How to make a digital will

What is a digital will?

A digital will is a document, or a set of documents, that describes your digital assets and your wishes for them. It lists your important accounts, says who should be able to reach them, and explains what you would like done: close this, keep that, hand these photos to the children, cancel those subscriptions. It is sometimes called a digital estate plan, a digital asset inventory, or a digital legacy plan, and the terms overlap a lot.

A traditional will deals with property and money and is written to be read by a court. A digital will is written to be read by a person, usually a partner, a grown child, or a close friend, who needs practical instructions quickly. It is also more alive: accounts and passwords change, so a good digital will is updated as you go rather than signed once and filed away. Our guide to digital legacy planning covers the bigger picture; this one focuses on the document itself.

Is a digital will legally binding?

In most places, a digital will on its own is not a legal will. Whether it carries any weight depends on where you live, how it is written, and whether it is referenced by a will that meets your jurisdiction's formal requirements. Some countries and some US states have laws that let a legally appointed executor ask platforms for access to a deceased person's accounts; many do not, and even where such laws exist they usually work through the formal will or a court process. This is general information, not legal advice.

The practical takeaway: a digital will complements a legal will, it does not replace one. Use the legal will for what only a legal will can do, such as naming an executor and passing on property. Use the digital will for the detail a legal will is a poor place for: account lists, instructions, and what your family needs in the first weeks. Keep passwords out of the legal will itself, since a will can become a public record and is rarely updated when you change a password. If you want the two connected, a lawyer can tell you how to reference your digital instructions in a way that works where you live.

What counts as a digital asset?

Digital assets after death are a broader category than most people expect. Anything online or on a device that has value, meaning, or an ongoing cost belongs in your inventory. A good first pass is to go through your phone and inbox and note everything that asks you to log in.

• Email accounts

  The master key to everything else. Password resets, receipts, and official correspondence all flow through email, so it should be the first entry on your list.

• Photos and personal files

  Cloud photo libraries, backups, documents, and messages. These are the assets families most often say they wish they had been able to recover.

• Financial and crypto accounts

  Online banking, investment and payment apps, and any cryptocurrency wallets or exchange accounts. Crypto deserves special care, because without the keys or seed phrase it can be lost for good.

• Domains and websites

  Domain names, hosting, a blog, or a small online business. These expire if nobody renews them, and a lapsed domain can be bought by anyone.

• Subscriptions and recurring bills

  Streaming, software, storage, memberships. Each one keeps charging a card until someone cancels it, which is hard to do without knowing it exists.

• Loyalty points and credits

  Airline miles, hotel points, store credit, and gift card balances. Some programmes allow transfer on death; nobody can claim what they do not know about.

• Social media and messaging

  Profiles, groups you administer, and conversation histories. Decide whether each should be deleted, memorialised, or left alone.

How to make a digital will, step by step

You do not need special software or a lawyer to start. A digital will is mostly an exercise in writing things down clearly, then keeping them current.

• 1. Take inventory

  List every account and asset you can think of, using your phone, password manager, email, and bank statements as prompts. Note the service, the username used, and roughly what is in it. It need not be complete on day one.

• 2. Decide what should happen to each

  For every entry, write a short instruction: close, keep, transfer, download first, or memorialise. A sentence like 'the photo library goes to Sara, she knows which albums matter' saves a lot of uncertainty.

• 3. Record how to get in

  Credentials belong in a separate, protected place rather than in the instructions themselves. A password manager with an emergency access feature, or an encrypted message box, works well. Our guide to passwords after death goes deeper on this.

• 4. Set up the platforms' own tools

  Google, Apple, and Facebook each offer a way to name someone or set a rule in advance. Turn those on; they are the closest thing to an official route into those accounts.

• 5. Choose your digital executor

  Pick the person who will carry out the plan, talk to them, and make sure they know where the document lives and how to read it.

• 6. Add the personal part

  A digital will is also a chance to say something. Many people add a short letter alongside it; our guide to writing a legacy letter can help you begin.

• 7. Review it on a schedule

  Once or twice a year, or whenever you open a new account or change a major password, read it through and update it. An old digital will that points to accounts that no longer exist can do more harm than good.

Who should be your digital executor?

Your digital executor is the person who will actually use the digital will. In some jurisdictions you can formally name one in your legal will; in others the role is informal, and the person simply acts on your instructions alongside your legal executor and family. Either way, the right choice depends more on temperament than on technical skill.

Look for someone organised, discreet, and likely to be around and able to act. They should be comfortable with ordinary technology but need not be an expert, because your instructions should carry the hard parts. Partners are a natural choice, but name a backup in case your partner is grieving, unwell, or affected by the same event. Talk to the person before you name them: tell them what the role involves, where the document is, and how they will get access.

