Digital Legacy in One Hour: Give Your Accounts a Plan B

Sunday afternoon, coffee and plum cake at the home of Heike's sister Resi. Between two slices she asks, very casually: "So if something happens to you, how do I get to the photos from Mum's 80th?" Heike laughs. Nothing's going to happen to me. Then she thinks for a second. The photos are in iCloud. Or Google Photos. Maybe OneDrive, which she set up once for Office. The passwords live in Bitwarden, the older ones in a KeePass file, somewhere. And her phone PIN? Exactly one person on the planet knows it, and right now she has a mouth full of cake.

Don't worry, Heike is perfectly healthy. That's exactly why now is the right time. "Digital legacy" sounds like lawyers, headstones and heavy oak furniture, but it's really just an organisation problem: who can get to what when you can't? The good news: you can sort out the essentials in one hour. The bad news: nobody can spend that hour for you.

Two scenarios, two very different problems

Most people only think about death here. But the more likely scenario is a different one: you're out of action for a while. Accident, surgery, a few weeks of rehab. The world keeps turning, and so do the direct debits.

Scenario 1: You're in hospital

None of the legacy features from Apple, Google and friends help here, because they require a death certificate or months of inactivity. What counts is a lasting power of attorney (in Germany: Vorsorgevollmacht) and emergency access that works without proof of death. And no, being married isn't enough. Germany's emergency representation right for spouses (since 2023) only covers health decisions and lasts at most six months. It doesn't give your partner access to your online banking, your inbox or your contracts. Without a power of attorney, a guardianship court may appoint a legal guardian. Not the end of the world, but it takes time, and a court decides instead of you.

Scenario 2: You die

In Germany, the legal situation has been fairly clear since 2018. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled back then that parents inherit their late daughter's Facebook account. An online account passes to the heirs just like a diary or a box of letters, and telecoms secrecy and data protection don't stand in the way. In 2020 the court added that a PDF printout isn't enough: heirs must be able to view the account the way the deceased could, they just can't keep posting.

Where it still gets stuck

Having the right and getting in are two different things. The parents in that case fought for years. The usual obstacles:

• The certificate of inheritance: many providers want to see one, and German probate courts can take weeks or months to issue it.
• The second factor (MFA, the extra code from an app or text message): it arrives on the deceased person's phone. Without the unlock code, nobody gets in, not even Apple or Google.
• Encryption: no court ruling beats end-to-end encryption. Maths doesn't care about paperwork.
• Plain ignorance: the heirs simply don't know which accounts, subscriptions and clouds exist.

In short: the law hands your family the keyring. Which doors exist and which key fits where is something you have to tell them. That's what the four building blocks are for.

Block 1: Take a digital inventory

Before you change any settings, you need an overview. Ten minutes, paper or spreadsheet, write down what exists. Not perfect, just complete enough:

• Email inboxes: the most important accounts of all, because almost every password reset goes through them and every subscription invoice lands there.
• Clouds and photos: iCloud, Google Drive and Google Photos, OneDrive, Dropbox. Heike is already at three.
• Banking and payments: current account, brokerage, PayPal, credit cards.
• Subscriptions and contracts: streaming, music, mobile contract, newspapers, software, fitness apps.
• Social media and messengers: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Signal, LinkedIn.
• Crypto: without the seed phrase (the 12 or 24 recovery words of a wallet), the money is gone. For good.
• Domains and websites: if the renewal lapses, someone else may grab the address.
• Devices: smartphone, laptop, tablet, router, smart cameras.

Each entry gets a wish: keep, cancel, delete, save the data, memorialise. If you like a guided version, Germany's consumer advice centres (Verbraucherzentralen) offer a free online tool called "Selbstbestimmt - Mein digitales Leben" that creates an account overview and a matching power of attorney.

Where the list belongs (and where it doesn't)

A list of all your logins is pretty much the most valuable document you own. So please not as "passwords_new_FINAL.docx" on your desktop. Not in your will either: in Germany a will is opened by the probate court first, then everyone involved learns its contents, and that often takes weeks. A three-way split works well:

• The list of accounts and wishes, without passwords, printed and kept with your power of attorney.
• The passwords themselves in a password manager with emergency access (block 2).
• An emergency envelope for the few things that don't fit into a password manager: phone PIN, master password or emergency sheet, recovery codes. Sealed, signed across the seal, stored somewhere your trusted person knows about.

