How to Plan for a Parent’s Digital Legacy

We all leave a digital trail now. Photos in the cloud, an email account, a Facebook page, perhaps online banking and a few subscriptions. When someone dies, that trail does not just disappear, and families are often surprised by how hard it can be to reach the very things they most want, like a parent’s photos.

A digital legacy is simply the plan for what happens to those accounts. The reassuring part is that Apple and Google have built proper tools for exactly this, and setting them up takes less than an hour. This guide explains the main options, how they work in Australia, and the calm conversation to have with a parent before it is needed. It is one part of helping a parent go online.

Apple: set up a Legacy Contact

If your parent uses an iPhone or iPad, Apple’s Legacy Contact is the tool to use. Your parent chooses someone, often a son or daughter, who will be able to request access to their Apple account data after they die. That includes photos, messages, notes, files and device backups. It does not include purchased films, music or books, and it does not include the passwords saved in iCloud Keychain.

To set it up, your parent opens Settings, taps their name at the top, then Sign-In and Security, then Legacy Contact, and adds the person. The device creates an access key, which is best shared straight to that person’s Apple device or printed and kept with the will. When the time comes, the Legacy Contact takes that key and a copy of the death certificate to digital-legacy.apple.com to request access. Two-factor authentication needs to be switched on first, which it usually already is.

Google: set up Inactive Account Manager

For an Android phone, a Gmail account, or Google Photos, the equivalent is Inactive Account Manager. It works a little differently. Your parent decides how long the account should sit unused before Google treats it as inactive, anywhere from three to eighteen months. They then choose up to ten trusted people to be notified and given access to chosen data, and can even set the account to delete itself afterwards if they wish.

It is set up at myaccount.google.com/inactive, or in the Google account settings under Data and Privacy, where it is listed as “make a plan for your digital legacy”. One thing to remember: Google does not automatically tell the trusted people they have been chosen, so your parent should mention it to them. The nice part is it can hand over the photos and email without anyone needing a password.

Facebook, photos and the rest

Facebook lets your parent name a Legacy Contact who can look after a memorialised profile, or choose to have the account deleted instead. It is in the Facebook settings under account, and it is worth doing if your parent uses Facebook to keep up with family, as a memorialised page becomes a place where people can share memories.

The photos are usually what matters most to a family. If your parent’s pictures live only on the phone, that is fragile. Make sure they are backed up to iCloud or Google Photos, both of which the legacy tools above can then pass on. Our guide on backing up an iPhone or iPad shows how, and it is a kindness to do regardless of any legacy planning.

How this fits with an Australian will

Here is the part that catches families out. Australia’s succession laws, which differ from state to state, were mostly written before online life existed, and none of them automatically lets an executor log in to a parent’s email, bank or social media. Companies like Apple, Google and the banks usually require formal proof of death, and sometimes a grant of probate or a court order, before they will release or close an account. Your state or territory’s public trustee has plain-English guidance on estate planning that is worth a look.

This is exactly why the built-in tools matter. A Legacy Contact or Inactive Account Manager, set up in advance, sidesteps a lot of that difficulty because your parent has already given permission. Alongside them, it helps to leave a written note listing the main accounts, kept with the will, and to talk to whoever is named as executor. Your state or territory’s public trustee, such as NSW Trustee and Guardian or State Trustees in Victoria, and private solicitors, handle estates in Australia every day and can guide the family through the formal side if needed. None of this is legal advice, and for anything complex it is worth asking your solicitor directly.

A few Australian things to tidy up

Beyond the phone and email accounts, three Australian details are worth knowing, because they often trip families up:

• The Australian Death Notification Service. When the time comes, this free government service at deathnotification.gov.au lets the family tell many organisations at once, banks, super funds, utilities and insurers among them, using a single online form instead of a dozen separate phone calls. It is not something to set up in advance, but it is a real comfort to know it is there. A death certificate from the state or territory registry is needed first.
• Superannuation does not follow the will. This surprises a lot of people. Super is usually not covered by a will. Instead it is paid out according to a “binding death benefit nomination” lodged with the super fund, or at the fund trustee’s discretion if there is none. Since super is often one of a parent’s largest assets, it is worth checking that the nomination is current and still reflects their wishes.
• Tell Services Australia. Medicare, Centrelink and related services are handled through Services Australia and myGov, and they need to be told when someone dies. The family can do this once the death is registered.

Have the conversation gently

Nobody enjoys raising this, but it is far kinder to sort it together over a cup of tea than to leave a grieving family locked out later. Frame it as practical housekeeping, the same as the will and the insurance. You can offer to sit and do the Apple or Google steps with your parent there and then, so it is their choices being recorded, in their own hands.

If the day-to-day passwords are not yet sorted, that is the natural place to start. Our companion guide on managing a parent’s digital accounts and passwords covers the everyday side, and digital legacy planning sits neatly on top of it.