Digital Estate Planning: A UK Guide for 2026

Your digital footprint is almost certainly bigger than you think. The average UK adult has over 100 online accounts. That's 100 logins, 100 sets of terms and conditions, and 100 platforms that will each handle your death differently — if they handle it at all.

We insure our homes, write wills for our physical possessions, and name executors for our bank accounts. But most of us have never once considered what happens to the terabytes of photos in Google Drive, the Premium Bonds managed online, or the cryptocurrency sitting in a wallet only we can access.

This guide covers what counts as a digital asset in the UK, what the major platforms actually do when an account holder dies, where the law currently stands, and — most importantly — what you can do about it right now.

What Counts as a "Digital Asset"?

A digital asset is anything you own or control that exists in digital form. That's a broad definition, and deliberately so. Here's what it includes in practice:

• Email accounts — Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, ProtonMail. Often the master key to everything else, since password resets route through email.
• Social media profiles — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok. These may hold years of memories, messages, and connections.
• Cloud storage — iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive. Family photos, scanned documents, tax records — anything you've uploaded lives here.
• Financial accounts — Online banking, investment platforms (Hargreaves Lansdown, Vanguard, Trading 212), cryptocurrency wallets, and PayPal.
• Subscriptions — Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft 365, mobile app subscriptions. These keep charging until someone cancels them.
• Domains and websites — If you own a website or domain name, these are assets with real renewal costs and potential value.
• Gaming accounts — Steam libraries, in-game purchases, virtual currencies. A well-stocked Steam account can be worth hundreds of pounds.

If any of this has financial value (money in accounts, investments, paid subscriptions) or sentimental value (photos, messages, creative work), it's worth planning for.

What Happens to Digital Accounts When You Die?

The short answer: it depends entirely on the platform. There is no universal standard, and each company handles bereavement differently. Here's what the major platforms offer.

Facebook / Meta

Facebook allows you to nominate a Legacy Contact — someone who can manage your profile after you die. They can pin a tribute post, respond to friend requests, and update your profile photo, but they cannot read your messages or remove existing content. Alternatively, you can request that your account be permanently deleted after death. If neither option is set up, a family member can request memorialisation, which locks the profile with "Remembering" displayed before the name.

Google

Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you decide what happens to your Gmail, Drive, Photos, and YouTube data after a period of inactivity (3 to 18 months). You can nominate up to 10 people to receive a download of your data, or set the account to delete itself automatically. This is one of the better systems available — but only if you actually set it up.

Apple

Since iOS 15.2, Apple offers a Digital Legacy feature. You nominate a Legacy Contact who receives an access key. After your death, they submit the key along with a death certificate to Apple, and gain access to most of your iCloud data — photos, notes, mail, and more. Keychain passwords and licensed media are excluded.

Microsoft

Microsoft's Next of Kin process allows a family member to request the contents of a deceased person's Outlook.com account. It requires a death certificate, proof of relationship, and a court order or other legal documentation. The process can take several weeks.

Everyone else

For most other platforms — from Spotify and Netflix to your local council's online portal — there is no formal legacy process. Without the login credentials, the account is effectively locked forever. Subscriptions continue to charge. Data remains inaccessible. Your family is left either guessing passwords or accepting the loss.

The Legal Landscape in the UK

Here's where things get murky. UK law has not yet caught up with the digital world.

When you write a will, you can leave your house, your car, and your savings to whomever you choose. But digital assets occupy an awkward legal grey area. Most online accounts are governed by terms of service, not property law. You don't technically "own" your Gmail account — you have a licence to use it, and that licence is typically non-transferable.

The Law Commission has been reviewing the legal status of digital assets since 2024, examining whether they should be treated as personal property under existing inheritance frameworks. As of early 2026, their final recommendations are still pending. In the meantime, the practical reality is that terms of service often override your wishes, even if you explicitly mention digital accounts in your will.

A will can express your intentions for your digital accounts — but it cannot force a platform to comply. The terms of service are the real governing document.

That said, there's still good reason to include digital assets in your will explicitly. It demonstrates clear intent, gives your executors legal standing to make requests, and can be decisive when platforms exercise discretion. A will that says "I grant my executor access to all digital accounts" is significantly more useful than one that says nothing at all.

How to Plan Your Digital Estate

The good news is that planning your digital estate doesn't require a solicitor or any technical expertise. It requires an afternoon and a bit of honesty about how many accounts you actually have.

1. Make an inventory of all digital accounts. Go through your email inbox, your browser's saved passwords, and your phone's app library. List every account: email, social media, banking, shopping, cloud storage, subscriptions. You'll be surprised how many there are.
2. Note what has financial versus sentimental value. Your online banking is clearly financial. Your Google Photos library is sentimental. Some things are both. This helps your executor prioritise.
3. Set up platform-specific legacy features where available. Enable Google's Inactive Account Manager. Add an Apple Digital Legacy contact. Set your Facebook Legacy Contact. These take minutes and cost nothing.
4. Use an encrypted vault for credentials and access instructions. Don't rely on a spreadsheet, a note on the fridge, or your memory. A secure, encrypted vault keeps everything in one place and protects it from unauthorised access while you're alive.
5. Tell one trusted person how to access the vault. The vault is only useful if someone can open it. Choose one person — a partner, a sibling, an executor — and make sure they know how to access it when the time comes.

Common Mistakes

Even people who think about digital estate planning tend to make the same errors. Here are the ones we see most often.

Writing passwords on paper

A sheet of paper in a desk drawer is easily lost, damaged, or found by the wrong person. It also goes stale the moment you change a password. Paper is better than nothing, but only just.

Sharing passwords via email or text

This is a security risk in every direction. Emails can be hacked, forwarded, or subpoenaed. Text messages sit on devices that others can access. Sharing credentials through unencrypted channels defeats the purpose of having passwords in the first place.

Assuming your family can "just call" the provider

Some providers will work with bereaved families. Many won't — at least not quickly or easily. Without credentials, your family may face weeks of back-and-forth, legal documentation requests, and in some cases, outright refusal. Don't assume goodwill will bridge the gap.

Not updating your digital estate as accounts change

You opened a new investment account last year. You switched email providers. You cancelled one streaming service and started another. If your digital estate plan is a static document from three years ago, it's already out of date. Review it at least once a year — treat it like changing the batteries in your smoke alarm.

After Me for Digital Estates

After Me was designed with exactly this problem in mind. It's a secure, local-first vault that lives on your phone, where you can store credentials, access instructions, and important documents side by side.

• Store credentials alongside legal documents. Your will, your pension details, your Gmail recovery codes, and your cryptocurrency wallet seed phrase — all in one encrypted place, organised however you choose.
• Family Kit provides access without needing passwords. When the time comes, your next of kin uses a single QR code and recovery passphrase to unlock everything. No app passwords, no account logins, no calling a support line.
• AES-256 encryption means even After Me can't see your data. Your vault is encrypted on your device before it goes anywhere. TITADE Ltd has no access to your documents, your credentials, or your personal information. We couldn't read it even if we wanted to.

Your digital life is too valuable — financially and emotionally — to leave to chance. A few hours of planning now can save your family weeks of frustration and thousands of pounds in lost assets.