Checklist digital legacy

The average person has over fifty online accounts. Don't just think of the obvious ones (email, social media, online banking), but also webshops, streaming services, cloud storage, news sites, gaming platforms, dating apps and forum accounts. Create a complete overview and divide it into categories: communication, financial, social media, subscriptions, storage and other. This overview is the foundation for every step that follows.

A password manager stores all your passwords encrypted behind a single master password. This saves your loved ones an enormous puzzle. Most password managers (such as Bitwarden, 1Password or KeePass) offer an emergency access feature: you designate someone who gains access after a set period of inactivity. This way you don't need to share all your individual passwords, just store the master password in a safe place.

The major platforms now offer the option to designate someone in advance who will gain access to your account after your death. At Apple, this is called "Digital Legacy" (found via Settings, your name, Password & Security, Digital Legacy). At Google, you set up the "Inactive Account Manager", which lets you decide what happens to your data after a period of inactivity. On Facebook, you can designate a "Memorialisation Contact" who can manage or delete your profile. This takes a few minutes per platform but saves your loved ones an enormous amount of hassle.

Do you want your Facebook or Instagram profile to become a memorial page, or should it be deleted? What about your LinkedIn, X or TikTok? If you don't record your wishes, your loved ones will have to figure out the options per platform and make decisions about something deeply personal. Record per account whether it should be kept, memorialised or deleted.

Your smartphone is often the key to everything: two-factor authentication, authenticator apps, banking, your password manager. If your loved ones can't get into your phone, they can't get to the rest either. Make sure at least one trusted person knows your PIN or unlock code. The same goes for your laptop or desktop. Store these codes in the same place as the master password for your password manager, for instance in a sealed envelope.

Years of family photos, videos and documents can be lost forever if nobody knows where they are stored or how to access them. Are your photos in iCloud, Google Photos or Dropbox? Do you have important documents on an external hard drive? Note per storage location what it contains and how to access it. If you've set up the legacy contact at Apple or Google (see item 03), that already covers a large part of the solution.

Cryptocurrency, online investment accounts and digital wallets can represent significant value, but without the right access credentials they are literally worthless to your loved ones. This is especially critical with crypto: if nobody knows your seed phrase or private key, the funds are permanently inaccessible. Record which wallets and exchanges you use, where the access keys are stored, and how your loved ones can reach them. Never store seed phrases in your will (it becomes a public document after death) but in a separate, secured environment.

Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, Adobe, a VPN, newspapers, apps with monthly payments: after a death, these simply keep running until someone cancels them. That costs money, and your loved ones also have to figure out which subscriptions even exist. Create an overview of all your paid services, including how they are paid (credit card, direct debit, automatic payment). This saves your loved ones a lot of detective work on bank statements.

After a death, your DigiD is not immediately deactivated, but no new activation code can be requested. Your loved ones can still use your existing DigiD for up to a year after death to finalise ongoing government matters, but after that, access expires. For tax matters, next of kin can apply for a bereaved authorisation (nabestaandenmachtiging) through the Dutch Tax Authority (via machtigen.digid.nl), allowing them to log into your records with their own DigiD. Make sure your loved ones are aware of this.

A digital executor is the person who handles your digital estate after your death: closing accounts, securing data, cancelling subscriptions. This can be the same person as your regular executor, but it doesn't have to be. Choose someone who is digitally skilled and whom you fully trust. You can appoint this person in your will, and specify that the executor is also responsible for your digital assets.

Record per account or category what should happen: keep, transfer, delete or archive. This instruction document is a supplement to your will, not a replacement. Store it separately from your will, because a notarial will becomes a public document after death. Passwords, seed phrases and personal instructions do not belong in there. Do refer to the location of this document in your will, so your executor knows where to find it.

There's little point in recording everything neatly if nobody knows where it is. Store your overview, instruction document and password manager credentials in one central, safe place: a digital vault, a physical safe or a sealed envelope with your notary. And most importantly: tell at least one trusted person that you have arranged this and where everything can be found. Without that step, all the preparation is for nothing.