How to Set Up Your Digital Legacy

Setting up your digital legacy is an important — and often overlooked — part of estate planning. 

Twenty years ago, nobody had to worry about what to do with all of the photos or videos they had stored on their phone or what would happen to their social media accounts, blogs, and online subscriptions. These days, however, almost everybody has a digital legacy.

Simply put, a digital legacy is all the online data left behind after someone has passed. That includes everything from family photos and Facebook pages to Amazon and PayPal accounts. How will your family find these accounts, how will they access them, and — perhaps most importantly — what will they do with them? These are all questions that should be answered ahead of time through proper digital estate planning. 

Get Started With Digital Estate Planning

The very first thing to do is to make a list of all of your online accounts. Use your search history and bookmarks to jog your memory and don’t forget any accounts or apps that you use on your phone or tablet. That includes apps and services such as:

• Social media accounts
• Website you maintain such as blogs or personal pages
• Banking or investment accounts
• Streaming services
• Email accounts
• Websites where you may have money stored, such as Venmo or PayPal
• Website and apps where you may be paying annual fees, such as Amazon Prime
• Websites where you have photos or videos stored, such as Google Drive or iCloud

Create a Legacy Contact When Possible

Many social media and technology companies allow you to establish a legacy contact (this can usually be done in settings) which will then be able to grant access to whoever you appoint, to be able to make decisions about your account once you have passed. In the case of Apple, for example, your legacy contact will have access to your account for three years.

Some social media sites, including Facebook, offer legacy contacts the option of either memorializing or closing an account. If the account is memorialized, the word “remembering” is added to the home page — and the site can never be taken down. These pages become a kind of scrapbook of a loved one’s life, allowing family members to look back on both memorable events and everyday life. 

Make Legacy Planning Easy for Loved Ones

There’s a reason many of us go through our attics and carefully plan our wills. We want to lessen the burden on our loved ones after we pass. The same thing can be done with your digital legacy.

The online world can be as messy and chaotic as any attic. It’s so easy to forget what accounts you have, as well as passwords. Just like you did with all of your old boxes full of stuff, put effort into organizing, updating, and making your wishes known. Close accounts you no longer use. Make sure videos are properly labeled and photos are organized (more on that in a minute). Establish legacy contacts wherever possible. Maintain — and update — a list of passwords.

An efficient way to accomplish this is by creating a social media will that outlines exactly what you’d like to have happen to your social media accounts. Here’s a template by the Digital Legacy Association that, although not legally binding, clearly indicates how you would like your accounts handled. Finally, make sure at least one family member has the passcode or password to your computer, phone, and tablet.

 Address the Photos and Videos in Your Digital Legacy

Chances are, you’ve got photos and videos stored on your phone, tablet, and computer. You may also have photos in albums and boxes and videos on tapes and discs. You might even have home videos on film. Although it will take time and effort to digitize these assets to set up your digital legacy, there is a solution.

Photos are easier to deal with than videos because they require less memory. If all of your photos are stored on your phone or computer, they can be passed on to one person simply by giving them access to your devices. You could also use a family photo-sharing site, such as Google Photos, Dropbox, or Apple Family Sharing. 

Experts caution, however, that these solutions might not be as long-lasting as one might hope. Over time, people forget where photos are stored on the cloud and lose passwords. In addition, technology is constantly changing. The situation is even more difficult when it comes to storing video, which can require purchasing cloud storage. 

Although it might seem counterintuitive, many experts suggest curating your family photos and printing them out for family members. The National Archives stresses the importance of making high-quality prints and then storing them in preservation-quality boxes or folders in cool, dry areas.

Videos are more difficult to back up as technology is always changing and physical devices become obsolete over time. The best you can do is to curate your family videos, label them, and then keep one copy on your computer while putting other copies on separate media and/or storing them on the cloud. Here’s a detailed guide by the Library of Congress. 

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