In short and in plain language
Much of life today happens online. This includes email, banking, photos and subscriptions. The article shows how to order your accounts for an emergency.
First, write down which accounts you have. Your inbox and your bank statements help with this.
A password manager is a program for your passwords. It keeps them all together. An emergency folder tells a person you trust what to do.
Many services let you name a person for the worst case. This helps your relatives.
We come to your home and set this up with you.
Life today plays out largely online: an email inbox, online banking, social media, a photo cloud, streaming subscriptions and dozens of further accounts. What happens to all these logins when someone falls seriously ill or dies is arranged by very few - and that is precisely what becomes a burden for relatives. Only 32 percent (Bitkom) of internet users in Germany decide what should happen to their digital legacy after their death, and only 16 percent (Bitkom) have arranged it fully. This guide shows step by step how to order your online accounts for an emergency: from taking inventory to the password manager as a secure basis, through to the emergency folder and the legacy contacts that many large platforms now offer. Making provisions is not a one-off mega-project but a manageable routine that can be set up in a few hours and then maintained with little effort. If you like, you can put the foundation in place at the same time - setting up a password manager securely. And if technology generally commands respect, we handle the setup at your home when you would like to have your digital legacy arranged. This way, control over your own data stays where it belongs - with you and the people you trust.
Key takeaways
- Only 32 percent of internet users in Germany make any provisions at all for their digital legacy, and just 16 percent have arranged it fully (Bitkom).
- The digital legacy is far more than the email inbox: cloud storage, online banking and payment services, social media, subscriptions and contracts as well as the devices with their unlock codes.
- Taking inventory starts in the email inbox and on the bank statements - confirmation emails and recurring debits reliably reveal most accounts.
- A password manager with emergency access is both a secure store and an always current list of accounts. The emergency folder adds unlock codes, instructions per account and the pointer for the trusted person.
- Legacy contacts and inactivity rules can be set up directly at the services. Login details, by contrast, do not belong in a will - it should only refer to the emergency folder.
Why the Digital Legacy Belongs in Your Planning
Digital provisioning is hard for many people because it is uncomfortable and because one's own online life has become confusing. A clear trend stands out: the share of those who make provisions has been declining since its peak in the pandemic years. Where it was still 40 percent (Bitkom) in 2021, the figure fell via 37 percent (Bitkom) in 2023 to most recently 32 percent (Bitkom). At the same time, the number of accounts per person grows year after year. For the bereaved this creates a double burden: alongside grief, they have to find out which contracts are running, which subscriptions keep being debited and how accounts can be closed - often without login details and without knowing which services were used at all. A well-ordered digital legacy removes exactly this burden. It ensures that important logins can be found, that ongoing costs can be stopped and that personal data is handled as you intended. Making provisions is therefore not distrust of technology but an act of consideration towards the people who will later have to take care of things.
Digital content is inheritable
What All Belongs to the Digital Legacy
The digital legacy is more than the email inbox. It comprises all the accounts, contracts, data and assets that sit online or on devices. Many of them cause ongoing costs or contain sensitive information, others have sentimental value - photos and messages, for instance. A first overview helps to grasp the scale and to miss nothing important. Roughly, the areas can be sorted into six groups that you can use as a grid during the later inventory. It is important to keep the inconspicuous things in mind too: the subscription that renews automatically, the payment service with a stored credit card, or the cloud storage that holds every family photo. It is precisely these quiet accounts that are easily overlooked in an emergency and then keep running unnoticed.
Email and cloud
The central inbox is the master key: through the password-reset function almost every other account hangs off it. Add cloud storage with photos and documents.
Banking and payments
Online banking, payment services, securities accounts and stored means of payment. This is about money - and about debits that would otherwise keep running unnoticed.
Social media
Profiles on social networks, messengers and forums. They can be put into a memorial state or deleted - provided the wish is known.
Subscriptions and contracts
Streaming, software, mobile plans, newspapers: contracts that renew automatically and are debited monthly until someone actively cancels.
Devices and data
Phone, tablet, laptop and external drives together with unlock codes. Without them, much data and many two-factor codes stay out of reach.
Digital assets
Domains, account balances, purchased media and work logins. Even seemingly small things add up and want to be settled.
The Figures: How Few Really Make Provisions
Reluctance around digital provisioning is well documented in figures. Only 32 percent (Bitkom) of internet users decide at all what should happen to their digital legacy, and only 16 percent (Bitkom) have arranged it fully. The gap around social media is particularly striking: just 15 percent (Bitkom) have arranged access to their social-media accounts, while at least 31 percent (Bitkom) have at least considered the fate of their devices and hardware. On top of this comes a wish that makes provisioning even more pressing: 60 percent (Bitkom) explicitly do not want anyone to gain access to their digital content after their death. Yet this wish can only be fulfilled if it is documented - otherwise platform rules and chance decide what happens to the data in the end. Provisioning therefore does not necessarily mean disclosing everything, but recording your own wishes bindingly - whether they amount to access or to deletion.
| Feature | Without provisions | With orderly provisions |
|---|---|---|
| Access to accounts | relatives hunt for passwords | logins sit in the emergency folder |
| Ongoing subscriptions | debits keep running | contracts can be cancelled deliberately |
| Social profiles | profiles stay online, unused | memorial state or deletion possible |
| Decision | platform and chance decide | your documented wish counts |
| Personal data | scattered uncontrolled | only trusted people get access |
An emergency folder beats any memory aid
Step 1: Take Inventory of Your Accounts
Provisioning starts with an honest inventory. Take a quiet hour and gather which online accounts you actually use. A good starting point is the central email inbox: search there for confirmation and invoice emails, because almost every service has got in touch by email at some point. Add bank and credit-card statements to track down recurring debits - they reliably reveal running subscriptions. For each account note the service, the username and the purpose, but do not write passwords openly next to them; those belong in the password manager. Anyone who once draws up this list cleanly is surprised how many accounts add up - and has at the same time created the basis for every further step.
