A generation ago, settling an estate meant dealing with paper: bank statements, insurance policies, property deeds. Today, a significant portion of a person's financial life — and their personal legacy — exists entirely in digital form. And most of it is locked.
This is one of the harder parts of modern estate settlement, and almost no one is prepared for it.
Three categories to work through:
Financial digital assets include cryptocurrency, online brokerage accounts, PayPal and Venmo balances, and digital payment accounts. These have real monetary value and require specific steps to access or transfer.
Personal digital assets include cloud photo libraries, email archives, social media accounts, and personal documents stored in cloud services. These may have no monetary value but enormous personal significance.
Subscriptions and services include streaming accounts, software licenses, domain names, and online storage. These need to be cancelled to stop ongoing charges.
Cryptocurrency — the hardest case:
Crypto held in a self-custody wallet — meaning the deceased held their own private keys — may be permanently inaccessible if those keys cannot be found. There is no customer service number to call, no account recovery process. If you know or suspect the deceased held crypto, search immediately for hardware wallets, seed phrases (usually 12 or 24 words written on paper), and any notes about wallet addresses or exchange accounts.
Crypto held on an exchange like Coinbase or Kraken is more recoverable — contact the exchange with a death certificate and executor documentation.
Cloud photos:
Apple, Google, and Amazon all have legacy or next-of-kin processes for accessing a deceased person's photo library. These processes require documentation and take time. Start early if preserving photos matters to you.
The password chain:
Most digital access flows through a single email address and, increasingly, through a phone number for 2FA. Securing access to the email account and keeping the phone number active is the foundation of everything else. Without those two things, most other digital accounts become very difficult to access.
One thing to do for yourself:
If reading this has made you think about your own digital estate — good. Consider writing down your accounts, usernames, and instructions for accessing them. Store it somewhere your executor can find it. It's one of the most practical things you can do for the people who will one day settle your affairs.