The Death Envelope: The Cybersecurity Plan Every Family Needs

The digital-estate and personal-continuity plan every family should have, but nobody wants to think about.

A public-service message written after the unexpected loss of my son, Robert.

I recently lost my son, Robert. He was 32.

Nothing prepares a parent for that.

But in the days that followed, something else caught me off guard, even after more than 25 years working in technology and cybersecurity.

A person’s life no longer exists only in the physical world. It lives in a phone. In an email account. In Facebook and Instagram posts. In photographs stored in iCloud and Google Photos. In text messages, music, documents, bank accounts, subscriptions, payment apps, cryptocurrency wallets, and dozens of websites a family may not even know exist.

When someone dies unexpectedly, their family may be left responsible for locating, preserving, and lawfully managing parts of that person’s digital life, often without immediate access or clear authority.

That is why I believe every family should have what cybersecurity professional Matt Yoder called a “Death Envelope” in his 2008 DEF CON presentation.

An Idea Almost Two Decades Ahead of Its Time

The Death Envelope concept is not new.

In 2008, cybersecurity professional Matt Yoder presented “The Death Envelope: A Medieval Solution to a 21st Century Problem” at DEF CON 16.

His premise was remarkably simple: too much critical information existed only inside people’s heads or behind systems only they knew how to access. Families and organizations needed a secure way to recover that information if someone died or became incapacitated.

Nearly two decades later, the problem is much larger.

Our lives now extend across smartphones, cloud services, social networks, password managers, multifactor-authentication systems, cryptocurrency, online businesses, photographs, videos, music, and years of digital communications.

The technology changed.

The problem didn’t.

You can review Yoder’s original presentation in the DEF CON 16 Death Envelope slides.

For families today, I think of the Death Envelope as a secure digital-estate and personal-continuity roadmap.

It isn’t pleasant to think about. Neither is a fire extinguisher. You prepare for an emergency because, when it happens, preparation matters.

What Is a Death Envelope?

A Death Envelope is a secure set of instructions that tells the person you trust how to begin managing your digital, financial, and personal affairs if you die or become unable to manage them yourself, subject to applicable law, provider policies, estate documents, and the person’s legal authority.

The envelope is a concept, not necessarily a literal envelope.

It could be:

• Maintained through your attorney
• Stored in a home safe
• Placed in a properly accessible safe-deposit box
• Incorporated into your estate-planning arrangements
• Supported by your password manager’s emergency-access feature
• Divided between physical instructions and securely stored digital information
• Protected in a tamper-evident security package

Whatever form it takes, it should answer one question:

If something happened to me tonight, would my family know where my digital life is, what matters most, and what I want done with it?

For most families, I suspect the answer is no.

A Death Envelope should not be an unsecured list of every password you own. Passwords change, and a poorly protected list of credentials creates a serious security risk.

Think of it instead as a digital-estate map: what exists, where it is, whom to contact, who has authority, and what you want done with each part of it.

The Death Envelope is the roadmap. It should never become the vault.

A Death Envelope Is Not Only for Death

A serious accident, stroke, illness, cognitive impairment, or other incapacity can create many of the same problems as a death.

A person may be alive but unable to:

• Unlock a device
• Pay bills
• Manage investments
• Access insurance information
• Respond to important messages
• Operate a business
• Manage digital assets
• Provide authentication codes
• Locate medical or legal documents
• Explain where important records are stored

Your Death Envelope should address both death and incapacity.

Work with a qualified estate-planning attorney to determine how your legal documents and Death Envelope should work together. Healthcare directives address healthcare decisions; they should not be assumed to grant general authority over digital accounts.

The person authorized to act during your lifetime may not be the same person who serves as your executor or personal representative after your death.

A power of attorney generally operates during the principal’s lifetime and ordinarily terminates at death. After death, responsibility normally shifts to the executor, administrator, personal representative, or other properly authorized fiduciary under applicable law.

Your plan should make those responsibilities clear.

1. Start With Your Digital Identity

Begin with the accounts that serve as keys to everything else.