- Go through the email inbox for confirmation, invoice and newsletter emails.
- Check bank and credit-card statements for recurring debits.
- Review logins saved in the browser and on the smartphone.
- Note each account with service, username and purpose - without an open password.
- Separate important from unimportant accounts and close rarely used ones right away.
Step 2: The Password Manager as the Basis
Once the list is in place, the login details need a secure home. A password manager is the tool of choice: it stores all accounts encrypted behind a single strong master password and fills in logins automatically. For provisioning it is doubly valuable, because it is at the same time the complete, always current list of accounts. Instead of scattering dozens of passwords on scraps of paper, you store them in one place - and only have to remember the master password. How to set up such a vault step by step is described in detail in our guide on setting up a password manager securely. Fundamental questions about secure services and handling personal data are also covered in the article on privacy and security at home. If you would rather not tackle the setup on your own, we set up the password manager on site for you.
Use the emergency access in the password manager
Step 3: Create the Emergency Folder
The emergency folder bundles everything a trusted person needs in an emergency. Alongside the account list and the pointer to the password manager, it should also hold the things no digital vault covers: the unlock code of the smartphone, the PIN of important cards, notes on insurance and contracts, and clear instructions for what should happen to each account. The balance between findability and protection is key. The folder must not lie around openly, yet it has to be quickly accessible in an emergency. A tried-and-tested approach is an encrypted file in the password manager, complemented by a short paper note in a safe place - for example with your other provisioning documents. Anyone who backs up regularly already has much of this information together; what a reliable backup strategy for photos and data looks like is shown in a separate article.
- Include the account list and the pointer to the password manager and its emergency access.
- Store unlock codes for smartphone, tablet and laptop.
- Record instructions per account: continue, put into a memorial state, or delete.
- Add important contracts, insurance and subscriptions with cancellation notes.
- Tell a trusted person where it is kept and update the folder every year.
Provisioning and backups belong together
Step 4: Legacy Contacts at the Platforms
Many large services have built in their own functions for the event of death - you only have to set them up once. This lets you decide during your lifetime who gets access after your death, or what happens to the account, without anyone needing to know the password. That is the most elegant route, because it keeps to the platform's own rules and spares relatives cumbersome proof. The four building blocks below appear in similar form at many providers; the exact labels differ, the principle stays the same. Check the account settings of your most important services once and set up whatever is available - the effort is a few minutes per account.
Legacy contact for the phone
Modern operating systems let you name a person who gets access to the device's data after death. Once set up, all guessing about the code later falls away.
Inactive-account manager
Some providers respond to prolonged inactivity: after a set period a trusted person is notified or the account is deleted - exactly to your specifications.
Memorial state for profiles
Social networks can put profiles into a memorial state instead of deleting them. Anyone who does not want that records the wish for full deletion instead.
Document your wish
Where a platform offers no function of its own, the instruction belongs in the emergency folder. That way it is clear for these accounts too what should happen.
Login details do not belong in the will
Power of Attorney, Will and the Legal Side
Alongside the technical provisions, a look at legal safeguards is worthwhile. A power of attorney that remains effective beyond death - often drafted as a precautionary power of attorney - allows a trusted person to take care of digital affairs during your lifetime and afterwards, for example cancelling or closing accounts. It should expressly include the digital legacy so there is no later doubt. The will governs who inherits and thus also takes over the digital content. Both documents are no substitute for the emergency folder but its legal bracket: the power of attorney says who may act, the emergency folder says how it works in practice. For more complex financial situations or uncertainties, legal or notarial advice makes sense - for most households a clearly worded power of attorney combined with a maintained emergency folder is enough.
- Draw up a precautionary power of attorney and expressly include the digital legacy.
- In the will, govern who inherits and thereby takes over the digital content.
- In the emergency folder only refer to logins; do not write passwords into the will.
- Align the power of attorney and emergency folder and keep them current together.
- For larger assets or business accounts, seek expert advice.
Digital provisioning is not a question of age but of consideration: it spares the people you leave behind a search in the dark - and keeps control over your own data in trusted hands.
Digital Provisioning for Relatives and Seniors
For older people in particular the topic is doubly important - and yet often put off. Anyone who juggles many accounts and passwords in later life does themselves and their relatives a favour by creating order once. At the same time, older users are more often the target of fraud attempts that are after exactly these login details. A cleanly kept password manager protects on two fronts here: it orders the accounts and makes it easier to tell genuine login pages from fake ones. How to recognise scams by email and phone is summed up in our article on phishing and fake calls. If you or a relative would like support with the setup, we accompany it patiently as part of our tech help for seniors - at an understandable pace and without jargon.
How We Set Up Your Digital Provisions
The effort lies less in the knowledge than in getting started - and that is exactly where we help. During a home visit we take inventory of your accounts together, set up a password manager with emergency access, create a structured emergency folder and activate the legacy contacts at your most important services. We explain everything calmly and at your pace, with a simple reference guide on request. Anyone already busy ordering their technology likes to combine provisioning with other plans: just as hands-on are our articles on how to connect and register a balcony solar system or speed up a slow PC without buying new. What a home visit costs and which flat rates apply is set out transparently on the page about our prices.
Take inventory
Together we go through emails, debits and saved logins and create a complete, structured list of accounts.
Set up password manager
We set up an encrypted vault with a strong master password and emergency access and transfer your accounts into it cleanly.
Create emergency folder
We bundle logins, codes and instructions in a safe place and align it with your power of attorney.
Explained patiently
We show every step calmly, stay reachable as your personal contact and update the provisions regularly on request.
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