Online after death

There comes a day when each of us will die. Even though we don’t like thinking about it, there are many things we do to prepare for our inevitable worldly exit. That’s why we write wills, name beneficiaries on our financial assets, and decide who gets our possessions after we are dead.

What happens to our online presence after we die is also something we need to think about. We all have a digital footprint made up of social media accounts, subscriptions, blogs, online shopping, streaming services, email, online banking, digital wallets, just to name a handful. Each of these, ideally, should be protected by a unique password and some form of multifactor authentication (MFA). When we shuffle off this mortal coil, we leave our loved ones the equivalent of a filing cabinet with multiple drawers each locked with a different key.

So how do we get, and keep, our online affairs in order? There are a number of guides online that can help you through this process. Dying with Dignity Canada’s guide, Preparing a Digital Legacy, provides some helpful checklists on creating and maintaining a list of online accounts and instructions on how to access them.

A password manager can be an ideal tool for this. Password managers are one of the most secure ways to store your account and login information. Depending on how you want to manage it, you can add a trusted person as an emergency contact, add them to your account as a shared user, or store your master password with your will and other important documents. These documents should be stored securely whether in a locked safe, desk drawer, or filing cabinet.

Creating a list of accounts and login information is the first step, but that list also needs to be maintained. On a periodic basis, closing out unused accounts and unsubscribing from their related emails will help keep that list manageable for both you and the person tasked with making sense of it later. Be sure to update any changed passwords, as well as updating payment information for paid accounts.

It's also important for your executor to be able to access your mobile phone for a period of time after your death. This is so they can access accounts that might rely on multifactor authentication. Along with your master password and accounts list, your phone’s passcode should also be included with your will. While some password managers also allow you to store MFA backup codes or even generate one-time passcodes, some services rely on codes sent by text or via push notification from an app. In those cases, having access to your phone and keeping the phone number active will allow your executor to have easier access to those accounts.

Some online accounts let you set up legacy contacts. Gmail has an inactive account manager that will allow a trusted contact to access your account after a defined period of inactivity. Facebook lets you assign a legacy contact to manage your account if you decide to memorialize it, or request to have your account removed. Many accounts, however, have no such option. Some companies like Microsoft require specific documentation around proof of death to transfer accounts but are also very difficult to contact for this purpose, making it that much more important to ensure an executor has access to your accounts after you die.

Another thing to consider, particularly with social media accounts and blogs, is whether you want that information to continue to be available online at all. Do you want that hot take from when you were younger to live online after you die? Leaving instructions for your executor as to what your wishes are with respect to deleting or maintaining your social media presence is important.

Dying with Dignity Canada advises appointing a digital executor who you know is comfortable dealing with technology. It may even be a good idea to appoint one person as an executor and another as a digital executor depending on their skillset. Either way, you want to be sure they are people you trust with your sensitive and personal information. If you are asked to be an executor for someone you know, be sure to ask what kind of arrangements have been made regarding online accounts.

Societally, many of us try not to think too much about death and dying. It’s emotional, and not a time of life we generally look forward to. However, it’s important to think of these things before we reach the stage where we’re mourning or being mourned. Having these discussions with our loved ones can also help build trust. If we are clear about our wishes, and know our loved ones understand them, we can be assured that our digital legacies will be well taken care of.

Learn more

How to Prepare Your Digital Life for Your Death. 2024. Stephanie Mlot and Jason Cohen. (PC Mag) Last accessed 2025/06/11.

Preparing a Digital Legacy [PDF]. Dying with Dignity Canada. Last accessed 2025/06/11.

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