Document the following:

• Primary email: Password resets and account-recovery requests for other services often depend on it.
• Secondary email accounts: Include personal, financial, creative, and other important accounts.
• Apple, Google, and Microsoft accounts: Identify the accounts that hold photographs, documents, contacts, backups, and other important information.
• Mobile carrier and phone number: The number may receive authentication codes and account-recovery messages. Coordinate any decision to cancel or transfer the line with the estate’s recovery needs.
• Password manager: Record the service you use and whether emergency access or a legacy feature is enabled.
• Multifactor authentication: Explain how authentication works and where recovery codes and backup methods are secured.
• Legacy and trusted contacts: Identify the people already designated for the limited data access or management functions each provider permits.
• Identity-protection services: List credit-monitoring, identity-protection, or fraud-alert services that may need to be contacted.
• Government accounts: Identify important government portals without placing sensitive credentials in an unsecured document.

Next, list the devices that matter:

• Phones
• Laptops
• Desktops
• Tablets
• Smartwatches
• External drives
• Home network storage
• Hardware security keys
• Smart-home systems
• Security cameras
• Encrypted storage devices
• Backup media

For each important device, record:

• Device type
• Manufacturer
• General location
• Owner
• Purpose
• Whether it is backed up
• Where the backup is stored
• Whether it contains personal, business, or client information
• Who should be contacted before anyone attempts to access it

For work devices, identify the employer or business owner who must be contacted.

Do not assume that a family member, executor, or personal representative is authorized to access employer-owned systems, client information, protected health information, financial records, or business data.

Here is a lesson families can learn too late:

Possessing someone’s phone is not the same as being able to unlock it.

Modern devices use strong encryption. A manufacturer generally cannot simply bypass a forgotten passcode and retrieve the contents of a locked device.

Depending on the device and its settings, repeated incorrect passcode attempts can cause increasingly long lockouts or data erasure.

Planning before an emergency is what makes the difference.

2. Apple: Set Up a Legacy Contact

For Apple users, one of the most useful steps is to designate a Legacy Contact for your Apple Account.

Apple’s Legacy Contact feature allows you to select a trusted person and generate an access key. After your death, that person can request access using the access key and your death certificate, subject to Apple’s verification process and applicable documentation requirements.

Eligible information may include:

• Photos
• Messages
• Notes
• Files
• Contacts
• Calendar information
• Device backups
• Other information stored in your Apple Account

There are important limitations.

Legacy Contact access applies to eligible information available through the Apple Account and Apple’s legacy-access process. It does not guarantee recovery of information stored only on a locked device, previously deleted information, iCloud Keychain contents, or other excluded data.

A Legacy Contact does not receive access to everything. Purchased movies, music, books, and subscriptions may be excluded. Information stored in iCloud Keychain, including passwords, passkeys, and payment information, is also excluded.

The access key is essential.

Make sure your designated contact knows how to locate it, and consider storing a secure backup copy with your estate documents.

If you have not designated a Legacy Contact, your family may need to navigate Apple’s separate legal-documentation process. Access to the contents of a locked device is not guaranteed.

Action: Set up Apple Legacy Contact, confirm that your chosen person has the access key, and document where a backup copy is securely stored.

3. Google: Gmail, Drive, Photos, and YouTube

Consider what might live in one Google Account:

• Years of email
• Google Photos
• Drive documents
• Contacts
• Calendar entries
• YouTube videos
• YouTube revenue
• Business profiles
• Advertising accounts
• Shared documents
• Saved passwords and passkeys
• Android device backups

Google offers a feature called Inactive Account Manager. Inactive Account Manager can notify designated contacts and, when configured to do so, make selected account data available to them. It should not be understood as transferring ownership of the Google Account or granting unrestricted access to sign in as the user.

Different people can receive different categories of data, and you can instruct Google to delete the account after the specified period.

Set it up while you can.

The feature does not automatically give someone access simply because you have died. It operates according to the inactivity plan and conditions you configure.

If someone dies without setting it up, Google has a separate process for requests involving a deceased user’s account. Google may work with immediate family members or estate representatives to close an account and, in certain circumstances, provide account content after reviewing a properly documented request.

Google does not provide passwords or login credentials through this process.

Do not rush to request deletion or closure of an account before determining whether information needs to be lawfully preserved or requested.

That distinction matters.

Being someone’s family member does not automatically make you that person online.

Action: Configure Google Inactive Account Manager, choose the data to share, and confirm that your trusted contacts understand what they may receive.

4. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Other Social Media

Social media presents a question previous generations rarely had to consider:

Do you want your online identity preserved or deleted?

Decide while you are alive. Write it down.

Don’t leave your spouse, children, parents, or siblings to guess.