And then: tell someone. The world's safest envelope is useless if nobody finds it. A vault nobody knows about isn't a legacy, it's a puzzle.

Block 2: Emergency access in your password manager

First, Heike's homework: two password managers is one too many. Nobody should have to crack two vaults in an emergency just because you tried KeePass ten years ago. Merge them, delete the old file, then set up emergency access. The big advantage: many of these features don't need a death certificate, they use a waiting period instead. That makes this the only block that also helps right away in the hospital scenario.

Bitwarden

Bitwarden calls it Emergency Access. You need Premium or a paid Families plan; your trusted person only needs a free Bitwarden account.

1. Log in to the web app, open Settings, then Emergency access.
2. Click Add emergency contact, enter the email address, choose an access level and a wait time.
3. View means read-only. Takeover means the person sets a new master password and takes over the vault completely.
4. Once they accept the invite, you confirm them by comparing the fingerprint phrase, a string of random words, ideally over the phone.

When your contact requests access later, you get notified and can reject it during the wait time. If you don't respond because you're under anaesthetic, access is granted automatically once the time runs out. That's the whole point. Tip: a one-week wait is a good balance between security and emergencies.

Proton Pass and your Proton account

Since 2025, Proton has offered emergency access for the whole Proton account, so Mail, Drive and Pass in one go. You need a paid plan, and your contact needs a Proton Mail address too. You'll find it in your account settings under Recovery. Up to five contacts are allowed, the wait time ranges from one to 30 days, and you can reject requests here as well.

1Password

1Password relies on its Emergency Kit, a PDF with your sign-in address, email address and Secret Key (a long extra key without which nobody can open your data, not even 1Password). Print it, write your account password in the box provided, put it in the emergency envelope. In family accounts, organisers can also start a recovery for members, but that requires access to the member's inbox. Which brings us back to the envelope.

KeePass and KeePassXC

KeePass is a local file with no server, so there's no built-in emergency contact. Your trusted person needs three things: where the file lives (and its backup), the master password and, if you use one, the key file. KeePass 2 even offers to print an emergency sheet when you create a database, later available under Tools, Database Tools. Fill it in, envelope, done.

Your phone PIN and the second factor

Now for Heike's biggest gap. Her phone is the second factor for almost everything: banking app, authenticator app, text message codes. And only she knows the PIN. Even if Apple later removes Activation Lock, the device gets wiped in the process. Anything stored only locally is gone, including the codes in the authenticator app.

• Put your phone PIN or passcode in the emergency envelope.
• Print the recovery codes (backup codes) for your key accounts: email, Apple, Google, Microsoft, password manager.
• Check whether your authenticator app has a backup, and write down where it is.
• Change your PIN, update the envelope. An outdated emergency envelope is just a very solemn piece of paper.

Block 3: Power of attorney and will

Tech is one half, paperwork the other. For the hospital scenario you need a lasting power of attorney that explicitly covers digital matters. In Germany, templates are available from the Federal Ministry of Justice and in the Bavarian Ministry of Justice's brochure "Vorsorge für Unfall, Krankheit und Alter". The Bavarian form has its own "Digitale Medien" section: your representative may access your data and user accounts, decide whether they are kept, changed or deleted, and use and request the necessary login details. That's exactly what you want.

• Tick the box saying it remains valid after death, otherwise it ends exactly when your family would need it for your estate.
• Date and sign it, then give the original to your trusted person or tell them where it is.
• Register it with the Central Register of Lasting Powers of Attorney run by the German Federal Chamber of Notaries, so courts can find it.
• Ask your bank which account authorisation it accepts. Banks often have their own forms.

Your will decides who inherits. Wishes about your digital estate (delete the account, memorialise it, photos to the family) can go in there or in a separate letter. A handwritten will in Germany must be written entirely by hand and signed. And, as we said, passwords don't belong in it.

Block 4: The legacy settings of the big providers

The following features only kick in after death or a long period of inactivity. They complement emergency access, they don't replace it. A plan B for your plan B, if you like.

Apple: Legacy Contact

Since iOS 15.2 you can name one or more people as Legacy Contacts:

1. Open Settings and tap your name at the top.
2. Go to Sign-In & Security, then Legacy Contact (older versions call the section Password & Security).
3. Tap Add Legacy Contact, choose a person and share the access key via iMessage or print it.

