The Digital Legacy Checklist

The 7-step plan every adult needs, and almost no one has.

Here's a question nobody wants to think about: if you died tomorrow, could your family access your money?

Not "eventually, after a lawyer." Could your spouse, today, log into your bank, your crypto wallet, your email, and the insurance portal to file a claim?

For most people, the answer is no. Everything is locked behind passwords only they know. The consequences aren't abstract — crypto wallets get lost forever, insurance payouts get delayed for months, families can't close accounts.

Here's the 7-step checklist, in order of importance.

Step 1 — List every account that matters

Not all 300 accounts. Just the ones that hold money or identity:

• Bank accounts (checking, savings, brokerage)
• Crypto wallets and exchange accounts
• Insurance policies (life, home, auto, health)
• Pension / retirement accounts
• Primary email (this is the master key to everything else)
• Phone carrier account (needed to receive 2FA codes)

Write them down. Not in your head. In a document.

Step 2 — Document where the passwords are

Don't write the passwords themselves in this document. Write where they are:

• "All passwords in Bitwarden. Emergency access granted to [spouse's email]."
• "Crypto seed phrase in a physical safe at [location], safe combination is [X]."
• "Phone PIN is stored in Bitwarden under 'Phone PIN'."

This way the document is useless to a thief but useful to your family.

Step 3 — Crypto: create a recovery plan

Crypto is the biggest risk. If your seed phrase dies with you, the funds are gone. Permanently. No bank to call. No customer service. No "forgot password" button.

Options, in order of safety:

1. A multisig wallet where your spouse is a co-signer (best, but technical)
2. A physical seed phrase in a safe, with instructions
3. A "social recovery" wallet
4. Split the seed phrase across two locations, each with half

Whatever you choose, document it in Step 2's document.

Step 4 — Set up emergency access in your password manager

Bitwarden, 1Password, and Dashlane all have "emergency access" features: a family member can request access, and if you don't decline within X days, they get it.

Set this up. It takes 10 minutes. It saves your family weeks of legal work.

Step 5 — Write a "letter of instruction"

One page, plain English. Not a will (that's separate). Just the practical stuff:

• Where the accounts are (Step 1)
• Where the passwords are (Step 2)
• What to do first ("Call [insurance agent] at [number]. File claim #X.")
• Two people to contact (lawyer, financial advisor)
• Funeral wishes, if you have any

Store it with your will, or with the emergency access in Step 4.

Step 6 — Tell two people

All of the above is useless if nobody knows it exists.

Tell two people you trust:

• "There's a document that explains everything. It's [location]. If something happens, ask [person] for access."

That's it. One sentence. Two people.

Step 7 — Annual review (10 minutes)

Once a year — say, on your birthday — open the document, and check:

• Did I open any new accounts?
• Did I close any?
• Did I change any passwords that need re-documenting?
• Is the emergency access still working?

10 minutes a year. That's the whole maintenance cost.

Common objections

"I don't have anything worth protecting"

You have an email account. That email is the master key to your bank, your social accounts, your domain names. It's worth protecting.

"My spouse knows everything"

Does your spouse know the safe combination? The crypto seed phrase? The emergency access procedure? "Knows the password" is not the same as "knows what to do when there's no password to ask for."

"This is depressing"

It's the opposite. It's 20 minutes of discomfort that saves your family weeks of pain. That's not depressing — that's loving them.

Full 7-step template with filled example · 14-day refund

Related: The Break-Glass Kit

If you want the "what happens in the first 24 hours" version — who to call, what to do, in what order — that's the Break-Glass Kit ($9). It's the emergency version of this checklist.