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Most accounts stay open until someone tells the company. In most states, a setting you turn on inside each service decides who gets your data.
Most online accounts don't close when you die. They stay as they are until someone tells the company, and then the company follows its own rules. Some let a person you chose download your photos and files. Some turn your profile into a memorial. Others won't let anyone sign in, even your executor.
In most states, a law sets the order the company has to follow. A setting you chose inside the service comes first. Your will, trust or power of attorney comes next. If you left neither, the company's terms of service and your state's default rules decide. So turn on the settings these services offer, and leave your family a list of your accounts.
Most states have passed a version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, often called RUFADAA. It sorts what's in your accounts into three kinds: what your messages say, the record of who you wrote to and when, and everything else, like stored files.
The words in your emails and chats stay private unless you agreed to share them or a court orders it. You can agree through a setting in the service, or in a will that says in words that your executor may see your messages. The record of who you wrote to and when can go to your executor unless you said no. For stored files and other things, a company may ask for a court finding first and may limit access to what's needed to settle your estate. The details depend on your state's version of the law, and some states have rules of their own.
In states that follow RUFADAA, a setting you turn on here counts for more than your will, as long as you can change it whenever you like.
If you skip these settings, your family has to use the company's standard process, which can mean a death certificate and proof that they're the executor. In the US, Apple asks for a court order when there's no Legacy Contact.
Online bank and brokerage accounts are handled the same way as accounts at a branch. If you named a payable-on-death or transfer-on-death beneficiary, that person claims the account with a death certificate. A joint account usually passes to the other owner. Anything else goes through your executor and your estate. Cryptocurrency you keep in your own wallet can be lost for good if no one can find the recovery phrase.
Don't put passwords in your will. A will can become a public record once it goes through probate, and passwords change. Make a separate list of your accounts instead. Write down each service and what you want done with it: closed, kept as a memorial or downloaded first. Then say where the passwords are kept, such as a password manager, and where your phone passcode is kept, since many sign-in codes are sent to your phone.
A letter of instruction is a good place for this list. Tell your executor where it is. An account left open in a dead person's name can be used for fraud, and our post on identity theft after death explains how to guard against it.
Only if you allowed it or a court orders it. A setting like Google's Inactive Account Manager sends your data to the people you picked there, who may not be your executor. A will counts only if it says in words that your executor may see your messages. Without that, your executor may get a list of who you wrote to and when, plus other stored files.
In states that follow RUFADAA, an agent with general authority can ask for your account records and stored files while you're alive, but not what your messages say. For that, your power of attorney has to say so in plain terms.
Most digital purchases are licenses tied to your account, not things you own, and many can't be passed on.
You can write your will on FinalPeace for free and name your executor. The will doesn't include wording about online accounts, so use each service's own settings to choose who gets your data.
FinalPeace is not a law firm and this article isn't legal advice. Rules differ from state to state.
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