What to record about online accounts

The short answer

For each online service, you can record its name, the email address it is registered to, what you would like done with it, where the access instructions are kept, and who can reach them. The record never holds the login itself.

What Part 8 of the record holds

Part 8 is called Digital life. For each service it holds:

• The service, and its kind: email, phone, photos, social, shopping, subscription, password manager, website or other.
• The email address it is registered to.
• What you would like done with it, in your own words.
• Where access instructions are kept. This is the place, not the details.
• Who can reach them.
• Whether you have set a legacy or inactive-account contact inside the service: yes, no or not sure.

For a phone, a tablet or a computer, the record holds who knows how to unlock it. It does not hold the code.

What is left out

No password, PIN, passcode, security answer or recovery phrase belongs in the record. A book or a file can be found, photographed or copied.

The full reason is on the page Why there is no passwords page.

As you type, the tool looks on your device for things that resemble a password, a PIN or a card number, and warns you beside the field. You can remove what was flagged or keep what you typed.

This check looks for common patterns. It cannot catch everything.

Each service has its own rules

Each service has its own rules about access after a death. This record does not override them.

Giving someone your login can break a service's own terms.

Many services offer their own way to name a contact, for the time when you can no longer use the account. The service's own help pages say whether it offers one and how it works. If you wish, you can note in the record that you have set one.

What you write under "What I would like done with it" is a wish. It guides your family. The service may not be able to follow it.

This site does not say what any service or any state allows. For that, see the service's own pages, your own attorney and your state's official sources.

What this part is not for

This part is not the place to say who should receive money or property. For that, see your own attorney.

An online bank or investment account is recorded in Part 5, Accounts and policies: the institution, the kind, and at most the last four digits.

Keeping the list current

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau suggests keeping your information as current as possible when something changes, such as opening a new account.

You can add, change or remove an entry at any time. No entry has to be filled in fully.

Rules differ by state and country. For a will, a power of attorney or an advance directive, see your own attorney and your state's official sources.

Sources

A sentence on this page that states a fact about the world rests on one of the official pages below. A sentence that only describes this record rests on no outside page.

If something on this page looks wrong, or an official page has changed since the date shown, please say so. The contact page explains how.