Digital legacy planning, explained

What happens to your accounts when you die?

By default, not much — and that's the problem. Most online services lock accounts the moment they can't verify the owner. Some platforms offer memorialization or legacy contacts, but policies vary widely, and families routinely spend months proving their right to access photos, funds, or even a simple email account.

Two-factor authentication makes this harder still: without access to your phone or password manager, even a court order may not get your family into the accounts that matter. The only reliable way to hand over access is to prepare it yourself, in advance.

Five steps to plan your digital legacy

• 1. Take inventory

  List the accounts and assets that matter: email, banking, photos, social media, subscriptions, domains, crypto. You'll be surprised how long the list is.

• 2. Decide who gets what

  Different people need different things. Your partner may need financial access, a sibling may handle your social accounts, a friend may take care of a project.

• 3. Write down the practical details

  Where documents live, what needs to be cancelled, who should be told. Plain instructions save your family weeks of guesswork at the worst possible time.

• 4. Write the personal messages

  A digital legacy isn't just logistics. Letters to the people you love are often the most valuable thing you can leave behind.

• 5. Keep it current — and keep it secure

  Passwords change and accounts come and go, so your plan needs to be easy to update. It also holds your most sensitive information, so it must be encrypted — not a note in a drawer or an unprotected document in the cloud.

Where a dead man's switch fits in

The hardest part of digital legacy planning is delivery: your plan has to stay completely private while you're alive, yet reach the right people reliably when you're not. Sharing everything now is a security risk; sharing nothing means your plan may never be found.

A dead man's switch solves exactly this. You keep your legacy plan in encrypted message boxes, confirm you're okay with periodic check-ins, and delivery happens only if you stop responding. No lawyer, no shared passwords, no relying on someone finding the right folder.

How PostMortem helps

PostMortem gives you one private place for your entire digital legacy plan. Create a message box per person, add your letters, instructions, and files, and share each recipient's access key with them in advance. Everything is end-to-end encrypted, so no one — including PostMortem — can read it while you're alive.

When you stop responding to check-ins, each recipient receives exactly what you prepared for them, and nothing more.