Digital Estate Planner

Digital Estate Planner

A comprehensive guide for organizing your digital life so that in the event of death, incapacity, or emergency, your loved ones can access what they need without guessing passwords, hunting for accounts, or losing irreplaceable data.

Core Philosophy

We plan for physical death but ignore digital death. This skill helps you:

• Document accounts and access methods systematically
• Designate what should happen to digital assets
• Preserve important data and memories
• Create clear instructions for digital executors
• Do this in a way that maintains security while enabling access

The Digital Estate Problem

What happens when someone dies:

PHYSICAL WORLD:
- Safe deposit box → Bank knows location, key exists
- House → Deed on file, keys can be made
- Car → Title exists, spare key somewhere

DIGITAL WORLD:
- Email → Password unknown, 2FA on dead phone
- Photos → Which cloud? iCloud? Google? Both? Neither?
- Crypto → Private keys? Seed phrase? Hardware wallet location?
- Subscriptions → Which cards? Auto-renewing forever?
- Social media → How to memorialize? Who has access?

Decision Tree

What is the user trying to accomplish?
├── FULL ESTATE PLANNING → Complete digital inventory + instructions
├── EMERGENCY ACCESS SETUP → Minimal viable access for trusted person
├── SPECIFIC ACCOUNT QUESTIONS → Single account legacy settings
├── CRYPTO/FINANCIAL ASSETS → High-security asset documentation
├── SOCIAL MEDIA LEGACY → Memorialization and content decisions
└── PHOTO/DATA PRESERVATION → Ensuring memories survive

Is there a trusted person designated?
├── NO → Help identify digital executor first
└── YES → Proceed with documentation

What is the security comfort level?
├── HIGH (tech-savvy) → Can use password manager inheritance, encrypted docs
├── MEDIUM → Password manager + written backup in secure location
├── LOW → Written documentation in secure physical location

The Digital Inventory

Tier 1: Critical Access (Must have for estate management)

Tier 2: Financial Assets

Tier 3: Digital Memories

Tier 4: Ongoing Services

The Digital Executor

Who Should This Be?

Good candidates:

• Tech-comfortable (can navigate password managers, 2FA)
• Trustworthy (obvious, but critical)
• Likely to outlive you
• Emotionally capable of handling your digital life

Consider:

• Same person as physical executor? (Often yes, but not required)
• Backup digital executor?
• Specific person for specific assets? (Crypto expert for crypto)

What They Need

Create a "Digital Executor Letter" containing:

# Digital Executor Instructions for [Name]

## If I Die or Become Incapacitated

### Immediate Access

1. My password manager is: [1Password/Bitwarden/etc]
   - Master password location: [safe deposit box/with attorney/sealed envelope location]
   - Emergency access feature: [if applicable, how to trigger it]

2. My phone passcode: [stored with master password OR specific location]

3. My primary email: [address]
   - Access through password manager
   - This email is recovery email for most other accounts

### Critical First Steps

1. Access email and phone to receive 2FA codes
2. Notify these accounts of death: [list priority accounts]
3. Download/preserve: [list what matters]
4. Cancel: [list subscriptions to stop]

### Specific Account Instructions

[Bank Name]: Contact branch at [location], reference account #[number]
[Crypto]: Hardware wallet in [location], seed phrase in [separate location]
[Social Media]: Please memorialize / delete / [specific instructions]

### What I Want Preserved

- Photos in [Google Photos/iCloud/etc] - please download and keep
- Writing in [location] - please share with [person]
- [Specific items with specific instructions]

### What Can Be Deleted

- Browser history (please don't look, just delete)
- [Other items you don't care about preserving]

Password Manager Inheritance Features

1Password

• Emergency Kit: PDF with account info, Secret Key, printed password
• Family/Team sharing: Add trusted person to vault
• Tip: Store Emergency Kit with attorney or in safe deposit box

Bitwarden

• Emergency Access: Trusted contact can request access, waiting period you set
• Organizations: Shared vaults for family
• Export: Can create encrypted backup

LastPass

• Emergency Access: Similar to Bitwarden—trusted contact, waiting period
• Family plan: Shared folders

Apple Keychain

• Legacy Contact: iOS 15.2+, designate someone who can request access
• Recovery Key: Store securely if used

Google

• Inactive Account Manager: Designate contacts, set inactivity period
• Data download: Contacts get access to specified data after inactivity

Cryptocurrency Special Handling

Crypto is the highest-risk digital asset for inheritance. Private keys = ownership.

