Your Passwords Are Not Your Plan: What Your Family Needs
“Can you show me where to find that?” is a simple question—until the person who knows the answer cannot respond. A spouse may be sitting at the kitchen table with a laptop, an overdue bill, and no idea which account or email address is needed to resolve it.
If you suddenly became unable to manage your affairs, the people assisting you could face immediate practical problems. They might need to locate an insurance policy, make a mortgage payment, obtain tax records, access a business portal, protect an account from fraud, or preserve family photographs.
Planning for online accounts should be part of the same conversation as the rest of your estate plan. It does not require cataloging every app on your phone. It means identifying the accounts and information that matter, deciding who should be able to handle them, and making sure your legal documents and practical arrangements work together.
Planning for Online Accounts Starts Before a Crisis
Begin with the accounts connected to your family’s financial and personal life. These may include:
primary email accounts;
banking and bill-payment services;
insurance and retirement portals;
tax and accounting records;
cloud storage;
mobile-phone accounts;
digital photographs and videos;
online businesses;
social-media accounts;
subscription services;
airline miles and other loyalty benefits; and
connected household devices and services.
If only one person knows which accounts exist or why they matter, family members may lose valuable time simply trying to understand the situation. A password written on a piece of paper does not explain the purpose of an account, the records it contains, or what should happen to it during incapacity or after death.
The first question is not whether someone can become a cybersecurity expert. It is much simpler: if you could not respond tomorrow, what would your agent under a power of attorney or your trustee need to locate first? After your death, what would your personal representative or successor trustee need to identify, preserve, transfer, or close?
A fiduciary is a person legally authorized to act for someone else. Depending on the circumstances, a fiduciary may be an agent under a power of attorney, a trustee, a guardian, or a personal representative administering an estate. Different fiduciaries have different authority, and that authority may change depending on whether the account owner is incapacitated or deceased.
The bottom line: Online accounts are part of your family’s financial and personal life. They should not be left outside the estate-planning conversation.
A Password List May Help, but Legal Authority Still Matters
It is tempting to think, “My spouse knows my passwords, so we are covered.” Possession of a password, however, does not necessarily establish legal authority to access or manage an account.
Providers have their own terms, security procedures, and verification requirements. Federal and state privacy laws may also apply. Access to the contents of an email account or private messages can raise different issues from access to an electronically stored document, a list of communications, or an account balance.
Missouri and Illinois have both enacted laws based on the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. These laws address when certain fiduciaries may obtain access to digital assets and electronic communications. The result can depend on several factors, including:
the type of fiduciary requesting access;
the authority granted in a power of attorney, trust, will, or court order;
whether the account holder used a provider’s online planning tool;
the type of information being requested;
the provider’s current terms and procedures; and
other applicable state and federal law.
These laws do not mean that every fiduciary automatically receives a password or unrestricted access to every account. A provider may require a written request, a certified legal document, proof of identity, a court order, or other information before disclosing digital assets.
Sharing login credentials can also create practical and security problems. It may interfere with multifactor authentication, trigger fraud controls, expose unrelated private information, or violate the provider’s terms. Financial institutions may offer authorized-user or agency arrangements, but those options can have consequences beyond account access and should be evaluated carefully.
A useful account inventory should therefore be paired with current estate-planning documents, thoughtfully selected fiduciaries, and appropriate provider arrangements. Do not assume that sharing a password gives another person permission to act.
The bottom line: An inventory can help someone find an account. It does not replace lawful authority or the provider’s required access process.
Your Provider Choices May Be Part of the Plan
Estate planning for digital assets is not limited to documents kept in a binder. It can also involve choices made inside the platforms that hold your information.
Some providers allow users to name a person through a legacy, inactivity, or similar online tool. Under the digital-asset laws in Missouri and Illinois, a direction made through a qualifying online tool may take priority over a conflicting direction in a will, trust, power of attorney, or other record if the user can modify or delete the online direction at all times.
If a user has not made a direction through such a tool, instructions in the user’s estate-planning documents may apply. Provider terms and other laws may still affect what information can be disclosed and how a fiduciary must request it.
The practical lesson is straightforward: decisions made inside an online account may become part of the estate plan. A direction made years ago and then forgotten may not match a more recent will, trust, or power of attorney.
Some providers offer tools that apply only after death. For example, Apple currently offers a Legacy Contact feature that may provide access to certain account data after the account holder’s death. It does not provide access to every category of information, including passwords, passkeys, or payment information stored in iCloud Keychain. It is also not a substitute for incapacity planning.
Provider tools, eligibility requirements, and access limitations can change. Account holders should review the provider’s current instructions when establishing or updating any legacy or emergency-access arrangement.