Facebook

Facebook allows users to designate a Legacy Contact to manage certain aspects of a memorialized profile or to choose to have the account deleted after death.

Depending on the account settings and Meta’s policies, a Legacy Contact may be permitted to:

• Manage limited memorialization functions
• Pin a tribute post
• Update certain profile elements
• Respond to some friend requests
• Download permitted information if that option was enabled

A Legacy Contact cannot simply log in as the deceased person or read private messages.

Document whether you want your profile memorialized or deleted, and identify the person you have designated as your Legacy Contact.

Instagram

Instagram provides processes for requesting that a deceased person’s account be memorialized or removed. These requests are handled through Meta’s support process and are subject to its documentation requirements.

Document your preference and leave instructions for the person who may need to submit the request.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn offers two primary options: memorialization or account closure.

A memorialized LinkedIn account can allow portions of the person’s professional presence to remain visible, subject to LinkedIn’s current policies and data-retention practices. Access to the account is locked, and LinkedIn does not disclose usernames or passwords to family members.

Closing an account on behalf of a deceased member may require documentation establishing the requester’s legal authority to act for the estate.

For a businessperson, that profile may represent decades of professional history.

Decide what you want done with it.

Record Your Wishes

Include a simple instruction for each platform:

• Facebook: Memorialize / Delete
• Instagram: Memorialize / Delete
• LinkedIn: Memorialize / Close
• X: Leave unchanged / Request closure / Preserve lawfully available content
• TikTok: Leave unchanged / Request closure / Preserve lawfully available content
• Reddit: Leave unchanged / Request closure / Preserve lawfully available content
• YouTube: Preserve / Transfer where permitted / Delete
• Other platforms: Preserve / Memorialize / Archive / Delete

Legacy, memorialization, content-download, preservation, transfer, and account-closure options vary by provider and can change over time. These instructions express your wishes but do not guarantee that a provider will offer the requested option.

They do not override provider rules, privacy laws, legal requirements, intellectual-property rights, or the authority granted by your estate documents.

5. Microsoft: Outlook and OneDrive

Microsoft illustrates why advance planning matters and why families should not assume that a death certificate alone will provide access to someone’s digital information.

A Microsoft account may contain:

• Outlook.com email
• OneDrive documents
• Photographs
• Microsoft 365 files
• Contacts
• Calendar entries
• Xbox information
• Purchased services
• Windows device-recovery information
• Business or personal records

Microsoft’s OneDrive Digital Legacy provides a way to designate a contact for pictures and files in OneDrive, subject to its eligibility and recovery requirements.

OneDrive Digital Legacy should not be understood as providing access to every Microsoft service or all information associated with a Microsoft account. Outlook email, passwords, payment information, Xbox information, and other Microsoft services may be governed by separate processes and restrictions.

Where authorized access has not been established, Microsoft has a separate legal process for requests involving a deceased person’s personal Microsoft account.

The practical lesson is straightforward:

Don’t assume your family will eventually be able to retrieve everything from your email or cloud account.

Keep important family records somewhere authorized family members can actually reach them, and establish a preservation plan before it becomes necessary.

6. Money, Digital Assets, and Financial Accounts

Your Death Envelope should identify the financial institutions and digital services that matter.

It should not become an unprotected list of banking passwords or a shortcut around an institution’s estate procedures.

Its job is to tell the authorized person:

• What exists
• Where records are located
• Whom to contact
• What legal documents may be required
• What actions should or should not be taken immediately

Banking

Document:

• Banks
• Credit unions
• Checking and savings accounts
• Certificates of deposit
• Safe-deposit boxes
• Treasury accounts
• Institutions holding cash-management accounts

Beneficiary designations may determine who receives certain financial or other assets, but they ordinarily should not be treated as authorization for the beneficiary to sign in to the deceased person’s online accounts.

