What Happens to Your Online Accounts When You Die?
Facebook, email, banking, streaming — what actually happens to each type of account, and why access depends almost entirely on what you've documented in advance.
In Australia, there's no single law that automatically gives an executor the right to log into a deceased person's online accounts. Every platform sets its own policy, and most of those policies were written for a single account holder, not a grieving family trying to piece things together. Here's what typically happens, account type by account type.
Social media accounts
Most major platforms offer some form of memorialisation — turning a profile into a static tribute page — as an alternative to deletion. Family members can usually request this, but it typically requires proof of death and, for full account access, often a will or death certificate. Without prior instructions from the account holder, families are often left guessing which option their loved one would have wanted.
Email accounts
Email is arguably the most important account to plan for, because it's the recovery method for almost everything else. Major providers have deceased-account processes, but they're often slow and require substantial documentation. If the executor already has access (through a password manager, for instance), this entire process can be skipped.
Banking and financial accounts
Banks have well-established processes for deceased estates, generally requiring a death certificate and grant of probate. These accounts are usually covered by a will. The gap tends to be with newer fintechs, buy-now-pay-later services, and accounts a family simply doesn't know exist.
Subscriptions
Streaming services, software subscriptions and memberships don't stop automatically. Left unattended, they continue charging a linked card until someone actively cancels them — sometimes for months after a death.
Cloud storage and photos
Google, Apple and similar providers have introduced legacy contact features that let you nominate someone in advance to access your account after death. If this hasn't been set up beforehand, recovering photos and files typically requires a lengthy legal request process — and isn't always successful.
The pattern across all of them
Every category above has the same underlying issue: access is possible, but slow, document-heavy, and sometimes unsuccessful — unless the account holder left clear instructions and a way in. That's the entire premise behind digital estate planning: not creating new legal rights, but making sure the practical access already exists when it's needed.
The Digital Estate Kit gives you a structured way to record every account, your wishes for each, and a secure method for your executor to actually get in — without ever writing a password down in the document itself.
See what's inside — $49For the full picture of how this fits together, see our complete guide to digital estate planning in Australia.