How can you organise your digital legacy?

• These are your photos and other important digital documents stored in the cloud.
• Many people have an Instagram, WhatsApp or Facebook account. Besides enabling you to keep in touch with others throughout your lifetime, these platforms also contain past memories and moments from your life when you pass away. They can serve as memorial pages.
• Another point to remember is that many people do their banking online nowadays. Read more about what you need to organise before you pass away.

It’s a good idea to set up an administration plan for your digital estate as well as your normal estate. Administering an estate can be a challenge for your next of kin, made more difficult by the fact that digital service providers are reluctant to provide full access to data. Thankfully, these providers have recently been developing their digital legacy policies to support next of kin as much as possible after a user’s death.

Read on to explore the general options for organising your digital legacy with each of the providers mentioned.

Instagram and Facebook give you the option to memorialise your account, leave it active or delete it after your death. You can also add a ‘legacy contact’: the person who has access to your account after your death. This person must have your death certificate to request access.

Apple gives you the option to add a ‘Legacy Contact’ in the ‘Sign-in & Security’ menu in your Settings. A legacy contact is a person you trust to access your data via iCloud after you die. Your legacy contact will only be able to access your data after your death, and only after uploading a copy of your death certificate.

Adding a legacy contact is a secure way of giving someone you trust access to your data after you die. This data may be your photos, messages, notes, files, downloaded apps or device backups. However, they won’t be able to access certain information such as movies, music, books, purchased subscriptions or payment details and passwords. Legacy contacts don’t need an Apple device in order to be your legacy contact.

You might use Google’s services for anything from your Android smartphone to online platforms like Gmail and YouTube. Google has a range of options to manage inactive accounts, enabling you to state after how many months Google may notify a trusted contact of your inactivity and give that person access to your data. You can also decide which data may be accessed. If you don’t share your inactivity preferences, Google will delete your account after two years of inactivity.

Microsoft says that it’s unable to disclose any information about user accounts by virtue of privacy laws and other legal regulations. You don’t need to contact Microsoft to report somebody’s death; the account will be automatically deleted after two years of inactivity. Evidently, the ruling by the two Dutch courts mentioned above hasn’t prompted Microsoft to relax its rules on access to a deceased person’s data.

Some notaries in the Netherlands give you the option to appoint a ‘digital executor’ in your will. This person will be given the access codes to your accounts. If the digital service providers mentioned above already have a policy for legacy contacts, you may choose to skip this option. However, appointing an executor may be a wise decision if you leave behind digital assets with a monetary value.

There may come a time in life when you’re still alive but unable to manage all your affairs. This may be the case if you develop dementia, for instance. Thankfully, there are ways you can prepare for this situation. One of them is a notarial power of attorney. This lets you add a section about your digital assets to your living will alongside your last will.

• Putting a power of attorney in place and registering it with the bank
• Making a living will or registering a power of attorney