As our world becomes increasingly digital, it’s worth asking a question most of us avoid: what happens to all of this when I die?
If you’re like most Canadians, your digital footprint is larger than you realize. You might have a music collection spanning thousands of tracks, hundreds of ebooks, cloud storage filled with photos and documents, and online accounts you’ve long forgotten about. One count I did recently turned up nearly 400 web accounts — email, social media, cloud storage, streaming services, and more. What happens to all of that when you’re gone?
The Uncomfortable Reality: Most Accounts Just Disappear
After working through the End User License Agreements (EULAs) for many common services, the answer is uncomfortable: most online accounts are not transferable assets. When you die, they either go unaddressed (because the provider doesn’t have a policy), or they are terminated outright. That music library you spent years building? Gone. The cloud storage full of family photos? Potentially inaccessible. The ebooks, the subscriptions, the stored files — all of it exists in a legal grey zone that your traditional will was never designed to handle.
This is an important distinction: your physical assets — computers, tablets, smartphones — are part of your estate and can be distributed through your will. But your accounts are a different matter entirely. They’re governed by service agreements, not estate law, and most providers won’t grant access to even your closest family members without prior authorization from you.
Your Digital Life Extends Beyond Accounts
There’s another dimension worth considering: your relationships and presence in online communities. If you participate in online forums, social groups, or collaborative projects, the people you interact with regularly may have no way of knowing you’ve passed. Unlike a local community, your online connections likely span cities and countries — and news of your passing won’t reach them automatically.
What would you want to happen to your websites, your social media profiles, your blog? Would you want your Facebook memorialized or deleted? Who would notify your online communities? These are questions worth answering now, not leaving for your family to guess at.
A Practical Plan for Your Digital Legacy
The good news is that creating a digital legacy plan doesn’t have to be complicated. A single focused afternoon is enough to get it done. Here’s what to work through:
- Make a list of all your accounts — email, social media, cloud storage, streaming, financial portals, subscriptions, and anything else you log into regularly
- Decide what matters — scratch off anything you’d be fine with simply expiring; focus on accounts with financial value, sentimental content, or ongoing commitments
- Record your login credentials securely — a password manager with an emergency access feature (like 1Password or Bitwarden) is the safest way to store this; your executor can be granted access
- Leave instructions for each account — should it be closed, memorialized, or passed on? Be specific; don’t leave it to your family to decide under emotional pressure
- Name a digital executor — this can be the same person as your estate executor, or someone more tech-savvy if your digital life is complex; name them in your will
- Draft a notification plan — who needs to be told, and how? Consider leaving a short message to be posted on your social profiles or sent to your online communities
- Keep your plan separate from your will — your will becomes public record after your death; passwords and login credentials should never appear in it. Keep your digital instructions in a secure separate document and reference it in your will
What About Online Legacy Services?
You may have come across companies that offer to store your digital legacy information for you — passwords, account lists, final messages — for a monthly or annual fee. While the concept is sound, there are real concerns worth weighing:
- A well-organized password manager combined with a clear letter of instruction achieves the same result at a fraction of the cost.
- Many are startup companies; there’s no guarantee they’ll exist in 10 or 20 years
- Costs can add up significantly over time
Start With Your Will
Planning your digital legacy starts with having a solid, up-to-date will. Your will is where you name your executor, authorize them to access your digital assets, and reference your digital instructions document. Without that authorization in place, even your closest family members may be legally unable to act on your accounts.
WillKit makes it simple to create a legally valid Canadian will from home — written by a Canadian lawyer, designed for straightforward estates, and easy to update as your life changes. Once your will is in place, layering in a digital legacy plan on top of it is a natural next step.
Get Prepared for Your Digital Legacy
Thinking about your digital assets and what you might want them treated after your death is a worthwhile investment, I think. For more tips on how to write your legal will, check out the new online service from Self-Counsel Press called WillKit!
