The 20-minute digital estate: legacy contacts, set up today
Photos in iCloud, decades of email, the password manager holding everything else — without setup, families face support tickets, court orders and hard refusals. With setup, it's four switches that take twenty minutes total.
The four switches
Apple — Legacy Contact (Settings → your name → Sign-In & Security): designates who can access your iCloud data after death with a death certificate + the access key it generates. Print that key — it belongs in the binder, added by pen.
Google — Inactive Account Manager (myaccount.google.com/inactive): after a chosen period of inactivity, shares selected data with chosen people or deletes the account. Set the timeout and the trusted contact.
Facebook/Instagram — Memorialization: choose a legacy contact to manage a memorialized profile, or opt for deletion.
Password manager — Emergency Access (1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass all have it): a trusted person can request access; you get a waiting period to decline. This one switch effectively wills your ENTIRE digital life — set it first.
What goes in the paper binder
Not passwords. Just the map: which password manager you use, who holds emergency access, that Apple/Google legacy settings exist and who's named. Plus the Apple access key, penned in by hand. Our binder maker's accounts page has exactly these lines waiting for a pen.
The subscription graveyard
List recurring charges somewhere findable — streaming, cloud storage, domains, insurance riders. Families report months of mystery charges after a death; a ten-line inventory ends that.
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Frequently asked questions
Can my family access my iCloud or Gmail without setup?
Usually only through slow legal processes, sometimes not at all — both Apple and Google have refused grieving families without pre-set legacy access. The 20-minute setup avoids all of it.
Is sharing my password manager's master password a good idea?
No — use its built-in Emergency Access feature instead: the trusted person requests access, and you have a window to decline while alive. No standing shared secret.
What happens to a Facebook account when someone dies?
It can be memorialized (managed by your chosen legacy contact) or deleted on request with documentation — you choose in advance in settings.