Checklist · Digital estate planning
The complete digital asset management checklist for estate planning
Most estate plans still assume paper. But the assets that matter most to your family today — crypto, cloud photos, subscriptions, social profiles, business accounts — live behind logins that quietly disappear when nobody knows they exist. This checklist walks you through identifying, securing and handing over your digital assets, so nothing important is lost and nothing sensitive is exposed.
1. Access & credentials
- List every email address and which accounts recover through it
- Record password manager provider and how to unlock the vault
- Document two-factor recovery codes and hardware key locations
- Note SIM / phone-number recovery details
2. Crypto & financial digital assets
- Inventory exchanges, wallets and custody arrangements
- Record seed-phrase custody plan (never store the phrase itself online)
- List NFT holdings, DeFi positions and staking arrangements
- Note tax records and cost-basis exports
3. Cloud storage & files
- iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox — accounts and admins
- Photo libraries and family memories worth preserving
- Business documents, contracts and IP stored personally
- Backup services and where the master copy lives
4. Social media & online presence
- List every profile and whether it should be memorialised, archived, or closed
- Nominate Legacy Contacts on platforms that support them (Facebook, Apple, Google)
- Record blogs, newsletters and creator accounts with revenue
- Note domains, hosting and DNS registrars
5. Handover instructions
- Nominate who receives what, and when
- Write plain-language instructions for each category
- Align digital assets with your will and estate plan
- Review annually — accounts, contacts and wishes drift
Keep the checklist somewhere your family can actually reach
A checklist in a drawer helps no one. My Life's Vault is the secure home for these instructions — encrypted, permission-controlled, and released only to the people you nominate, only when they need it.