On a Mac it's System Settings, your name, Sign-In & Security. After your death, your contact needs the access key and a death certificate. They then get photos, messages, notes, files and backups from iCloud for three years, after which Apple deletes the account. Not included: passwords and passkeys from iCloud Keychain, payment information and purchased films, music and books. Which is why you still need block 2.

Google: Inactive Account Manager

Google uses a dead man's switch, a mechanism that triggers when you stop showing signs of life online. Set it up in your Google Account or directly at myaccount.google.com/inactive:

• Choose a period: 3, 6, 12 or 18 months without activity. Google warns you by email and text a month beforehand.
• Name up to ten people to be notified and choose which data they may download, such as Photos, Gmail or Drive. They then have three months to do so.
• Decide whether the account should be deleted afterwards.

It's no use for a hospital stay, since three months is the shortest option. And if you set nothing at all, Google may delete personal accounts after two years of inactivity anyway, holiday photos included.

Facebook and Instagram

On Facebook, the settings live in Accounts Center under Personal details and account ownership, look for Memorialisation. There you either choose a legacy contact, who has to be your Facebook friend, or decide that your account should be deleted after you die. You can't have both.

A legacy contact can pin a post to the top of your profile, change your profile and cover photo, request deletion and, if you allow it, download a copy of your data. They can't log in or read your private messages. Instagram has no legacy contact; family members can request memorialisation or deletion there with proof.

Microsoft

Microsoft has no legacy feature. Outlook.com and OneDrive are frozen after one year of inactivity and the data is deleted shortly after; the Microsoft account itself closes after two years. Heirs in Germany can contact support with a death certificate, ID and proof of inheritance, such as a certificate of inheritance. It's a lot faster if the login is in your password manager. So Heike's OneDrive with her tax documents definitely goes on the list.

When it has happened: what your family should do

You can print this section and put it in the envelope. It's for the people who will have very different worries at that moment.

1. Don't rush. Don't reset, sell or give away devices before the data is saved.
2. Get the emergency envelope, account list and power of attorney. Charge the phone and unlock it with the stored PIN.
3. Secure the email inbox first: password resets and invoices land there, and it shows which accounts exist.
4. Go through the last twelve months of bank statements and cancel running subscriptions with a copy of the death certificate.
5. Download photos and important files before accounts are deleted or deadlines pass.
6. Memorialise or delete social media accounts, as the person wished.

Watch out for bereavement scams

Sadly, scammers read death notices too. German consumer advocates warn about fake invoices for supposed subscriptions, travel insurance or embarrassing orders by the deceased, designed to be paid quickly out of shame. Letters from official-sounding but fake institutions do the rounds as well. The rule: don't pay anything under time pressure, ask for the contract and proof, check with a consumer advice centre if in doubt, and report fraud to the police, which in Germany you can do through the police online reporting portals. And put the funeral home's address in the death notice, not your own.

Commercial digital legacy services

Some companies promise to manage your digital estate or search your devices after you die. Germany's consumer advice centres are sceptical: it's hard to judge how securely these providers work, and nobody knows whether they'll still exist in twenty years. So don't hand your passwords to a company, and don't let a business rummage through your devices. If you use such a service anyway, check exactly what it does and what it costs. Usually a good password manager and an envelope are all you need.

Digital legacy in one hour: the checklist

This is what Heike's hour looked like. Set a timer, grab a coffee, go. Then tick these off:

• Inventory written, one wish noted per account
• Old password managers merged, only one left
• Emergency access set up in the password manager and trusted person confirmed
• Apple Legacy Contact and Google Inactive Account Manager configured
• Facebook legacy contact or deletion request chosen
• Phone PIN, recovery codes and master password in a sealed emergency envelope
• Power of attorney with a digital section printed and a date set to fill it in
• Trusted person knows where the envelope and power of attorney are
• Calendar reminder: review everything once a year

Heike has done her hour, by the way. Resi now has an envelope, Bitwarden has an emergency contact, and the photos from Mum's 80th are no longer scattered across three clouds but sit in one. Heike's verdict: it felt like doing her taxes, just with more feelings. And that's the point: you don't do this for yourself, you do it for the people who would otherwise be standing in front of locked doors with a death certificate in hand.

One more thing: the answer is not to switch off two-factor login so your heirs have an easier time. The codes go in the envelope, not in the bin. So block an hour, grab an envelope, tell someone. Turn on MFA. Think purple.