Most people plan their physical estate but ignore the digital one. Email, social media, cloud storage and subscriptions all outlive their owner — and executors are often locked out of every one. A digital estate plan fixes that.
List every account: email providers, social platforms, streaming and software subscriptions, cloud drives, domain registrations, and financial logins. For each, record the service, the handle or email, and roughly what it costs. You cannot plan what you cannot see.
Not every account should be handled the same way. Decide for each whether it should be memorialized (kept as a memorial), transferred (handed to a successor), closed, or deleted. Social profiles often support memorialization; subscriptions should almost always be cancelled.
Google has an Inactive Account Manager. Facebook and Instagram allow memorialization or removal with proof. X and LinkedIn have their own procedures. Banks and financial platforms require legal documentation — a death certificate and executor authority. Each platform's process differs, which is why a checklist matters.
Subscriptions keep billing after death and drain estate funds. Pre-written cancellation notices — with the account holder's name, the service, and the executor's authority — let an executor act fast. Templates remove the drafting burden from someone already grieving.
An account inventory is a security target. Store it offline on your own device, not in a cloud note. Share access only with the person you have named, and only when the time is right.