Digital Legacy Planning

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.

• List what exists before deciding what to share.
• Keep documents next to the account, asset, or wish they support.
• Review the plan on a schedule because digital records drift.

Start with the details people cannot guess

A useful plan names accounts, providers, devices, subscriptions, policies, advisors, and family contacts. The goal is not to expose everything at once; it is to give trusted people a map when they need one.

• Financial accounts and recurring payments
• Devices, password managers, and recovery paths
• Policies, property, business records, and advisor contacts

Connect files to the reason they matter

A folder full of PDFs still leaves work behind. Estate paperwork, insurance files, identity records, and business documents become more useful when each file sits beside the profile detail it proves.

• Attach policy documents to policy records
• Keep directives near medical and family instructions
• Separate reference notes from documents that carry legal force

Prepare access without over-sharing

Different people need different levels of context. A family member may need emergency instructions, while an executor or advisor may need financial records and proof documents.

• Share by responsibility instead of by entire folder
• Review recipients after family or advisor changes
• Keep private sections private until they are needed

Make maintenance part of the plan

Digital plans age quickly. New accounts, changed providers, renewed policies, and family changes should trigger small updates so the plan remains useful over time.

• Review the plan after major life events
• Use reminders for renewals and stale records
• Export summaries when someone needs offline review

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 legacy 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.

• List important accounts, devices, and subscriptions.
• Record key contacts, advisors, and emergency decision makers.
• Attach supporting documents to the records they prove.
• Document wishes and instructions in plain language.
• Choose what trusted people can see and when to review access.