The accounts you leave behind need planning too.
By Elizabeth Ndungu | Founder, Ndungu Consulting | Tech Coach for Adults 50+
Your family knows where the will is. They may know where you keep the insurance papers and the spare house key. When your phone is locked and you keep the password to your main email account only in your head, seniors’ digital estate planning becomes urgent.
Picture the first Monday after a death. The electric bill is still on autopay. A streaming service keeps charging. A tax document arrives by email. Family photos are stored in the cloud. Someone needs to sort through it, but the person who knew how everything connected is no longer there to explain it.
That is the problem a 2026 Carnegie Mellon study asked older adults to think about. The researchers found that many people had a plan of some kind, but it was often informal. Handwritten password lists were common, while platform tools designed for access after death were unfamiliar to almost everyone interviewed.
The lockout often starts with your email
Your email account is often the doorway to everything else. Password reset messages arrive there. Receipts live there. Subscription notices, travel records, tax documents, and account alerts may all point back to the same inbox.
If nobody can access that inbox, the family may know an account exists and still have no easy way to manage it. That does not mean they should simply sign in with your password. Access rules vary by company, account type, and state law. A password is not the same thing as legal authority.
The better plan is to leave a map of what exists and use the official access tools provided by the companies you rely on.
Apple and Google already give you planning tools
Apple lets you name a Legacy Contact. After your death, that person can request access to certain Apple Account data using the access key you gave them and a death certificate. Apple says a Legacy Contact may be able to access photos, messages, notes, files, and device backups. The contact cannot access everything. Passwords, passkeys, payment information in iCloud Keychain, and some purchased media are excluded.
Google recommends Inactive Account Manager as the best way to decide who should receive selected account information after a period of inactivity, or if the account should be deleted. Google also states that it does not give family members passwords or login details for a deceased person’s account.
These tools are useful because they create a process before the family is already under pressure.
Make a digital map, not a pile of passwords
You do not need to turn your estate folder into a page of passwords. Start with a one-page digital map. It should tell the person you trust what exists, where the official documents are kept, and which company process to use.
• Your main email provider and email address.
• Your mobile phone carrier and account name.
• Banks, credit cards, investment companies, and bill-pay services you use.
• Important subscriptions that should be reviewed or cancelled.
• Where family photos and personal files are stored.
• Any Legacy Contact or Inactive Account Manager choices you have already made.
• Where your will, power of attorney, and other estate documents are stored.
• The name and contact information for your attorney, executor, or another person handling the estate.
If you use a password manager, the map can state that and explain where the emergency instructions are stored. If you keep a paper password list, store it securely and tell one trusted person where it is. Do not leave it beside the computer for anyone entering the home to see.
Do not put the password list inside the will
Estate-planning guidance from the American Bar Association has long cautioned against putting passwords directly into a will. Wills can become public court records during probate, and passwords change far more often than estate documents do.
Keep access instructions separate. Your will can identify the person with legal responsibility for the estate. Your private digital map can help that person understand what accounts and services exist.
A documented case: locked out for a year and a half
This is not a hypothetical. Rebecca Bistany’s husband, Paul, died suddenly of a heart attack in November 2022. He was forty years old. As CNN Business reported in February 2024, more than a year later, Rebecca was still locked out of Paul’s iPhone, unable to reach the personal photos and account information she needed to settle his affairs.
Paul had no Legacy Contact set up. There was no reason for a forty-year-old to think he needed one that week. That is exactly the point this article is making. Digital estate planning is not really a task for “later in life.” It is a task for whenever the accounts exist, because nobody knows in advance which ordinary Tuesday will turn out to matter.
Rebecca’s case became a widely cited example precisely because it was so avoidable. A Legacy Contact could have given Rebecca access to much of Paul’s Apple Account data and reduced some of the difficulty that followed. It would not have solved everything (Apple still excludes passwords, passkeys, and Keychain payment data even for a Legacy Contact) but it would have given her a real starting point instead of none at all.
A 20-minute start is enough for today
Do not try to document every online account you have ever opened. Start with the accounts that would cause a problem if nobody could find them.
1. Write down your main email account.
2. List the five financial or household accounts that matter most.
3. Write where your important digital files and photos live.
4. Check if your Apple or Google account has a legacy or inactive-account option you want to use.
5. Tell one trusted person where this page is stored.
6. Put a date at the bottom and review the page twice a year.
That page will not replace a will, legal documents, or the rules of your bank. It does something simpler. It stops your family from having to guess what exists while they are already dealing with enough.
The person you trust should not have to start by searching your desk drawers and hoping the right password is on a scrap of paper.
I write regularly about technology safety and digital literacy for adults over 50. Follow me here on Medium to see the next piece when it comes out.
Basic Computer Skills Guide is available if you are just starting out.
For calm, one-on-one technology help with no pressure, no jargon, and no embarrassment, visit ndunguconsulting.com
About the Author
Elizabeth Ndungu is the founder of Ndungu Consulting, a technology coaching and digital literacy practice that helps adults over 50 build confidence with everyday technology. She provides patient, practical support with computers, phones, AI tools, email, Microsoft Office, online safety, and other digital skills in plain English.
Sources
Carnegie Mellon University CyLab, “After You’re Gone, Who Gets Your Passwords?,” April 15, 2026: https://www.cylab.cmu.edu/news/2026/04/15-digital-estate-planning.html
Apple Support, “How to add a Legacy Contact for your Apple Account”: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102631
Google Account Help, deceased user accounts and Inactive Account Manager: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6357606?hl=en
American Bar Association, Digital Property FAQ: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/real_property_trust_estate/resources/estate-planning/digital-property/
CNN Business, “We each have an average of 100 online accounts. Here’s how to make sure they aren’t a nightmare for your family if you die,” February 26, 2024: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/26/tech/digital-legacy-planning-personal-technology
Tags
Digital Literacy · Estate Planning · Online Safety · Technology · Adults Over 50
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