Investments and Retirement

Document:

• Brokerage firms
• Individual retirement accounts
• Employer retirement plans
• Pensions
• Annuities
• Employee stock plans
• Stock-transfer agents
• Financial advisors

Payment Services

Document services such as:

• PayPal
• Venmo
• Cash App
• Zelle
• Merchant accounts
• Other digital payment services

Credit and Debt

Document:

• Credit cards
• Personal loans
• Auto loans
• Student loans
• Mortgage servicers
• Home equity loans or lines of credit
• Business debt
• Personal guarantees
• Recurring automatic payments

Insurance

Document:

• Life insurance
• Health insurance
• Homeowners or renters insurance
• Auto insurance
• Long-term-care insurance
• Disability insurance
• Umbrella policies
• Business insurance
• Cyber insurance

Digital Assets

Document:

• Cryptocurrency exchanges
• Hardware wallets
• Domain names
• Websites
• Online businesses
• Intellectual property
• Digital storefronts
• Creator accounts
• Revenue-producing online properties
• Tokenized assets
• Cloud-hosted applications and data

Memories and Creative Work

Document:

• iCloud
• Google Photos
• OneDrive
• Dropbox
• External drives
• Network storage
• YouTube channels
• Music recordings
• Podcasts
• Photography
• Manuscripts
• Websites and blogs
• Design and production files
• Social-media archives

Everyday Life

Document:

• Utilities
• Amazon and other retailers
• Airline miles
• Hotel points
• Subscription services
• Food-delivery accounts
• Cloud storage
• Marketplace accounts
• Online gaming accounts
• Memberships
• Loyalty programs

Safe-Deposit Boxes and Physical Storage

A secure location is useful only if the properly authorized person can reach it.

If your Death Envelope, hardware wallet, recovery material, or estate documents are stored in a bank safe-deposit box, verify with the bank and your estate attorney:

• Who can access the box during your lifetime
• Who can access it if you become incapacitated
• Who can access it after your death
• What identification or legal documents will be required
• Whether access will be delayed during estate administration
• Whether the box is the right place for documents needed immediately

Do not assume that naming someone in your will automatically gives that person immediate access to the box.

A perfectly secured recovery plan is useless if the person who needs it cannot legally reach it.

Cryptocurrency

For self-custodied cryptocurrency, loss of every usable private key, seed phrase, or configured recovery method can permanently eliminate access. Losing the physical hardware wallet itself does not necessarily mean the assets are lost if valid recovery material remains available.

If every valid copy of a self-custodied wallet’s private key, seed phrase, and configured recovery method is lost, an exchange, attorney, court, or technology professional generally cannot recreate it.

A hardware wallet is a device that protects and uses private keys; a seed or recovery phrase can allow a compatible wallet to restore those keys. Neither the device nor the recovery phrase is the cryptocurrency itself. Custodial cryptocurrency exchanges hold assets or control keys on a customer’s behalf and may provide their own estate or recovery processes, subject to verification, applicable law, and provider policies. Those processes are different from recovering a self-custodied wallet.

Your instructions should identify:

• The type of wallet or exchange
• The general nature of the assets
• Where the recovery material is secured
• Who is legally authorized to handle it
• Whether special technical assistance may be needed
• Any tax or accounting professional familiar with the assets

Never put a seed phrase or private key directly into an unsecured Death Envelope.

Store it using a secure method designed for that purpose, and document only the location and authorized recovery procedure.

Creative Work and Personal Memories

For an artist, musician, photographer, filmmaker, or writer, the files may be the legacy.

Identify where original recordings, photographs, manuscripts, videos, production files, and other important work are stored.

Specify what you want:

• Preserved
• Shared with family
• Transferred to a beneficiary
• Published
• Licensed
• Archived
• Donated
• Deleted

Document who owns the copyright and who should control future publication or licensing decisions.

For families, the emotional value of these files may be far greater than their financial value.

Put Your Wishes Into Your Estate Plan

Coordinate your will, trust, durable power of attorney, healthcare directives, beneficiary designations, digital-asset provisions, and business-succession plan so that incapacity, healthcare decisions, estate administration, and digital-asset authority are addressed through the appropriate documents.

Work with a qualified estate-planning attorney to determine which documents provide the needed authority. Review intellectual-property assignments separately when creative work or business assets are involved.

Many states have adopted versions of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, commonly called RUFADAA, but digital-asset laws and their application vary by jurisdiction.

Provider terms, privacy laws, account settings, estate documents, and the type of information being requested all matter.

A list of accounts is useful.

Appropriate legal authority and a workable access plan make it much more useful.

7. Preserve Before You Delete

This is the part I understand differently today than I did before losing my son.

When somebody dies, a photograph isn’t just a file anymore. A voicemail isn’t just data. A text thread isn’t just something taking up storage.

Those things can suddenly become priceless.

Before anyone closes an account, resets a phone, cancels a service, or starts changing passwords, slow down.