Where should you store a digital will?

A digital will has two jobs: it has to stay private while you are alive, and it has to be found and readable when you are not. Those goals pull in opposite directions, and most plans fail here rather than in the writing. A paper copy in a drawer is findable but not private and goes out of date. A file in your own cloud storage is private but may be unreachable, because the person who needs it has to get into your account first. A copy held by a solicitor is well protected but can take weeks to reach your family.

The approach that tends to work is layering. Keep the instructions somewhere encrypted that your executor can open without your main passwords. Leave a short note with your legal papers, and tell your executor in person, saying where the full document is and how to unlock it. And make sure the unlock method, whether a shared key, a recovery contact, or a printed access card, is in your executor's hands before anything happens, not after.

How PostMortem fits into a digital will

PostMortem is a free iOS and Android app built around a digital dead man's switch, and it is a natural home for the private part of a digital will. You create message boxes, and each can hold text messages, login credentials, file attachments such as scanned documents and photos, financial records of debts or assets you want known, and the recipients who should receive it.

Messages, credentials, files and debt details are encrypted on your phone before upload, using a personal access key you generate and save yourself; box names, recipient emails and the check-in schedule are not. Each recipient needs the access key card you shared with them in advance to decrypt what they receive, so your digital executor is also the person who holds the key.

Release is driven by check-ins rather than by anyone proving a death. You pick an interval for each box, daily, weekly, monthly, or custom, and confirm you are fine with a tap in the app. If you stop checking in, reminders arrive by email and push at about 60%, 70%, 80% and 90% of the interval, with the last one marked as final; only when it runs out is the box released, and your recipients get an email with a link to open it. You can tell recipients in advance that a box exists for them, or keep it private until release, and a test box lets you see a full release addressed to a +postmortem_test alias of your own email first.

Used this way, PostMortem covers the storage problem directly: the instructions stay private, reach the right person automatically, and the credentials never sit in a will or an unprotected file. It does not make anything legally binding and is not a replacement for a will; it is the sealed envelope that goes alongside one.

Mistakes people make with digital wills

• Putting passwords in the legal will

  Wills can become public and are rarely updated. Point to a protected location instead of writing credentials into the document.

• Never telling anyone it exists

  A perfectly written digital will that nobody knows about is the same as no digital will. Tell your executor and at least one other person where to look.

• Forgetting the email account

  Almost every other account can be recovered through email. If your executor cannot get into your inbox, the rest of the plan becomes much harder.

• Ignoring the platforms' own tools

  Google's Inactive Account Manager, Apple's Legacy Contact, and Facebook's legacy contact and memorialisation settings are free and take minutes. Skipping them means relying on support requests later.

• Leaving out debts and subscriptions

  Families often discover recurring charges and obligations months later. List them. Our guide to debts after death explains what typically happens to them and what to record.

• Treating it as finished

  Accounts, keys, and wishes all change. Put a reminder in your calendar and review the document at least once a year.

Frequently asked questions

• What is the difference between a digital will and a regular will?

  A regular will is a formal legal document that passes on property and names an executor. A digital will is a practical record of your online accounts, digital assets, and wishes for them. The legal will gives authority; the digital will gives instructions.

• Is a digital will legally binding?

  Usually not on its own. Recognition varies by country and state, and in most places a digital will only carries weight if it is connected to a legally valid will. Treat it as a complement to your legal will, not a substitute. This is general information, not legal advice.

• What should I include in a digital will?

  An inventory of your accounts and digital assets, a short instruction for each one, the name of your digital executor, and a pointer to where your credentials are securely stored. Many people also add a personal letter and a list of subscriptions and debts to cancel or settle.

• Should I write my passwords in my will?

  No. Wills can become public records and are rarely updated when passwords change. Store credentials separately in an encrypted place your executor can reach, and reference that location from your will or digital will instead.

• What happens to cryptocurrency when someone dies?

  Crypto held in a self-custody wallet can only be accessed with its private keys or seed phrase. If those are not passed on, the funds are effectively lost. Record where the keys are kept, in a secure and encrypted location, and make sure your executor knows how to use them.

• Do Google, Apple, and Facebook let me plan ahead?

  Yes. Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you decide what happens to your account after a period of inactivity, Apple's Legacy Contact lets you name someone who can request access to your data, and Facebook lets you choose a legacy contact or have your profile memorialised. Setting these up is a sensible part of any digital will.

• How does PostMortem help with a digital will?

  PostMortem keeps the private parts of your digital will, such as instructions, credentials, and files, in end-to-end encrypted message boxes. If you stop checking in, the boxes are released to the recipients you picked, who decrypt them with the access key you shared in advance.