Digital Estate Planning: How to Protect Your Online Life and Digital Assets

Your Digital Life Is Worth More Than You Think

Think about everything you have online right now.

Years of photos stored in the cloud. Email accounts with decades of conversations. Social media profiles documenting your life. Streaming subscriptions. Online banking. Investment accounts. Maybe cryptocurrency. Domain names. A side business run entirely through digital platforms.

Now ask yourself: if something happened to you tomorrow, who could access any of it?

For most people, the honest answer is nobody. And that's a problem.

Digital assets have become a significant part of our lives and our wealth. Yet traditional estate planning was designed for a world of physical property, bank vaults, and paper documents. It wasn't built for passwords, two-factor authentication, and terms of service agreements.

This gap leaves families scrambling when someone dies or becomes incapacitated. Important files get lost forever. Accounts sit abandoned. Subscriptions keep charging. Crypto wallets become inaccessible. Memories vanish into the digital void.

Digital estate planning fixes all of this. And it's easier than you think.

What Counts as a Digital Asset?

Digital assets fall into several categories, and you probably have more than you realize:

Financial accounts and assets:

• Online bank accounts

• Investment and brokerage accounts

• PayPal, Venmo, and payment apps

• Cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.)

• NFTs and digital collectibles

• Reward points and airline miles (these can be worth thousands)

Business and income-generating assets:

• Domain names

• Websites and blogs

• Online stores (Etsy, Shopify, Amazon seller accounts)

• Affiliate marketing accounts

• Ad revenue accounts (Google AdSense, YouTube Partner)

• Intellectual property (ebooks, courses, digital products)

• Client files and business documents

Personal accounts and content:

• Email accounts (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo)

• Cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud)

• Photo libraries (Google Photos, Amazon Photos, Apple Photos)

• Social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, TikTok)

• Streaming subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify, Apple Music)

• Gaming accounts (Steam, PlayStation, Xbox) with purchased games

• Password managers

Sentimental digital property:

• Family photos and videos

• Personal journals or blogs

• Creative work (writing, art, music)

• Message histories and correspondence

Each of these has value—financial, practical, or emotional. And each presents unique challenges for your loved ones if you haven't planned ahead.

The Problem: Why Families Struggle to Access Digital Assets

When someone dies, their family faces an immediate challenge: how do you access accounts you don't have passwords for?

Passwords are the first barrier. Most people don't share their passwords, and for good reason—security experts tell us not to. But this creates a catch-22: keeping passwords private protects you while you're alive, but locks everyone out when you're gone.

Two-factor authentication makes it worse. Even if your family finds a password written down somewhere, they might not be able to get past the text message or authenticator app verification. And if your phone is locked with a passcode or biometrics, that's another barrier.

Terms of service vary wildly. Every platform has different rules about what happens when a user dies. Some will help families, some won't, and some have specific processes that require death certificates, legal documentation, or proof of inheritance. Facebook has a "memorialization" process. Google has an Inactive Account Manager. Apple has a Legacy Contact feature. But families rarely know these exist—and figuring it out while grieving is overwhelming.

Legal access isn't automatic. Being named in someone's will doesn't automatically give you the right to access their accounts. Many platforms argue that their terms of service—which users agreed to—prohibit sharing account access. There have been court cases where families fought for years to access a deceased loved one's email or social media.

Cryptocurrency is especially risky. Unlike traditional assets, crypto often has no customer service to call. If someone dies without sharing their wallet passwords or phrases, those assets are gone forever. Billions of dollars in Bitcoin are estimated to be permanently inaccessible because the owners died without leaving access information.

The result? Families lose access to irreplaceable photos, can't close accounts that keep getting charged, struggle to access funds they're legally entitled to, and watch as an entire digital life slips away.

The Solution: Building a Digital Estate Plan

A digital estate plan ensures your loved ones can access, manage, and close your digital accounts according to your wishes. Here's how to create one:

Step 1: Inventory Your Digital Assets

You can't plan for what you don't know you have. Start by making a comprehensive list of every digital account and asset.

Go through your:

• Password manager (if you use one)

• Email for account confirmation messages

• Bank and credit card statements for subscription charges

• Phone for installed apps

• Browser bookmarks and saved passwords

For each account, note:

• The platform or service name

• Your username or email associated with it

• Whether it has financial value

• What you'd want done with it (transferred, closed, memorialized, deleted)

This inventory is the foundation of your digital estate plan. Without it, your family won't even know what exists.

Within the Herbie platform, you can track your assets.

Step 2: Organize Access Information

Once you know what you have, you need to ensure someone can access it.

Option A: Password manager with emergency access. Many password managers (like 1Password, LastPass, Dashlane, or Bitwarden) have emergency access features. You designate someone who can request access to your vault. After a waiting period (which you set), they gain entry unless you deny the request. This is the most secure method because passwords stay encrypted until needed.

Option B: Encrypted document or secure storage. Create a document with your account information and store it securely—in an encrypted file, a safe deposit box, or with your attorney. Update it whenever passwords change.

Option C: Legacy contact features. Use platform-specific tools where available:

• Apple: Add a Legacy Contact in your Apple ID settings

• Google: Set up Inactive Account Manager to share data or notify contacts after inactivity

• Facebook: Designate a Legacy Contact to manage your memorialized profile

• Password managers: Enable emergency access for a trusted person

The key is choosing someone trustworthy and making sure they know the plan exists (without necessarily giving them access now).