Don’t Close Accounts First

Determine:

• What needs to be preserved
• Who is legally authorized to handle it
• Whether the account contains business or client information
• What the provider’s process requires
• Whether closing the account will prevent later recovery
• Whether recurring charges or fraud risks must be addressed

Providers have different inactivity, retention, memorialization, and deletion policies.

Closing an account prematurely can make later recovery much more difficult or impossible.

Don’t Factory-Reset or Trade In the Phone

The device may contain the only copy of photographs, messages, notes, voicemails, music, or recordings that never synchronized to the cloud.

Don’t Guess the Passcode Repeatedly

Depending on the device and its settings, repeated incorrect attempts can cause increasingly long lockouts or data erasure.

Don’t Cancel the Phone Number Without a Plan

The number may still be needed for:

• Authorized account-recovery procedures
• Authentication messages
• Communications with existing contacts
• Identification of services connected to the number
• Preservation of voicemail
• Transfer of an important family or business number

Coordinate with the mobile carrier, attorney, and estate representative rather than assuming the line must be canceled immediately or maintained indefinitely.

Preserve Important Voicemails and Recordings

Availability depends on the device, carrier, application, and backup settings.

Where access is authorized, make a preservation plan before changing services, closing accounts, or replacing devices.

Keep Original Devices Secure

Avoid unnecessary changes until you understand:

• What data is present
• What has been backed up
• What can be recovered lawfully
• Whether the device contains business information
• Whether encryption protects the data
• Whether device activity should be documented

Store devices in a secure, dry location. Keep chargers and related accessories with them, and document who has handled each device.

Preservation decisions come before deletion decisions.

8. Make Unauthorized Access Detectable

A Death Envelope should not only protect confidentiality. It should also protect integrity.

In other words, you should have a reasonable way to know whether someone opened, replaced, or altered it before they were authorized to do so.

If you maintain a physical Death Envelope, consider using:

• A tamper-evident security envelope
• A numbered security seal
• A tamper-evident document bag
• A signed seal across the closure
• A locked, fire-resistant home safe
• A photograph of the sealed package
• A written log of seal or package identifiers

Record the seal number or package identifier in a separate trusted location.

Inspect the package periodically. If you legitimately update the contents, replace the seal and update the record.

Tamper evidence does not make the package impossible to open. It helps reveal that it has been opened.

The objective is not simply to keep the information secret. You should also have a reasonable way to know whether someone accessed it before they were supposed to.

9. Clearly State When the Instructions May Be Used

Do not leave the access trigger vague.

Your instructions should explain:

• Who may open or use the Death Envelope
• Under what circumstances it may be opened
• Who can determine that you are incapacitated
• Whether an attorney or another person must be notified first
• Whether two trusted people should be present
• Which legal documents provide authority
• Which parts apply during incapacity
• Which parts apply only after death

Possible triggers might include:

• Upon documented death
• Upon legal incapacity
• Upon certification by designated medical professionals
• When authorized under a valid power of attorney
• When directed by the executor or personal representative
• When authorized under a business-continuity or succession plan

Review this language with an estate-planning attorney.

A Death Envelope communicates your plan. It does not independently create legal authority where none exists.

10. Separate the Map From the Keys

Possession of a password, device passcode, recovery code, security key, or authentication method does not by itself establish legal authority to use an account. Provider terms, applicable law, fiduciary authority, employer rules, and court orders may still control. Whenever practical, authorized representatives should use the provider’s established legacy, fiduciary, or deceased-user process rather than simply signing in as the deceased person.

Your Death Envelope does not have to contain everything in one place.

In fact, separating components can improve security.

For example:

• The Death Envelope identifies the password manager being used.
• The password manager may provide emergency-access functionality to a designated person; technical access is separate from legal authority.
• Recovery codes are stored in a secured location.
• The attorney holds instructions explaining the legal trigger.
• A hardware wallet is stored in one location.
• Its recovery material is secured separately.
• A business emergency account is controlled through a privileged-access system.
• The Death Envelope explains the recovery process without containing the secret itself.

This creates a hybrid plan using physical instructions, provider-supported legacy features, legal documents, and securely protected digital information.

But separation also creates a risk: the authorized person may be unable to assemble all the pieces.

Document the recovery process clearly enough that an authorized person can follow it without creating a complete roadmap for an attacker.

11. Test for Technology Failure and Obsolescence

Technology changes.

