How to set up a digital legacy contact
Set up a digital legacy contact in your phone's account settings and your main email and social accounts: most now let you name someone who can access your data or manage the account after your death. Add emergency access in your password manager, write down which accounts matter, and store the list with your will. Tell the person you chose.
Why it matters: Phones and email accounts now let you choose who can access them after you die.
Steps
- Open your phone's main account settings and look for legacy contact or inactive account options.
- Name one or two trusted people and save any access key it gives you in your document vault.
- Do the same for your main email account and major social accounts, choosing memorialize or delete as you prefer.
- Turn on emergency access in your password manager.
- Write a short list of accounts that matter, such as banking, photos and bills, without passwords.
- Store the list with your will and tell your legacy contact where it is.
- Review it once a year.
Stop and call a professional if
- you have business accounts, digital assets of value or complex wishes: ask an estate planning lawyer how to include them
Common mistakes
- Writing passwords in your will, which may become a public record.
- Choosing a contact without telling them.
- Forgetting cloud photo libraries.
Teach this to someone
A one page sheet for showing a friend, a teenager or a parent: what to say, what to show, and one question to check it landed.
Teach: How to set up a digital legacy contact
What to say
Set up a digital legacy contact in your phone's account settings and your main email and social accounts: most now let you name someone who can access your data or manage the account after your death. Add emergency access in your password manager, write down which accounts matter, and store the list with your will. Tell the person you chose.
What to show
- Open your phone's main account settings and look for legacy contact or inactive account options.
- Name one or two trusted people and save any access key it gives you in your document vault.
- Do the same for your main email account and major social accounts, choosing memorialize or delete as you prefer.
- Turn on emergency access in your password manager.
- Write a short list of accounts that matter, such as banking, photos and bills, without passwords.
- Store the list with your will and tell your legacy contact where it is.
- Review it once a year.
Where it stops
Stop and call a professional if you have business accounts, digital assets of value or complex wishes: ask an estate planning lawyer how to include them.
Check question
Where do you set up a legacy contact?
Answer: In each account's settings. Each service has its own legacy or inactive account setting.
Your checklist
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Quick quiz
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Related skills
Sources
- US state bar association consumer guides on wills and estate planning, 2026. Reviewed September 28, 2026.
Written in our own words from the sources above. It is general information, not advice for your situation; where a professional, your doctor or your lease says something different, follow them.
Last reviewed . First published .