Step 3: Include Digital Assets in Your Will

Your will should explicitly address digital assets. This does two things: it makes clear what you want done with them, and it gives your executor legal authority to manage them.

Modern platforms like Herbie automatically include a provision in your Will that allows your Executor to handle your digital assets alongside your other estate planning documents.

Some people go even further and appoint a "digital executor"—either your regular executor or a more tech-savvy person you trust. Let them know they've been named and where to find your digital asset inventory.

Step 4: Leave Specific Instructions

Beyond access, your family needs to know what you actually want done with each account. Your preferences might vary:

Transfer to someone:

• Financial accounts (obvious)

• Domain names with value

• Business accounts with ongoing revenue

• Crypto wallets

Memorialize:

• Social media profiles (Facebook and Instagram offer this)

• Personal websites or blogs you want preserved

Download and preserve:

• Photo libraries

• Important emails or messages

• Creative work

Delete:

• Dating profiles

• Accounts with embarrassing content

• Anything you wouldn't want family to see

Close:

• Subscriptions

• Unused accounts

• Services that would keep charging

Write these instructions clearly and store them with your digital asset inventory. Your family is dealing with grief—don't make them guess what you'd want.

Step 5: Handle Cryptocurrency Specifically

Crypto deserves special attention because of its unique risks. If you own any cryptocurrency:

Document your holdings. List every wallet, exchange account, and type of crypto you own. Include approximate values so your executor understands the scope.

Secure your seed phrases/recovery phrases. These 12-24 word phrases are the master key to your crypto. Write them down on paper (never store digitally) and put them somewhere secure—a safe deposit box, a fireproof safe, or split between multiple locations for security.

Explain how to access it. Most people don't understand crypto. Leave simple instructions: which exchanges you use, how to log in, how to use hardware wallets, and how to convert crypto to regular currency if desired.

Consider a specialized service. Some companies now offer crypto inheritance services with multi-signature access and time-delayed release. For significant holdings, this might be worth exploring.

The bottom line: crypto that can't be accessed is crypto that's lost forever. Take this seriously.

Step 6: Review and Update Regularly

Digital lives change fast. You open new accounts, close old ones, change passwords, and accumulate new assets. Your digital estate plan needs to keep pace.

Review your inventory and instructions at least once a year. Update your password manager emergency access if you change providers. Revise your will if your digital executor situation changes.

Services like Herbie make updates easy—you get unlimited changes to your documents for no cost, so there's no excuse not to keep things current.

Special Situations

If you run an online business: Your business accounts, customer data, and revenue streams need clear succession plans. Who takes over? How do they access everything? What happens to customer relationships? Document this carefully, and consider whether your regular executor is the right person to handle business matters.

If you have significant social media presence: Influencer accounts, YouTube channels, and large followings have real value. Specify whether you want these memorialized, transferred to someone who'll continue your work, or deleted. Some platforms allow account transfers under specific circumstances.

If you have digital creative work: Writing, music, art, photography—these are intellectual property that can continue generating income. Make sure your copyright ownership transfers properly through your will, and specify who should control licensing decisions.

If you value privacy: You might have accounts or content you don't want family to see. Consider designating a trusted friend (rather than family) as digital executor, or use services that allow you to specify that certain accounts should be deleted without being accessed.

What Happens If You Don't Plan?

Without a digital estate plan, here's the realistic outcome:

Your family will spend hours (or days) trying to figure out what accounts you had. They'll guess at passwords, get locked out, and navigate confusing platform policies while grieving. Some accounts will keep charging your estate. Cryptocurrency will likely be lost forever if you haven't shared access. Photos, messages, and memories stored only in the cloud may become permanently inaccessible. Your social media might sit abandoned, still sending birthday reminders to friends and getting tagged in old photos. Business accounts might go dormant, costing customers and revenue.

Eventually, some accounts will get sorted out—but not all. And the process will be far more painful and time-consuming than it needed to be.

Getting Started Is Simple

Digital estate planning sounds technical, but the actual steps are straightforward:

1. Make a list of your digital accounts and assets

2. Set up access through a password manager or secure document

3. Include digital assets in your will with clear instructions

4. Tell your digital executor the plan exists and where to find information

5. Review annually and update as needed

You can start right now by opening a document and listing every digital account you can think of. That alone puts you ahead of 90% of people.

For the legal side—including provisions in your will that give your executor authority to manage digital assets—platforms like Herbie make it easy to create comprehensive estate plans that include digital considerations. 

Your Digital Legacy Matters

We spend years building our digital lives. Our photos capture moments we treasure. Our emails contain conversations with people we love. Our accounts hold financial value and represent our work. Our online presence is, in many ways, an extension of who we are.

All of it deserves protection.

Digital estate planning ensures that your digital life doesn't become a source of stress and loss for your loved ones. It ensures that the photos get preserved, the accounts get handled properly, the crypto doesn't vanish, and your family isn't left navigating a maze of passwords and policies during the worst time of their lives.

This is one of those things that takes a few hours now and saves countless hours of anguish later.

So start today. Make the list. Set up the access. Include it in your will. And then rest easier knowing that your entire life—digital and otherwise—is protected.

Ready to protect your digital legacy? Start today with Herbie to create a will that includes your digital assets. It's free to start, and you can complete everything in under an hour.