Create a secure digital estate inventory

Include email, cloud storage, photos, domains, social accounts, subscriptions, payment apps, rewards, online businesses, devices, software keys, digital assets, and records stored only online. Record the service and purpose before deciding what should be preserved, transferred, closed, or deleted.

Classify each item by consequence if it becomes inaccessible: financial loss, lost family records, business interruption, identity risk, or minor inconvenience. Start with the high-consequence group. This keeps the project manageable and prevents a long list of entertainment accounts from hiding the email, device, domain, or payment account that controls everything else.

A useful inventory says what exists and where secure access information is stored. It should not become an unencrypted master password list. Use appropriate password-management, recovery, multifactor, and emergency-access features while keeping legal authority separate from technical access.

Record the recovery method without copying the secret itself. Note whether access depends on a device, phone number, authenticator, recovery code, or another email address, and identify where the secure recovery material is kept. Test emergency access using the service’s approved process rather than sharing a live password informally.

For each important service, state the desired outcome and who should handle it. Platform terms, privacy law, intellectual property, contracts, and estate documents may limit what a family member can do. A login credential alone does not create legal authority.

Separate the desired action from the authority to perform it. A note saying ‘delete this account’ is useful guidance, but the fiduciary may still need legal authority and platform cooperation. Coordinate the inventory with estate documents and service tools so instructions, authority, and technical access point in the same direction.

Review the inventory when accounts, devices, work, or advisers change. Tell the authorized person where the inventory and legal documents are stored without distributing sensitive copies widely. Include instructions for recurring charges and essential business systems.

Schedule reviews after device replacement, a new phone number, a business change, or a major account closure. Add an emergency contact sheet that reveals locations and advisers without exposing credentials. The inventory succeeds when an authorized person can begin safely, not when the document contains every secret in one vulnerable place.