Digital Assets After Death: Social Media, Email, and Online Accounts

Email, social media, cloud storage, and other online accounts don't have a physical executor to hand the keys to — but a specific law and a handful of platform-built tools now give families a real path to managing a deceased person's digital life.

What counts as a digital asset

Anything stored electronically that has value or importance: email accounts, social media profiles, cloud storage, digital photos, domain names, and online financial or shopping accounts.

RUFADAA gives executors a legal framework

Most states have adopted some version of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), which spells out how an executor or fiduciary can be granted access to a deceased person's digital accounts.

Catalog vs. content — an important distinction

RUFADAA draws a line between the "catalog" of a communication (who sent it, who received it, the date, the subject line) and its actual "content" (the message itself). A fiduciary can generally get catalog information more easily; getting the actual content of private emails or messages is more restricted and often requires more specific legal authority.

What controls access, in order

An online tool the account owner set up themselves — like a designated legacy contact — generally controls first, and can override even the will.
Absent that, instructions in the will or trust come next.
Absent either of those, the platform's own terms of service typically govern.

Platform-specific tools worth checking first

Facebook Legacy Contact — lets the account owner name someone in advance to manage a memorialized profile.
Google Inactive Account Manager — notifies a chosen contact (and can share selected data) after a set period of account inactivity.
Apple Legacy Contact — generates an Access Key in advance; the designated contact needs both that key and a death certificate to access the account.

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Frequently asked questions

What's the first thing to check?

Whether the deceased had already set up a legacy contact or similar tool on any of their major accounts — if so, that designation generally controls and is the fastest path in.

What if no legacy tool was ever set up?

You'll typically need to go through each platform's own deceased-user or estate-representative process directly, often providing a death certificate and documentation of your authority (like Letters Testamentary) — and be prepared for the content of private messages to be harder to access than basic account information.