Resources / Guide 09 / Digital estate guide
Digital Estate Planning
Digital estate planning is the work of making online accounts, digital assets, devices, documents, and access instructions understandable before someone else has to act.
Use this when the estate plan needs to cover digital assets and account access, not only paper documents and property.
What this guide covers
This guide is written as a practical reference for New Zealand families organizing private records before they become urgent. It focuses on the details that make a plan understandable to someone who may need to act quickly and carefully.
- Digital assets need a clear inventory and access context.
- Online accounts should be organized by purpose, provider, and recovery path.
- Trusted access should be selective and reviewed over time.
Start with a digital inventory
A digital estate inventory should identify accounts, subscriptions, devices, cloud storage, documents, photos, business systems, and other digital assets that may matter later.
- Email, cloud storage, banking, investments, and subscriptions
- Devices, password managers, backup drives, and recovery methods
- Digital files, family records, business assets, and online profiles
Explain what should happen to each asset
Some accounts should be closed, some files should be preserved, and some records should be transferred or reviewed by an executor, advisor, or family member.
- Preserve important family or business records
- Mark subscriptions and accounts that should be cancelled
- Document who can interpret each digital record
Keep access instructions controlled
Digital estate planning should not mean sharing every password in advance. Store context securely and share only the sections needed by each trusted person.
- Separate account references from high-risk credentials
- Use role-based sharing for family, executors, and advisors
- Review access when devices, providers, or responsibilities change
How this fits in Legacy Toolkit
Use this guide as a working checklist inside the desktop vault. Create or review the relevant profile sections, attach the documents that support each record, add reminders where information can go stale, and share only the sections a trusted person needs for their role.
The goal is not to turn a private life into a public folder. The goal is to keep the plan legible, current, and controlled so the right person can find the right information without receiving the whole vault by default.
- Profile sections keep the plan readable instead of turning it into a loose notes file.
- Document attachments keep proof beside the account, asset, policy, or instruction it supports.
- Trusted access lets you prepare a handoff without exposing the full vault by default.
Digital estate planning checklist
Treat this as a first pass, not a final legal packet. Review the items, fill in what is missing, and return to the plan whenever a provider, account, advisor, family role, or document changes.
- Inventory online accounts, digital assets, devices, and subscriptions.
- Attach documents and proof files to the records they support.
- Record recovery paths, backup locations, and provider contacts.
- Write instructions for preserving, closing, transferring, or reviewing assets.
- Set trusted access for the people who may need selected sections.
Official New Zealand references
These links are included for context. Legacy Toolkit helps organise records and does not replace legal, financial, tax, medical, or court advice.
Related next steps
Continue with the product, security, or planning page that best matches the next decision.