Reviewed guide
Digital legacy checklist
A practical way to organize accounts, photos, subscriptions, devices, and instructions without exposing passwords.
By rip.com editorial • 7 min read • Last reviewed May 7, 2026
Reviewed by Nora Kim, privacy operations reviewer
What to do
- List the accounts someone would need to find, not necessarily the passwords.
- Separate financial accounts from photo, social, cloud, and subscription accounts.
- Write instructions: memorialize, delete, transfer, archive, or do nothing.
- Use a password manager and emergency access rather than a plain text document.
Inventory before access
A useful digital legacy plan starts by telling your executor what exists. Email, phone passcodes, cloud photos, social accounts, crypto wallets, subscriptions, and domain names can all matter.
Do not create a plain text password list. The safer pattern is an inventory plus a secure password manager or recovery process.
Instructions prevent guesswork
Some accounts should be memorialized. Others should be deleted, transferred, archived, or left alone. The right answer depends on family, privacy, finances, and the account's own rules.
Clear instructions reduce the chance that a grieving family member has to make a permanent decision from a login screen.
Keep going
Turn this guidance into a trackable task list or provider search when you are ready. No popups, no pressure.