A woman dies and her family begin sorting her affairs. They find the bank accounts, the pension and the house without difficulty.
They cannot access thirty years of photographs, they do not know which subscriptions are still charging, there is an online business account nobody can reach, and there is a cryptocurrency holding they can see a record of and cannot touch.
None of this was hidden. It simply lived in accounts that she alone could access, and nobody ever wrote down that they existed.
1. Start with an inventory of what exists
Not passwords. A list of what accounts and assets exist and roughly where. This alone resolves most of the practical difficulty families face.
2. Distinguish assets from access
Money, property and holdings are assets that pass under a will. Photographs, email and social accounts are access questions governed by each provider's own rules.
3. Explain that terms of service govern much of it
Many accounts are licences rather than property and cannot be inherited. Families are frequently shocked by this and it should be explained while somebody is alive.
4. Use the legacy tools that exist
Several major providers offer a nominated contact or an inactive account process. Setting these up takes minutes and it is the single most effective step available.
5. Keep passwords outside the will
A will can become a public document and passwords change constantly. A secure record, with its location referenced, is the workable arrangement.
6. Cover the financial accounts held online
Investment platforms, savings applications and payment accounts. These hold real value and they are frequently invisible to anybody without the login.
7. Cover cryptocurrency explicitly
Without the keys the asset is unrecoverable, regardless of any legal entitlement. This is unlike anything else in an estate and it needs specific arrangements.
8. Cover the subscriptions and recurring payments
These continue after death and families struggle to identify and stop them, which is a small but genuinely distressing burden at a difficult time.
9. Cover any online business or income
Domains, listings, seller accounts, advertising revenue and anything generating income. These are assets and they are frequently unmentioned.
10. Cover the sentimental material deliberately
Photographs and messages matter more to most families than anything else on the list, and they are the hardest to recover without preparation.
11. Explain the executor's practical position
What an executor can and cannot do with accounts, what documentation providers usually require and how long it takes, which is the ground in probate questions from families after a death.
12. Address the shared account problem
Joint subscriptions, family accounts and anything in one person's name used by the household. These cause immediate practical problems and are rarely considered.
13. Review it regularly
Accounts multiply and providers change their rules. An inventory made once and never updated is only partly useful within a few years.
14. Answer the practical questions at the hour people think about it
An assistant that explains what happens to online accounts, why passwords do not belong in a will, what legacy tools exist and what to put in an inventory reaches somebody thinking about this in the evening, and takes a request for the appointment where it is needed. Handled with the care in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot, alongside the property questions in property and home questions in estate planning and the account access issues in branch access and digital banking questions. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under law firms.