The bottom line: Review both your estate-planning documents and the choices made inside your important online accounts. They should not give conflicting instructions.
Incapacity Requires Its Own Plan
A provider’s tool for access after death may not help if the account holder is alive but unable to manage financial or personal affairs.
During incapacity, authority may come from a durable power of attorney, a trust, a guardianship order, or another legal arrangement. The appropriate source of authority depends on how the account or asset is owned and the type of action required.
Access to the content of electronic communications may require particular attention. The content of a communication generally means its substance, such as the body of an email or a private message. That content can be subject to stricter consent requirements than other digital assets or basic information about communications.
A power of attorney should therefore be reviewed with practical questions in mind:
Does it address digital assets?
Does it grant appropriate authority concerning electronic devices and accounts?
Does it contain any consent needed for access to electronic communications?
Does the selected agent know where the account inventory is maintained?
Are important assets owned by a trust rather than individually?
Have provider tools been coordinated with the legal documents?
Does the agent understand that legal authority may not permit unrestricted access to another person’s private information?
A general grant of authority may not resolve every issue involving a provider, device, communication, or account. Even well-drafted documents cannot eliminate every security procedure or legal restriction. They can, however, give the selected fiduciary a clearer legal basis for making an appropriate request.
The bottom line: Incapacity and death are different situations. A complete plan should consider both.
Do Not Put Passwords in Your Will
If a will is filed in a probate proceeding, it generally becomes part of the court record. A will is therefore not an appropriate place for passwords, recovery codes, security answers, or similar credentials.
Sensitive access information also should not be included directly in a trust or power of attorney that may need to be provided to financial institutions, health care providers, title companies, or other third parties.
A safer approach is to maintain a secure inventory outside the estate-planning documents. Depending on the circumstances, that may involve a reputable password manager, encrypted storage, a protected physical record, or another secure system.
The inventory does not need to place every password in a single document. It may instead identify:
the type of account;
the name of the provider;
why the account matters;
how the account is owned;
whether a provider tool has been activated;
who should be contacted;
where authorized access instructions are maintained; and
whether the account should be preserved, transferred, archived, or closed.
Any system should be evaluated for security, recovery procedures, emergency-access options, and consistency with the account holder’s legal plan. Someone appropriate should know that the inventory exists and where it can be found, but access should remain limited to those with a legitimate need and lawful authority.
The inventory should also be reviewed periodically. New devices, changed email addresses, closed accounts, revised fiduciary appointments, and updated provider tools can quickly make an old list unreliable.
The bottom line: Good planning makes important information findable without making it unnecessarily vulnerable.
Start with the Accounts That Matter Most
Many people avoid digital-asset planning because it feels endless. They imagine hundreds of accounts and conclude that a complete inventory is impossible.
Perfection is not required. Start with the five accounts that would cause the most immediate difficulty if no one could locate or manage them. These might include a primary email account, online banking, household bill payment, insurance information, tax records, or cloud storage containing important family files.
For each account, record the provider, its purpose, and where the appropriate access information or instructions are maintained. Next, identify which fiduciary would need to handle the account during incapacity and which fiduciary might need it after death.
Do not send passwords through ordinary email or place them in an unsecured spreadsheet. Do not assume that naming someone in a will gives that person immediate authority during incapacity. Similarly, do not assume that an agent under a power of attorney will continue to have authority after death.
Digital-asset planning is likely to become more important as financial records, personal communications, photographs, businesses, and household systems continue to move online. No plan can anticipate every change in technology, but a current legal framework and a practical inventory can reduce confusion.
The bottom line: The first goal is not a perfect inventory. It is beginning the process while there is still time to make deliberate choices.
A Practical Step You Can Take Now
Set aside one hour this week. Choose one category—such as household bills, insurance, tax records, or family photographs—and make a short list of the online accounts connected to it.
For each account, ask:
What is this account used for?
Who would need to know that it exists?
Does the provider offer a legacy, inactivity, emergency-access, or authorized-user process?
Do the current estate-planning documents give the appropriate fiduciary sufficient authority?
Where are secure access instructions maintained?
When was this information last reviewed?
An estate-plan review can address whether a power of attorney, trust, will, and related documents appropriately address digital assets and electronic communications. It can also help coordinate those documents with provider tools and a secure account inventory.
Estate planning should be tailored to the client’s circumstances, objectives, assets, and family considerations. Digital-asset planning is one part of that process. Technical, tax, business, or cybersecurity issues may also require assistance from other qualified professionals.
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This article is a service of Schroer Legacy Law LLC. We don’t just draft documents; we support you to make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.
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