Digital Legacy Checklist: Plan in an Afternoon

Most of our lives now live behind a login. The bank, the photos, the email that resets every other password, the subscriptions quietly renewing each month — all of it sits in accounts only you can reach. A digital legacy checklist is simply a written record of where those things are and what you’d like done with them, so the people you love aren’t left guessing during the hardest week of their lives.

You don’t need a lawyer or a free weekend to make a start. Most people can gather the essentials in a single afternoon. Here’s what to write down.

Why a digital legacy matters

When someone dies without leaving any record of their digital life, families routinely lose access to money, memories and important documents — not because anyone was careless, but because nothing was ever written down in one place. Banks won’t talk to people who can’t prove anything. Photos stay locked in a phone no one can unlock. Subscriptions keep charging a closed estate.

A little planning now turns a frantic search into a calm, guided handover.

The checklist

Work through these seven areas. For each one, the goal is the same: write down where it is and who to contact — not necessarily the passwords themselves (more on that below).

1. Financial accounts

Banks, savings, pensions, investments, crypto, and any business accounts. Note the institution and roughly what’s held where — your family needs to know where to look, not the balance to the penny.

2. Passwords and the email that unlocks everything

Your primary email is the master key — most accounts reset through it. Record how to reach your password manager (or where your passwords are kept) and make sure your trusted person can eventually get into that main inbox.

3. Important documents

The will and where the original is kept, the notary or solicitor, power of attorney, insurance policies, the deed to your home, and tax records.

4. Key people to call

The accountant, the lawyer, the financial advisor, the executor — the handful of people who should be contacted first, with their details.

5. Subscriptions and recurring bills

Streaming, software, memberships, domains, and any auto-renewing services so they can be cancelled rather than draining the estate for months.

6. Devices and how to unlock them

Phone and laptop passcodes, and any two-factor devices. Without these, even the best list can hit a locked door.

7. Wishes and instructions

The things only you can say: how you’d like your accounts handled, which to memorialise or close, and any private notes for the people you choose.

Should you write down passwords?

Carefully. A checklist taped inside a drawer is a security risk, and a shared document in plain text is worse. The safer pattern is to keep the sensitive details encrypted, and share them with a trusted person only when it matters — not today, in plain sight. This is exactly the problem Kinfolder is built to solve: everything is end-to-end encrypted and held in the EU, and released to the person you choose only when the time comes.

Keep it current

A digital legacy isn’t a one-time task. Revisit it once a year, or whenever something big changes — a new account, a house move, a change in who you trust to handle things. Five minutes now and then keeps the whole record useful.

A calmer way to do all of this

You can absolutely keep this checklist on paper or in a document. But if you’d rather have one secure, organised place for it — encrypted, EU-hosted, and shared with a trusted person only when it’s needed — that’s what Kinfolder is for. Sort it once, in an afternoon, and give the people you love the gift of not having to guess.