Digital Legacy Checklist: Get Everything in Order

“Get everything in order” sounds abstract until someone has to do it for you without instructions. In that moment, the difference between an afternoon of paperwork and months of manual reconstruction comes down to a handful of concrete steps you can take today.

This checklist is built to be executed, not just read. Every section has specific actions, not general ideas.

Why a checklist, not just good intentions

Most people know they should get their digital life organized, but few actually do it because the problem feels too big and too vague. A checklist turns it into small, checkable steps. You don’t need to solve everything in one sitting — you need to start checking off concrete items.

Think of it like any other task you keep postponing: renewing car insurance, updating a will, scheduling an annual checkup. Nobody enjoys doing it, but once there’s a concrete list in front of you, it stops feeling like something you have to solve all at once.

1. Account inventory

This is the foundation everything else rests on — without knowing what exists, nothing after this matters.

• List your primary email and any secondary email used for account recovery.
• List your bank accounts and payment wallets (including digital banks and neobanks).
• List your investment platforms and cryptocurrency holdings.
• List your active social media accounts (including ones you barely use but never closed).
• List your cloud storage services (photos, documents, backups).
• List your recurring subscriptions (streaming, software, domains, hosting).
• Note, for each account, whether it holds direct economic value or purely sentimental value — this helps you prioritize.

If you’ve never done this exercise, scanning your inbox for signup confirmations and receipts is usually the fastest way to remember accounts you forgot about.

2. Critical documents

• Identify where your ID and legal documents (or digital copies) are stored.
• Gather relevant insurance policies, deeds, and contracts.
• Locate your existing will, if you have one, and confirm it’s accessible to whoever needs to find it.
• Consider leaving specific instructions for digital assets in a digital will that complements your traditional one.

3. Password strategy

This is where most people get stuck, because “just sharing passwords” isn’t as simple or as safe as it sounds.

• Use a password manager instead of a spreadsheet or a loose document.
• Check whether your password manager offers any emergency access or authorized-contact feature.
• Identify which accounts have two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled — it’s usually the most common and least anticipated blocker.
• Decide how your beneficiary could access 2FA codes if it ever became necessary.

We go deeper on this — including a comparison of password managers — in our guide on passwords and digital legacy.

4. Beneficiaries and emergency contacts

• Decide who should get access to what (not everything has to go to the same person).
• Write clear instructions, not just access: what to close, what to transfer, what to archive.
• Set up native legacy contacts on platforms that offer them (Google, Apple, Facebook).
• Tell that person you’ve designated them — a plan nobody knows about is useless.
• If you use digital banks, check ahead of time what documentation each one typically requires to grant access after a death.

5. Review cadence

An outdated plan causes nearly as much confusion as having none at all.

• Pick a fixed date each year to review the full inventory.
• Update it any time you open a significant new account.
• Confirm the person you designated is still the right choice.
• Verify any emergency access you set up still works.

The one-page version

If you want a quick version to scan at a glance:

• Account inventory complete and current
• Critical documents located and accessible
• Passwords in a manager, not a loose document
• 2FA identified with an access plan
• Beneficiaries assigned by category
• Written instructions, not just access
• Legacy contacts enabled where platforms offer them
• Annual review scheduled

As we cover in our guide to digital inheritance, organizing the inventory is the first step; what actually prevents the chaos is leaving clear instructions about how and when that information gets released. Tools like Custodia are built for that second part — assigning each item to a beneficiary and defining release rules instead of leaving everything scattered.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I start if I’ve never organized any of this? Start with the account inventory. An hour spent listing your main accounts already puts you ahead of most people.

Do I need to put all of this in one tool? Not strictly, but it lowers the risk of something getting scattered or going stale.

How long does it take to complete the checklist the first time? Between one and three hours spread over a few days. Later reviews go much faster.

What if I forget an account while building the inventory? That’s normal — scanning your email for confirmations and receipts usually helps you remember what you missed.