Documentation Required

CRYPTO ESTATE DOCUMENTATION
───────────────────────────

Exchange Accounts: [Coinbase, Kraken, etc]
- Login credentials in password manager
- 2FA backup codes stored with master password

Hardware Wallets: [Ledger, Trezor]
- Physical location: [where]
- PIN: [stored with seed phrase OR separate location]

Seed Phrases: [CRITICAL - this is the money]
- Location: [safe deposit box, fireproof safe, split storage]
- NEVER store digitally unless encrypted
- Consider: stamped metal backup (fireproof)

Software Wallets: [MetaMask, etc]
- Seed phrase location: [same security as hardware]

Instructions:
- How to access: [step by step for non-crypto person]
- What to do: [hold, sell, transfer to specific wallet]
- Who can help: [crypto-savvy friend/advisor name and contact]

Seed Phrase Security

Options for seed phrase storage: 1. Safe deposit box - Bank access, but bank can access too 2. Home fireproof safe - You control, fire risk lower 3. Split storage - Half with attorney, half in safe (requires both) 4. Metal backup - Stamped steel survives fire/flood 5. Shamir's Secret Sharing - Technical but very secure

Social Media Legacy Settings

Facebook

• Legacy Contact: Designate someone to manage memorialized account
• Options: Memorialize (frozen tribute) or Delete after death
• Location: Settings > Memorialization Settings

Instagram

• Memorialization: Request form available, requires proof of death
• Removal: Can request account removal with proof

Twitter/X

• Deactivation: Family can request with death certificate
• No memorialization: Account either stays or goes

LinkedIn

• Memorialization: Family can request, becomes memorial page
• Removal: Also available upon request

Google/YouTube

• Inactive Account Manager: Best option, proactive setup
• Posthumous: Family can request access/deletion with documentation

Photo Preservation Strategy

Photos are often the most emotionally important digital assets:

Consolidation Checklist

• [ ] iPhone photos → where backed up? (iCloud, Google, both?)
• [ ] Android photos → Google Photos? Local?
• [ ] Old phones → transferred or sitting in drawer?
• [ ] Camera SD cards → backed up?
• [ ] Facebook/Instagram → downloaded?
• [ ] Cloud services → which ones have photos?
• [ ] External drives → where located?
• [ ] Computer folders → documented?

Preservation Actions

1. Consolidate to one primary location 2. Backup to secondary location (3-2-1 rule: 3 copies, 2 media types, 1 offsite) 3. Document where everything is 4. Share access with trusted person now 5. Label important folders ("Wedding 2019", "Kids Baby Photos")

Annual Review Checklist

Digital estates change. Review annually:

• [ ] New accounts added? Document them.
• [ ] Passwords changed? Password manager updated?
• [ ] New devices? Access documented?
• [ ] Trusted contacts still appropriate?
• [ ] Cryptocurrency holdings changed?
• [ ] New subscriptions to add to cancel list?
• [ ] Digital executor still appropriate and informed?

Anti-Patterns

❌ Storing master password digitally unencrypted ❌ Telling no one about the plan ❌ Assuming family can "figure it out" ❌ Putting seed phrases in cloud storage ❌ Not testing the access methods ❌ Forgetting about old accounts

Integration with Other Skills

• grief-companion: Emotional support alongside practical planning
• pet-memorial-creator: Digital memorials for pets
• career-biographer: Preserving professional legacy
• panic-room-finder: Finding secure physical storage locations

The Gift

Digital estate planning isn't morbid—it's a gift to those who love you. When they're grieving, they won't have to guess passwords, hunt for accounts, or lose precious photos. You've made the hardest time a little bit easier.

That's love in practical form.

Digital Account Inventory Template

Comprehensive template for documenting all digital accounts, access methods, and instructions for digital executors.

Master Account Inventory

Tier 1: Critical Access Accounts

These accounts are needed FIRST to manage everything else.

Primary Email

EMAIL ACCOUNT #1 (Main)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Provider:        □ Gmail  □ Outlook  □ iCloud  □ Other: _______
Email Address:   _______________________________________
Password:        □ In password manager  □ Written location: _______
2FA Method:      □ Authenticator app  □ SMS  □ Email  □ Hardware key
2FA Backup:      □ Backup codes stored at: _______________________
Recovery Email:  _______________________________________
Recovery Phone:  _______________________________________
Security Questions:
  Q1: _________________ A: _________________
  Q2: _________________ A: _________________

IMPORTANCE: This email is recovery email for ___ other accounts
INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXECUTOR:
_________________________________________________________________

Password Manager

PASSWORD MANAGER
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Service:         □ 1Password  □ Bitwarden  □ LastPass  □ Other: _______
Account Email:   _______________________________________
Master Password: □ Stored at: _______________________________
                 □ Emergency Kit location: ___________________
Secret Key:      □ Stored at: _______________________________ (1Password)
Emergency Access: □ Enabled  □ Not available
                  Trusted contact: _________________________
                  Wait period: _____ days
Family/Shared:   □ Yes - shared vaults exist  □ No

INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXECUTOR:
1. Locate master password at: _______________________
2. Emergency access wait period is: _____ days
3. Once accessed, all other passwords are available
_________________________________________________________________

Mobile Phone

MOBILE PHONE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Device:          □ iPhone  □ Android  □ Other: _______
Carrier:         _______________________________________
Phone Number:    _______________________________________
PIN/Passcode:    □ Stored with master password  □ Location: _______
Biometric:       □ Face ID  □ Fingerprint  □ None
Apple ID/Google: _______________________________________
                 (See separate entry for full details)

WHY THIS MATTERS: Phone receives 2FA codes for most accounts

INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXECUTOR:
1. Keep phone charged and accessible
2. Do not reset or update until accounts are secured
3. 2FA codes will come here for many accounts
_________________________________________________________________

Tier 2: Financial Accounts

Bank Accounts

BANK ACCOUNT: _________________________ (Institution Name)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Type:            □ Checking  □ Savings  □ CD  □ Money Market
Account Number:  Last 4: ______ (Full in password manager)
Routing Number:  _______________________________________
Online Login:    □ In password manager
Physical Branch: _______________________________________
                 Contact: _______________________________
Authorized Users: _______________________________________
Linked Accounts: _______________________________________

POD/TOD:         □ Yes - Beneficiary: _____________________
                 □ No
Joint Account:   □ Yes - With: ___________________________
                 □ No

DEATH INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Contact bank with death certificate
2. Present Letters Testamentary if applicable
3. Request account access/closure
_________________________________________________________________

[Repeat for each bank account]

Investment Accounts

INVESTMENT ACCOUNT: _________________________ (Institution)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Type:            □ Brokerage  □ 401(k)  □ IRA  □ Roth IRA  □ Other
Account Number:  Last 4: ______
Online Access:   □ In password manager
Current Value:   Approximately $____________ (as of ______)
Beneficiaries:   _______________________________________
Employer (if applicable): ______________________________

DEATH INSTRUCTIONS:
_________________________________________________________________

Cryptocurrency

CRYPTOCURRENCY HOLDINGS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚠️ THIS SECTION IS CRITICAL - PRIVATE KEYS = OWNERSHIP ⚠️

EXCHANGE ACCOUNTS:
Exchange #1: ____________________
  Login:     □ In password manager
  2FA:       □ Method: _______
  Holdings:  Approximately $_______ in _______

Exchange #2: ____________________
  Login:     □ In password manager
  2FA:       □ Method: _______
  Holdings:  Approximately $_______ in _______

HARDWARE WALLETS:
Device Type:     □ Ledger  □ Trezor  □ Other: _______
Physical Location: _____________________________________
PIN:             □ Stored at: __________________________
Holdings:        Approximately $_______ in _______

SEED PHRASES (24-word recovery):
⚠️ NEVER STORE DIGITALLY UNLESS ENCRYPTED ⚠️
Location #1:     _____________________________________
Location #2:     _____________________________________ (if split)
Format:          □ Written  □ Metal plate  □ Split storage

SOFTWARE WALLETS:
Wallet Name:     _______________________________________
Seed Phrase:     □ Location: ____________________________

CRYPTO-SAVVY HELPER:
Name:            _______________________________________
Contact:         _______________________________________
Relationship:    _______________________________________
They can help with: ____________________________________

INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXECUTOR:
1. DO NOT share seed phrases with anyone until you verify trust
2. Contact crypto-savvy helper before moving anything
3. Exchange accounts: standard login, request account closure
4. Hardware wallets: need physical device + PIN + potentially seed phrase
5. Consider: hold or liquidate based on my wishes: _________________
_________________________________________________________________

Tier 3: Digital Services & Subscriptions

Streaming Services

STREAMING SUBSCRIPTIONS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
□ Netflix        Email: _______  Card: ending ____  $ ___/mo
□ Spotify        Email: _______  Card: ending ____  $ ___/mo
□ Apple Music    Email: _______  Card: ending ____  $ ___/mo
□ Disney+        Email: _______  Card: ending ____  $ ___/mo
□ HBO Max        Email: _______  Card: ending ____  $ ___/mo
□ Amazon Prime   Email: _______  Card: ending ____  $ ___/mo
□ YouTube Premium Email: _______ Card: ending ____  $ ___/mo
□ Hulu           Email: _______  Card: ending ____  $ ___/mo
□ Other: _______ Email: _______  Card: ending ____  $ ___/mo

ACTION: □ Cancel all immediately  □ Transfer to: _________
_________________________________________________________________

