Digital Legacy
A digital estate checklist
The digital material across this site, condensed into a sequence you can work through in an evening.
Daniel Krajewski
28 articles by Krajewski
Wills & Estates
The annual review: half an hour, once a year
Plans go out of date silently. A short annual check catches the things that have changed and prevents most of the problems on this site.
Wills & Estates
Making a will yourself, and when not to
Home-made and online wills are valid in principle and they are where most of the disputes come from. Knowing which situations are straightforward is what determines whether to risk it.
Family Conversations
When you are both the executor and the family
Administering an estate while grieving, for a family who are also beneficiaries, is a combination of roles that generates most of the complaints made against executors.
Digital Legacy
Phones, laptops and what to do with the devices
The physical devices hold the keys to everything else, and what is done with them in the first days determines what can be recovered.
Wills & Estates
Life insurance and death benefits
Insurance and pension death benefits frequently pass outside the will, which makes the beneficiary form more consequential than the will itself for those assets.
Wills & Estates
What happens to the animals
Pets are property in law, they are family in fact, and the gap between those two positions produces some genuinely bad outcomes.
Digital Legacy
Identity theft after a death
Deceased people are targeted for fraud because the accounts remain open, nobody is monitoring them, and the death is announced publicly.
Wills & Estates
Leaving money to charity
Charitable legacies are a substantial source of funding for the voluntary sector and a common source of family dispute, and both facts are worth knowing.
Family Conversations
Second marriages, stepchildren and competing claims
Blended families are common and the default legal arrangements were designed for a different structure, which produces predictable and avoidable conflict.
Digital Legacy
Making a digital inventory
The single most useful digital preparation is a list of what exists. It contains no passwords, takes an evening, and turns an impossible task into a manageable one.
Wills & Estates
The letter of wishes, and who gets the clock
Disputes over personal possessions are more common and more bitter than disputes over money, and a short informal document prevents most of them.
Family Conversations
Talking to parents about money
The financial conversation is harder than the medical one, because it touches independence, inheritance and the suspicion that you are asking for your own reasons.
Wills & Estates
Assets in another country
Cross-border estates are considerably more complicated than domestic ones, and the complications are frequently discovered by an executor rather than anticipated by the testator.
Digital Legacy
The email account is the master key
Almost every other account can be recovered through the email address attached to it, which makes email the single most important digital asset and the one most worth planning for.
Advance Directives
Mental capacity: what it means and how it is assessed
Capacity is decision-specific, time-specific and presumed to be present. Families frequently misunderstand all three, with consequences for the decisions that follow.
Wills & Estates
When a will is challenged
Disputes over wills are expensive, slow and destructive, and most of them arise from a small number of avoidable circumstances.
Advance Directives
Power of attorney for finances: the document to do first
A power of attorney only works if it is made while the person still has capacity, which means the moment people realise they need one is frequently the moment it becomes impossible.
Wills & Estates
Estate and inheritance tax: the general shape
Systems differ enormously and a few structural features recur. Knowing which type of system applies to you determines what planning is even relevant.
Digital Legacy
Cryptocurrency and assets that vanish
Some digital assets are irrecoverable without a specific piece of information. There is no institution to appeal to, and a substantial amount has already been lost this way.
Wills & Estates
Trusts: when they are worth the complexity
Trusts are marketed heavily and needed by a minority. Knowing the problems they actually solve is the fastest way to work out whether you have one of them.
Digital Legacy
Social media accounts after a death
Platforms have developed policies for accounts of people who have died, and the options differ considerably. What you can arrange in advance is more than most people realise.
Wills & Estates
Probate: what the process actually involves
The legal process of administering an estate takes longer than families expect, and understanding the sequence makes the delay less alarming.
Wills & Estates
Choosing an executor, and what you are actually asking
The job involves months of administration, legal responsibility, and frequently the management of family disappointment. Most people appoint on the basis of affection.
Digital Legacy
Password managers and the emergency access problem
The practical mechanism for passing on access to your accounts already exists and most people have not set it up.
Wills & Estates
Dying without a will: what actually happens
Intestacy rules decide who inherits when there is no will, and they frequently produce results that bear no relation to what the person would have chosen.
Digital Legacy
The accounts problem: what happens to your digital life
Most people now hold significant assets, records and memories in online accounts that their family will have no legal right or practical ability to access.
Wills & Estates
What a will actually does, and what it cannot do
A will is a narrower instrument than most people assume. A surprising amount of what people expect it to cover passes outside it entirely.