A USB drive can fail. An encrypted disk may require software nobody has anymore. A hardware wallet may become obsolete. A cloud provider may discontinue a feature. A recovery code may no longer be valid.

Do not assume that today’s storage method will work 10 or 20 years from now.

During each review:

• Confirm that storage media can still be read.
• Confirm that important files will open.
• Verify that backups remain intact.
• Check whether legacy-contact features still exist.
• Confirm that trusted contacts are still appropriate.
• Replace failed or aging storage media.
• Update obsolete file formats where necessary.
• Confirm that encryption and recovery instructions still work.
• Review whether the named attorney, accountant, or advisor is still practicing.
• Make sure the authorized person knows the plan exists.

Do not test the plan by disclosing sensitive credentials unnecessarily.

Test the recovery process, not merely the existence of the envelope.

12. Business Owners Need a Business Death Envelope

If you own a business, ask a second question:

What critical information exists only in my head?

No company should depend on one person for access to:

• Domain registrations
• Email administration
• Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace
• Cloud infrastructure
• Accounting platforms
• Payroll
• Banking relationships
• Insurance policies
• Tax information
• Client contracts
• Vendor agreements
• Security systems
• Encryption keys
• Digital certificates
• Backups
• Software licensing
• Social-media accounts
• Website administration
• Privileged credentials

Do not place shared administrator passwords in a physical envelope.

Instead, use:

• Named administrative accounts
• Properly managed privileged-access accounts
• Enterprise password vaults
• Emergency or break-glass accounts
• Documented succession procedures
• Tested backup restoration
• Business-continuity plans
• Incident-response plans
• Authorized secondary administrators
• Formal transfer-of-control procedures

The business version of a Death Envelope should identify the recovery process and responsible people without creating an unprotected master key to the organization.

For a small business, the owner’s death or incapacity can quickly become a cybersecurity, operational, financial, and legal incident.

Succession planning is part of cyber resilience.

13. The One-Page Death Envelope

You don’t need to solve every digital-estate problem today.

Start with one page, protect it, and tell the right person where it is.

Review it whenever you change a major account, device, relationship, business arrangement, or estate plan.

At minimum, review it once each year.

---

My Death Envelope

Last reviewed:

Next scheduled review:

Package or seal identifier:

WHEN THESE INSTRUCTIONS MAY BE USED

Check all that apply:

• ☐ Upon my death
• ☐ If I become legally incapacitated
• ☐ If authorized under my power of attorney
• ☐ If activated under my business-succession plan
• ☐ Other: ____________________________________

Person authorized to approve access:

People authorized to use these instructions:

Person or organization that must be notified first:

Legal document establishing authority:

PEOPLE

Person responsible:

Executor or personal representative:

Power of attorney:

Estate-planning attorney:

Accountant or CPA:

Financial advisor:

Insurance agent:

Business partner or employer contact:

KEY ACCOUNTS AND RECOVERY

Primary email account:

Secondary email accounts:

Phone carrier and number:

Apple, Google, and Microsoft accounts:

Password manager and emergency-access contact:

Location of MFA recovery codes:

Apple Legacy Contact and access-key location:

Google Inactive Account Manager contacts:

Microsoft OneDrive Digital Legacy contact and recovery information:

Facebook Legacy Contact:

MONEY

Banks and credit unions:

Investment and retirement accounts:

Insurance companies and policy locations:

Credit cards, loans, and mortgage:

Digital assets and cryptocurrency:

Location of secured recovery material:

Safe-deposit box and authorized-access information:

DEVICES AND MEMORIES

Important devices:

Cloud and photo storage:

Photos, recordings, and files I want preserved:

Location of backups:

Creative work and intellectual property:

Person responsible for creative work:

BUSINESS CONTINUITY

Business owner or principal contact:

Authorized secondary administrator:

Location of business-continuity plan:

Location of privileged-access procedures:

Critical vendors, platforms, and advisors:

MY WISHES

Accounts to memorialize:

Accounts to close or delete:

Content to preserve or transfer:

Location of will and estate documents:

Location of device and account instructions:

Special instructions for my family:

REVIEW HISTORY

Review date:

Reviewed by:

Changes made:

New package or seal identifier:

Security Reminder

Do not write passwords, private keys, or cryptocurrency recovery phrases on this index.

Document where those secrets are securely stored and how the authorized person can obtain them.

