Planning a digital estate

What Happens to Accounts, Photos and Access After a Death

Today, life almost always includes a digital life too: a phone, an email inbox, streaming accounts, cloud folders, online banking access, social media profiles and thousands of photos. When someone dies, they leave behind not just a home, but often a complex digital estate as well. This is exactly where early organisation helps. It protects memories, prevents unnecessary stress and gives you orientation when everything already feels like too much. What matters most is making access findable, recording wishes, and separating things cleanly, both legally and practically: what should be deleted, what should stay, what should be preserved? You don’t need to be a tech expert for this. Even a simple, clear overview can be a huge relief.

• Why a digital estate is now part of saying goodbye
• What it actually involves: more than just social media
• What you can usefully record while you’re still alive
• What relatives should practically do after a death
• Between memory and privacy: what may stay
• If nothing has been arranged: still take it step by step
• How Atelier Magnolia Bestattungen can help with orientation
• Talk to us if you need support

Atelier Magnolia Bestattungen supports you in Berlin with individual funerals, memorial and life celebration services, natural burials, multilingual and queer-friendly funerals, and small, intimate farewells, and also keeps topics like digital estate planning in view.

Why a digital estate is now part of saying goodbye

In the past it was photo albums, letters, folders and key rings. Today passwords, device codes and user accounts are added to the list. That sounds technical at first, but it’s often deeply emotional. An email inbox may hold someone’s last messages. A phone may hold voice memos. Family photos live in the cloud. And a publicly visible profile on social media keeps existing even though the person is no longer there.

That’s exactly why a digital estate isn’t a side issue. It’s part of saying goodbye. Not always in a solemn sense, but very clearly in a practical and personal one. Relatives have to decide: keep, close, convert, cancel? And often under time pressure, with little overview and many open questions.

What it actually involves: more than just social media

When people talk about a digital estate, many think first of Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp. That’s part of it, sure. But the list is usually longer.

Typical areas include, for example:

• Email accounts
• Smartphone, tablet and laptop
• Cloud storage and photo archives
• Messaging apps
• Social networks
• Streaming subscriptions
• Online shops and customer accounts
• Loyalty programmes and memberships
• Digital contracts
• Websites or blogs
• Online payment services
• Access to banking or insurance portals, where applicable

And then it quickly becomes confusing. Some logins share the same email address. Others are secured with two-factor authentication. Others still keep generating costs if nobody cancels them. In short: a bit of a list, a bit of structure, a bit of forward planning, and the whole thing suddenly looks far less overwhelming.

What you can usefully record while you’re still alive

The good news: you don’t have to arrange everything perfectly. Often it’s enough to make the most important things easy to find.

A well-organised overview is especially helpful, including:

• key accounts and services
• a note on where passwords are safely stored
• device codes, or information on how relatives can access devices
• a list of ongoing digital contracts and subscriptions
• your wishes on which profiles should be deleted, memorialised or kept
• a note on which data or photos matter most to you
• a contact person or someone with power of attorney for practical decisions

One important point: login details shouldn’t be left lying around loosely somewhere. A secure solution, such as a password manager or a protected, clearly documented storage place, is better. A power of attorney can also make sense, so that in an emergency it doesn’t take long to clarify who is allowed to act.

And one more thing that’s often forgotten: not everything has to be deleted. Some people want certain photos kept, texts archived, or a profile to remain as a place of memory. That, too, is a form of shaping how you’re remembered.

What relatives should practically do after a death

If documents already exist, much of this becomes easier. If not, a calm, systematic start helps.

This order is usually practical:

1. Secure devices and documents so nothing is lost.
2. Check whether there’s a list of accounts, passwords or powers of attorney.
3. Identify key email accounts, since many other accounts depend on them.
4. Record ongoing costs and subscriptions.
5. Contact relevant platforms and follow their process for a death.
6. Save photos, documents and personal data before closing accounts.
7. Only then decide what should be closed, transferred or kept.

That sounds like a lot, and yes, sometimes it is. But especially in the first few days, not everything has to be done at once. What’s urgent above all are paid contracts, security-relevant access, and saving important memories.

Between memory and privacy: what may stay

A digital estate is never just technology. It also touches on questions of intimacy, privacy and respect for personal boundaries. Not every message is meant for other eyes. Not every account should simply be searched through just because it’s technically possible.

That’s why a careful approach matters. Relatives often find themselves between two impulses: wanting to preserve and wanting to protect. Both are understandable. This is exactly where it helps if the person who died set out their wishes in advance. When it’s clear what they wanted, it takes the pressure off.

Even without written wishes, the same principle applies: go step by step, only open what’s necessary, and don’t share personal content too quickly. Photos, chats or saved notes in particular can feel very close. Some things are lovely, some surprising, some maybe just private.

If nothing has been arranged: still take it step by step

Many people haven’t prepared their digital estate. That’s not the exception, it’s actually the norm. If you’re a relative in this situation, that’s nothing to feel bad about.

What matters more is not trying to solve everything at once. Start with the points that could have consequences:

• Are there ongoing payments?
• Which email address was central?
• Which devices are there?
• Where are the photos and documents kept?
• Which platforms are publicly visible?

After that, you can sort things. What’s organisational? What’s financial? What’s emotional? This separation helps enormously. Cancellation deadlines and family photos are worlds apart, even if both might be saved on the same phone.

How Atelier Magnolia Bestattungen can help with orientation

When supporting a family after a death, the focus is often first on transfers, appointments, documents and the shape of the farewell. But quite quickly, the modern questions come up alongside them: What about the phone? The profile? All the photos? The accounts nobody knows the exact number of?

Atelier Magnolia Bestattungen, at Anklamer Str. 38, 10115 Berlin, supports you not only with the classic decisions around a funeral, but also with an eye for what creates extra strain today. Because farewells are allowed to be personal and contemporary, this topic belongs too.

This isn’t about legal advice or remote technical fixes. It’s about orientation. About calm. About the right next steps. And sometimes that’s worth everything: someone who doesn’t make things more complicated, but helps you put things in order.

Talk to us if you need support

If you’re organising a death, or have questions in advance about a fitting, personal farewell, feel free to get in touch. Atelier Magnolia Bestattungen supports you in seeing decisions more clearly and taking the next step at your own pace.