.”

Microsoft: Microsoft has no inactive account manager. Family members have to contact support with a death certificate to gain access to an Outlook or OneDrive account. The process takes time and isn’t always straightforward.

The underestimated problem: recurring subscriptions

Many people underestimate how many paid services are tied to their accounts. Streaming services, cloud storage, app subscriptions, magazine subscriptions, fitness tracker premiums, password managers, VPN services – the list is often surprisingly long. And all of these keep billing as long as nobody cancels.

For surviving family members, that means they don’t just have to find the accounts – they also have to figure out which ones cost money. Without an overview, it’s like searching in the dark. It gets especially unpleasant when charges are going to a credit card that isn’t immediately canceled.

What you can do right now – practical steps

The good news: planning ahead isn’t complicated or morbid. It’s simply a matter of organization – comparable to the folder where you keep your insurance policies.

1. Create an inventory of your digital accounts. It doesn’t need to be a perfect spreadsheet. A simple list will do: Which services do I use? Where am I registered? Which ones are paid? Don’t forget accounts you rarely use – that forgotten PayPal account, the old eBay login, the photo platform where your vacation pictures are still sitting.

2. Arrange access to your passwords. The most secure way is a password manager like Bitwarden or KeePassXC, with the master password stored in a safe place – for example, in a sealed envelope in a safe deposit box or with your attorney. Some password managers also offer emergency sheets: a printed page with the master password and brief instructions for opening the vault.

3. Use the legacy features offered by major platforms. Set up Google’s Inactive Account Manager. Designate a Legacy Contact with Apple. Decide what should happen to your Facebook profile. Each of these takes just a few minutes but can save your family hours or days.

4. Keep a trusted person in the loop. Your spouse, an adult child or a close friend should know that such a list exists and where to find it. The list itself doesn’t need to be lying out in the open – but someone needs to know it’s there.

5. Include digital accounts in your power of attorney. If you already have a durable power of attorney, check whether it covers digital accounts. A simple addition like “The designated agent is authorized to access, manage and, if necessary, cancel or delete my digital accounts and online services” can make a real difference when the time comes. Without such a provision, family members often have no legal standing with service providers – even with probate documents in hand.

What the law says

U.S. law on digital assets is still catching up, but progress has been made. The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) has been adopted in nearly every state. It gives executors and trustees legal authority to manage a deceased person’s digital assets – but only if the account holder has left instructions, either through the platform’s own tools (like Google’s Inactive Account Manager) or through an estate plan.

In practice, though, things aren’t always that smooth. Many providers have their own policies that can slow down or complicate access. Showing up at customer support with just a death certificate often means weeks of waiting. A power of attorney or will that explicitly mentions digital accounts is a much faster path.

Planning, not fear

I know – thinking about your own death isn’t exactly a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. But that’s not really what this is about. It’s about creating order – the same way you keep a folder of insurance documents or sort through bank statements once a year. Not because you expect the worst, but because you don’t want to make things unnecessarily hard for the people who matter to you.

My own list took less than an hour, by the way. The hardest part was sitting down and getting started.

Checklist: digital estate planning in five steps

• Create an inventory: Write down all your digital accounts and subscriptions – including the forgotten ones.
• Secure your passwords: Set up a password manager and store the master password safely.
• Use platform features: Google Inactive Account Manager, Apple Legacy Contact, Facebook memorialization.
• Tell a trusted person: Someone needs to know the list exists and where it is.
• Update your estate plan: Explicitly include digital accounts in your power of attorney or will.

Have you already tackled this topic? Or do you have tips for how you’ve organized your digital estate? Share them in the comments – experiences like yours can help other readers take that first step.