Software Subscriptions

SOFTWARE SUBSCRIPTIONS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
□ Microsoft 365  Account: _______  $ ___/mo
□ Adobe CC       Account: _______  $ ___/mo
□ Dropbox        Account: _______  $ ___/mo
□ iCloud+        Account: _______  $ ___/mo
□ Google One     Account: _______  $ ___/mo
□ VPN: _________ Account: _______  $ ___/mo
□ Other: _______ Account: _______  $ ___/mo

PRIORITY DATA TO DOWNLOAD:
From Dropbox: _________________________________________
From iCloud:  _________________________________________
From Google:  _________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

Domain & Hosting

DOMAINS & WEBSITES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Domain Registrar: _________________________ (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)
  Account:        □ In password manager
  Domains owned:  _______________________________________
  Auto-renew:     □ Yes  □ No
  Expiration dates: ____________________________________

Web Hosting: _________________________
  Account:        □ In password manager
  Sites hosted:   _______________________________________
  Monthly cost:   $_______

INSTRUCTIONS:
□ Let domains expire
□ Transfer to: ________________
□ Keep site running for ___ years
□ Archive content before shutdown
_________________________________________________________________

Tier 4: Social Media & Digital Legacy

SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

FACEBOOK
Username/Email:  _______________________________________
Legacy Contact:  □ Set up: ___________________  □ Not set up
Memorialization: □ Memorialize after death  □ Delete after death
Archive:         □ Download before deletion
Instructions:    _______________________________________

INSTAGRAM
Username:        _______________________________________
Linked to FB:    □ Yes  □ No
Instructions:    □ Memorialize  □ Delete  □ Leave

TWITTER/X
Username:        _______________________________________
Instructions:    □ Request deletion  □ Leave (will eventually be purged)
Archive:         □ Download first  □ Don't need

LINKEDIN
Profile URL:     _______________________________________
Instructions:    □ Memorialize  □ Delete
Download:        □ Data export first  □ Don't need

TIKTOK
Username:        _______________________________________
Instructions:    □ Request deletion  □ Leave

YOUTUBE
Channel:         _______________________________________
Content value:   □ Preserve  □ Delete  □ Transfer to: ________
Monetization:    □ Yes - AdSense: ____________  □ No

OTHER: ______________
Username:        _______________________________________
Instructions:    _______________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

Tier 5: Photos & Digital Memories

PHOTO STORAGE LOCATIONS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
□ iCloud Photos
    Apple ID:     _______________________________________
    Storage used: _____ GB

□ Google Photos
    Account:      _______________________________________
    Storage used: _____ GB

□ Amazon Photos
    Account:      _______________________________________

□ External Hard Drive
    Location:     _______________________________________
    Last backup:  _______________________________________

□ Computer Local Storage
    Location:     _______________________________________
    Folder:       _______________________________________

□ Old Phones (not transferred)
    Location:     _______________________________________

□ Social Media (Facebook, Instagram archives)
    Download needed: □ Yes  □ Already done

MASTER PHOTO LOCATION: _________________________________
(This is where the consolidated archive should go)

INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXECUTOR:
1. Consolidate all photos to: _________________________
2. Share with: _______________________________________
3. Preserve these specific albums/events: ______________
_________________________________________________________________

Annual Review Checklist

Complete this review once per year:

DATE OF REVIEW: _______________

□ New accounts added since last review? Document them.
□ Passwords changed? Update password manager.
□ New devices? Document access methods.
□ Beneficiaries still correct?
□ Legacy contacts still appropriate?
□ Digital executor still the right person?
□ Crypto holdings changed significantly?
□ New subscriptions to add to cancel list?
□ Tested emergency access recently?
□ Physical locations of documents still accurate?

CHANGES MADE THIS REVIEW:
1. _________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________

NEXT REVIEW DATE: _______________

Quick Reference Card

Print this and store with your master password:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           DIGITAL ESTATE QUICK REFERENCE            │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                     │
│ DIGITAL EXECUTOR: _________________________         │
│ PHONE: ____________________________________         │
│                                                     │
│ MASTER PASSWORD LOCATION: ________________          │
│ ___________________________________________         │
│                                                     │
│ PASSWORD MANAGER: ________________________          │
│ EMERGENCY ACCESS ENABLED: □ Yes  □ No              │
│                                                     │
│ PRIMARY EMAIL: ____________________________         │
│ PHONE PASSCODE LOCATION: _________________          │
│                                                     │
│ CRYPTO SEED PHRASE LOCATION: _____________          │
│ CRYPTO HELPER: ___________________________          │
│                                                     │
│ FULL DOCUMENTATION LOCATION: _____________          │
│ ___________________________________________         │
│                                                     │
│ Updated: ________________                           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