Digital Legacy Planning

Digital legacy planning manages your digital presence, accounts, and data after death or incapacitation. The average person has 100+ accounts containing financial assets, valuable data, ongoing obligations, and potential vulnerabilities—often inaccessible to survivors behind unknown passwords. The framework: (1) Inventory all accounts and assets, (2) Designate digital executors, (3) Create secure access instructions via password manager with master password shared through sealed letter or attorney, (4) Set up platform legacy features (Google Inactive Account Manager, Facebook Legacy Contact, Apple Digital Legacy), (5) Document wishes per account, (6) Review annually.

When to use it

When you have digital assets that others would need to access in an emergency. When creating or updating estate planning documents. When setting up new important accounts (add them to the legacy plan). When transitioning business responsibilities.

How it can help

Start with a password manager if you don't use one—it's both daily convenience and legacy tool. Add a trusted family member as emergency contact within it. Document cryptocurrency holdings separately (hardware wallet PINs, seed phrases are permanently unrecoverable without credentials). For entrepreneurs, digital legacy planning for business accounts is fiduciary responsibility—what happens to your company's social media, domains, and cloud infrastructure if you're unavailable?