---

14. Don’t Let the Death Envelope Become a Security Risk

As a cybersecurity professional, I have to say this plainly.

Don’t tape passwords to the refrigerator.

Don’t email yourself a spreadsheet called “Passwords.”

Don’t leave banking credentials in an unlocked desk drawer.

Don’t place cryptocurrency recovery phrases in an envelope that anyone can open without detection.

Even without passwords, this index contains sensitive information. Keep it private and securely stored; it must not provide a shortcut to taking over your accounts.

The envelope is the roadmap, not the vault.

Use security measures designed for the job:

• Provider-supported legacy features: Configure Apple Legacy Contact, Google Inactive Account Manager, Microsoft OneDrive Digital Legacy, and Facebook Legacy Contact where appropriate.
• Password-manager emergency access: If your password manager supports it, configure the feature and understand its approval and waiting-period rules.
• Secure storage: Protect recovery codes, legacy access information, and cryptocurrency recovery material using an appropriate security method.
• Tamper evidence: Use a numbered seal, tamper-evident bag, or other control if you maintain a physical package.
• Separated components: Avoid keeping the roadmap and every secret together.
• Current estate documents: Keep your will, trust, power of attorney, and other relevant documents up to date.
• A trusted contact: Make sure someone knows the plan exists and can locate it when needed.
• Regular review: Confirm that named people, account information, storage locations, and legal documents remain current.
• Recovery testing: Verify that the authorized recovery process still works without unnecessarily exposing secrets.

Keep personal and business accounts separate wherever possible.

A family member should not have to guess which accounts are yours, which belong to your business, or which are controlled by an employer, client, or other organization.

Above all, don’t assume that being a spouse, parent, or child automatically grants access to another person’s digital accounts.

Why I’m Sharing This

I have made a career out of telling businesses to prepare for the unknown unknowns.

Back up your systems.

Know where your information is.

Establish recovery procedures.

Have an incident-response plan.

Test your recovery process.

Don’t wait for an emergency to figure out what you’re going to do.

Recently, that lesson became very personal.

My son Robert was 32. Music was a major part of his life and his identity.

After an unexpected loss, you begin discovering just how much of somebody’s life resides electronically, and how much of it you cannot reach.

We have disaster-recovery plans for our businesses.

We should have them for our families, too.

Creating a Death Envelope will not make losing someone easier. Nothing can do that.

But it can keep a grieving parent, spouse, child, or sibling from having to become a digital detective at the worst moment of their life.

Five Things to Do This Weekend

1. Set up your legacy features. Configure Apple Legacy Contact, Google Inactive Account Manager, Microsoft OneDrive Digital Legacy, and Facebook Legacy Contact where appropriate.
2. Configure emergency access. Review your password manager’s options and designate a trusted person if the service supports it.
3. Complete the one-page index. Identify the essential accounts, institutions, devices, records, professional contacts, and access triggers.
4. Write down your wishes. Decide what should be preserved, memorialized, transferred, archived, or deleted.
5. Tell one person you trust. Explain where the instructions are stored, when they may be used, and how they can be accessed securely.

Then store it securely and review it at least once each year, especially after a major account, device, family, or estate-plan change.

Someday, somebody you love may be incredibly grateful that you did.

Life is unpredictable. Preparation is an act of love.

---

Tom Brennan
Founder & CEO, Proactive Risk
Cybersecurity | Risk Management | Digital Resilience

I wrote this following the unexpected loss of my son, Robert. Please share it with your family.

If Robert’s story helps even one family have this conversation before they need to, then something meaningful will have come from sharing it.

Important note: This article provides general cybersecurity and digital-estate planning information, not legal advice. Access to digital assets depends on applicable law, provider policies, account settings, estate documents, contracts, and individual circumstances. Consult a qualified estate-planning attorney for advice specific to your situation.

Official Resources

• DEF CON 16: The Death Envelope by Matt Yoder
• Apple: How to Add a Legacy Contact
• Apple: Request Access to a Deceased Family Member’s Apple Account
• Google: About Inactive Account Manager
• Google: Submit a Request Regarding a Deceased User’s Account
• Facebook: Request Regarding a Deceased Person’s Account
• LinkedIn: Memorialize or Close a Deceased Member’s Account
• Microsoft: Preserve Your Digital Legacy With OneDrive
• Microsoft: Accessing Microsoft Services After Someone Has Died
• Uniform Law Commission: Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act