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.
Digital Legacy
Accounts, passwords, photos and what platforms allow.
Digital Legacy
A digital estate checklist
The digital material across this site, condensed into a sequence you can work through in an evening.
Digital Legacy
Online memorials and the internet as a place to grieve
Grief has moved substantially online, which has genuine benefits and a set of complications that older forms of mourning did not have.
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.
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.
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.
Digital Legacy
The subscriptions that keep taking money
Recurring payments continue after death until someone stops them, and finding them all is harder than it should be.
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.
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.
Digital Legacy
Photographs and the things people actually want
Families rarely fight over the digital assets that have value. They grieve over the ones that have meaning, and those are the ones most likely to be lost.
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.
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.