Stories
These scenarios are composites drawn from common experiences — not real individuals. They illustrate the difference that planning makes.
When planning is left too late
These scenarios show the most common problems families face when there is no digital estate plan in place.
The Facebook account that became a ghost
His family could see his profile — the last photo he posted, the birthday wishes from friends who did not yet know he had died — but could not access it, change it, or add a memorial post. His profile continued to appear in the "People You May Know" section of friends and acquaintances. His daughter spent four months in correspondence with Facebook, submitting death certificates and letters from her solicitor, before the account was finally memorialised. During that time, well-meaning people tagged him in posts that appeared on his frozen timeline.
A Facebook Legacy Contact takes five minutes to set. His daughter would have been able to manage the account within days of his death.
Set a Legacy Contact →A decade of emails, gone
Yahoo's policy for deceased users' accounts is deletion after a period of inactivity. The family did not know this. By the time they contacted Yahoo with her death certificate, the account had been deactivated and all its contents deleted. Twenty years of personal correspondence — with her children, her late husband, friends from school — was permanently lost. Yahoo does not offer a legacy contact feature.
If there are platforms that matter to you and that do not offer legacy contact features (Yahoo, X/Twitter, LinkedIn), download your data now. Do not assume someone will be able to access your account when you are gone.
Download your data from platforms without legacy features →The cryptocurrency no one could access
He kept his private key in a folder on his computer, in a file called "important." He had never mentioned this to anyone. He died unexpectedly. His partner found the computer and the file — but did not understand what a private key was or how to use it. She contacted a solicitor, who brought in a cryptocurrency specialist. The private key was in the file, but the wallet address it unlocked had a different seed phrase — the file contained an old key from a wallet he had migrated away from. The current key was never found. The €40,000 is inaccessible permanently.
Cryptocurrency is the one digital asset where the consequences of poor planning are entirely irreversible. If you hold crypto, your estate plan must include the private key or seed phrase stored securely, plus clear instructions for how to access it. Tell someone you trust.
Secure your crypto private keys →The photo collection scattered across four platforms
The family had the iCloud password and could access some photos. Facebook eventually granted limited access through the legacy contact process (the grandmother had set one, fortunately). The Flickr account was locked — Flickr changed ownership twice and their deceased user process took three months. The Google Photos album required going through Google's Inactive Account Manager process. Eventually, the family assembled most of the collection — but it took six months, three separate legal requests, and they were never confident they had everything.
A backed-up, consolidated photo archive on an external drive and a cloud service you control would have made this a single afternoon rather than a six-month project. Back up your photos now — don't rely on platform legacy processes for something as irreplaceable as family photos.
Back up your photos →What good planning looks like
These scenarios show what becomes possible with even a small amount of forward thinking.
The organised departure
Her executor — her son — had an account inventory with 23 accounts listed, including her wishes for each. Her Facebook legacy contact was set. Her password manager had emergency access enabled. Her iCloud photos were backed up to an external hard drive in a labelled box in the spare room. She had written letters to each of her four grandchildren, stored in an envelope marked "open when ready." Within a week of her death, her son had cancelled all subscriptions, memorialised her Facebook profile with a message she had drafted herself, downloaded her Apple photos, and located all her online accounts. Two platforms required formal correspondence — the rest were handled immediately.
One afternoon of planning → one week of administration → letters that will be opened for decades
The photo archive that became a family treasure
He downloaded everything from Facebook, Instagram, and iCloud — around 8,000 photos. He spent one day deleting duplicates and poor-quality images, reducing the collection to 4,200. He organised them into folders by year and event, labelling people and places in the metadata. He stored the final collection on two external hard drives and a private Google Drive folder, with a link and password in his account inventory. He recovered fully from his health scare and is still alive — but his family now has a curated, labelled photo archive that requires no access to any platform to enjoy, that will be immediately available when it is needed, and that will make sense to grandchildren who were not yet born when many of the photos were taken.
One weekend → 4,200 labelled, organised, platform-independent photos
The will that covered everything
She added a clause to her will naming a digital executor (her tech-savvy nephew), referencing her Digital Wishes document by name and location, and granting explicit permission for her digital executor to access, modify, and close accounts on her behalf. She also set up legacy contacts on Facebook, Apple, and Google. Her account inventory was stored with her will. When she eventually dies, her nephew will have both the legal documentation to support formal requests and the practical access to handle everything else directly. Two of the platforms she uses will not require any legal process at all — her legacy contact settings will handle them automatically.
One will amendment + one afternoon of platform setup → complete coverage
Your story is unwritten
The difference between these outcomes is not luck or circumstances. It is a few hours of planning. The checklist below takes you through every action, in order.
Start your checklist →