Digital Legacy Planning Checklist

When someone passes away or becomes seriously ill, their family is often left to piece together a digital life they didn't fully understand. Email accounts they didn't know existed. Subscriptions that keep charging for months. Photo libraries locked behind passwords no one has. Cryptocurrency that, without the right keys, is gone forever.

Unlike a bank account or a house, digital assets don't come with an obvious paper trail. There's no deed, no monthly statement arriving by mail. Everything lives behind a login — and if no one can get past that login, the assets, memories, and information behind it may be permanently inaccessible.

This checklist walks through every category of digital asset your family would need to deal with, what to document for each, and how to make sure the right person can step in when it matters. If you're just starting to think about this, our free readiness check will show you where your biggest gaps are right now.

1. Passwords and Account Access

Everything starts here. If a trusted person can't get into your accounts, none of the other categories on this checklist matter. You don't need to share passwords directly — you need a system that grants access when it's needed.

If you remember one thing from this checklist: your phone and your email account are the keys to your entire digital life. If someone can access those two things, they can reset almost everything else.

2. Email Accounts

Email is the master key to your digital identity. Bank password resets, CRA notifications, subscription confirmations, and legal correspondence all flow through email. If a family member can't access your email after you're gone, they'll struggle to manage almost everything else.

Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you choose what happens to your account after a period of inactivity — you can designate contacts to receive specific data, or have the account deleted entirely. It takes five minutes to set up and is one of the most thoughtful things you can do for your digital legacy.

3. Social Media Accounts

Social media accounts hold years of memories, connections, and personal expression. Each platform handles death differently, and the process for memorializing or closing an account varies widely.

Each platform's policies change over time, so the most durable approach is to document what accounts exist and what you'd like done with them. Your executor or a trusted family member can then follow the current process for each platform.

4. Cloud Storage and Photo Libraries

This is where the memories live. Thousands of family photos, videos of children growing up, important documents scanned and stored in the cloud — all of it potentially locked behind a login that no one else has.

5. Financial and Cryptocurrency Accounts

Traditional financial accounts are usually discoverable — banks send statements, employers have records, and executors can trace funds. Cryptocurrency is different. If the private keys or recovery seed phrases are lost, the assets are gone permanently. There is no bank manager to call, no estate department, no recovery process.

Unlike a bank account, there is no customer service number for a lost crypto wallet. If the seed phrase is gone, the assets are gone. Full stop. This makes documenting crypto one of the most urgent items on this checklist.

For traditional accounts, make sure your emergency document checklist includes a list of all financial institutions. For digital-specific assets, the level of detail about keys and seed phrases is what matters.

6. Subscriptions and Recurring Payments

After someone passes away, subscriptions keep charging. Netflix, Spotify, gym memberships, software licenses, cloud storage, domain name renewals, app subscriptions — these can quietly drain an account for months before anyone notices. Documenting them saves your family money and hassle.

The easiest way to find subscriptions you've forgotten about is to search your email for "subscription," "receipt," or "invoice." Also check your credit card and bank statements for recurring charges — this often reveals services you didn't even remember signing up for.

7. Digital Files and Documents

Beyond what's stored in cloud services, you likely have important files scattered across devices — tax returns on a laptop, scanned documents in a Downloads folder, a will draft in an email attachment. Creating an inventory of where important digital files live saves your family from a frustrating digital scavenger hunt.

For a deeper guide to organizing all your important documents — physical and digital — see our article on how to organize important documents. It walks through a complete filing system that pairs naturally with this digital legacy checklist.

Putting It Together: The Digital Legacy Plan

Once you've worked through the categories above, you need to make sure the plan is accessible. A digital legacy plan that no one can find doesn't help anyone.

1. Choose a trusted person — this might be your executor, your spouse, an adult child, or a close friend. They need to be someone who will still be reachable and willing to act.
2. Create a digital asset inventory — a single document that lists all your digital accounts, where they live, and what should happen to each. Ready File's What Goes In guide includes a template for this.
3. Store access credentials securely — use your password manager's emergency access feature, or store recovery information in a physical safe. Never email passwords or store them in an unencrypted document.
4. Write instructions — for each major account, note what you'd like done: memorialized, deleted, transferred, or preserved. This removes the burden of guessing from your family.
5. Review annually — you'll add new accounts, close old ones, and change passwords. A yearly review keeps the plan current.

This is also where estate planning intersects with digital legacy. If you're thinking about what happens if you die without a will in Canada, digital assets are part of that conversation — your executor needs both the legal authority and the practical means to manage your digital life.