We spend hours every week interacting online, building a digital footprint that goes well beyond basic info. But do you have a plan for what your loved ones will do with your accounts when you’re no longer here to manage them?
Most online platforms allow you to add legacy contacts, designated family members or friends who can access your account if you’re no longer able to. Setting up legacy contacts is an important way to manage your digital legacy, and only takes a few minutes. Here’s when, why, and how to add these to the most common platforms.
What kind of accounts need a legacy contact?
Legacy contacts are people you designate to receive access to your most important online accounts after you pass away. Each platform handles the account permissions in slightly different ways, but typically, this contact would have partial or full access to your account. This allows them to take actions like posting a memorial message to social media, forwarding or closing out your email, and accessing digital storage.
To decide which ones you need, make a list of your most frequently used accounts. Here are some examples to get you started:
- Email, calendar, and photos: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Photos, iCloud
- Cloud storage: Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive
- Social media: Facebook, Instagram
- Texting and messaging apps: iMessage
- Password managers: Bitwarden, LastPass
- A note about payment and shopping accounts: PayPal, Venmo, Amazon and many other financial platforms don’t offer legacy contacts and instead require proof such as a death certificate to close an account. You’ll want to make other arrangements to make sure your loved ones can get access if needed, such as keeping a list of these accounts and their login details in a secure place.
We’ll share links below to the designation pages for the most common products.
This is a simple, legal way to make sure your loved ones have the right access permissions once you have passed on. If you skip this step, your loved ones may find themselves navigating legal hoops, or just plain out of luck, when it comes to finding those treasured photos and recipes, memorializing your Facebook account, or locating important payment information.
Why are these important?
At this point, your digital presence is who you are, and there are many functions of your life that exist solely online: friends and family you only interact with on Facebook, essential documents and memories that live in the cloud, apps that you pay for on your phone.
Security protocols, two-factor authentication, and data privacy regulations mean that it can be very difficult for someone who isn’t on your list to gain access to these accounts. If you want your loved ones to memorialize your social accounts, see your digital photo records, and cancel those app subscriptions, this is one less hiccup that will make the complicated estate process run a bit smoother.
I’m in! But who do I choose?
Well, if you’re already on Paige, your Delegates are likely a great choice. After all, you’ve already chosen to share certain items with them when the time comes, and you’ve let them in on your estate planning process. If you haven’t thought about any of that yet, now is a great time to get started.
And if not, think about who you trust to handle these matters sensitively and appropriately. If your estate has a Trustee, they’re a natural choice. If you need help thinking this through, we have some advice here. And once you’ve decided, don’t forget to let them know that you’re planning to do this. This gives them the ability to opt out, and mitigates future surprises.
When to designate a legacy contact
The best day is today, and the next best is tomorrow. This is a quick, straightforward process with most accounts, once you’ve let your contacts know to expect it. Once it’s done, you don’t need to think about it again except to check in annually and make any necessary updates or changes.
How do I set these up?
Here are links to simple directions for the most frequently-used services:
- Apple
- Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads)
- Google (Gmail, Drive, YouTube)
- Microsoft (OneDrive, Office Cloud)
There are several common services with more complex policies and no specific legacy contact feature, like DropBox, Yahoo, and Flickr. If there’s another app you use that’s not on this list, we recommend looking them up, checking their policies, and seeing if there’s a way to make the legacy process easier on your loved one. And if you’re not sure, this is a great reminder to move those essential files over to Paige!
