Digital estate: the complete guide
Almost everything we own now has a digital side: photos, accounts, contracts, memories. This guide explains what the law says, what the big providers actually do when someone dies, and how to bring order in eight steps — in an afternoon, not in a marathon.
By The Erbnis editorsPublished 1 September 2026Updated 1 September 20266 min read
Key takeaways
- Digital accounts pass to the heirs like any other asset — Germany's Federal Court of Justice settled this in 2018.
- Only a few providers have a real death mechanism; Apple and Google are the ones that matter most.
- The blocker is never the law. It is the locked phone and the inaccessible main email account.
- Credentials do not belong in a will — it can be inspected during probate.
- Eight steps cover the essentials. The most effective one is the legacy contact.
What a digital estate means
The term sounds technical, but it describes something ordinary: everything a person leaves behind in digital form. Accounts, data, contracts, balances, rights — and the question of who receives them and who decides.
Germany has no dedicated digital-estate statute. The legal position has nevertheless been clear since 2018, when the Federal Court of Justice ruled in a mother's case against Facebook that the contract for a user account passes to the heirs, exactly like a tenancy agreement. Lawyers call this universal succession: heirs step into the legal position of the deceased, with everything attached to it.
The ruling went further than many assume. The content — messages, chats, shared posts — is part of the estate too. Neither telecommunications secrecy nor the GDPR stands in the way. Practically, that means the law is rarely the problem. Access is.
What it actually covers
Most people underestimate the scope. It is rarely the spectacular items that cause trouble, but the many small ones:
- Devices: phone, laptop, tablet, watch — each with a lock nobody knows.
- Email accounts: the master key that resets almost everything else.
- Cloud storage: twenty years of photos, tax records, contracts, letters.
- Social media: profiles that keep living and announcing birthdays.
- Subscriptions and contracts: streaming, software, gym, newspapers — amounts that simply keep going out.
- Domains and websites: real value for some, a nuisance for others once the invoice goes unpaid.
- Crypto assets: the only area where missing access means permanent loss.
- Balances and points: PayPal, Amazon, airline miles, loyalty cards, gift cards.
- Business accounts: the self-employed leave invoicing tools, client data and shop access — often with livelihoods attached.
What the big providers do when someone dies
Every provider has its own rules, and they differ widely. This overview reflects consumer accounts. It is orientation, not legal advice.
| Provider | Death mechanism | What heirs get | What is required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | Legacy Contact (must be set up in advance) | Photos, notes, documents, backups; no purchases, no Keychain passwords | The contact's access key plus a death certificate; without setup only via court order |
| Inactive Account Manager (set up in advance) | Selected data to named people, optional account deletion | Only the named email address; without setup a request with evidence and case-by-case review | |
| Meta (Facebook, Instagram) | Memorialisation or deletion; legacy contact on Facebook only | Limited profile management; content release only on the heirs' demand | Death certificate, proof of inheritance; the process often takes weeks |
| Microsoft | No legacy contact | Usually account closure; data release only exceptionally | Evidence and in most cases a court order |
| Amazon | No legacy contact | Account closure, remaining balance to the estate; purchased media are licences and not transferable | Death certificate, proof of inheritance |
The pattern is obvious: where a mechanism was set up beforehand, it takes minutes. Where it was not, it takes months — and often ends with a closed account instead of rescued memories.
The three ways it goes wrong
From conversations with bereaved families and estate administrators, three stories keep coming back with unsettling similarity.
The locked phone
The device is the doorman in front of everything else. Without it no confirmation codes arrive, and without codes no account can be reset. The lock protects during life — and blocks afterwards.
The invisible accounts
You can only cancel what you know about, and you only know what has been written down somewhere. Twelve months of bank statements are the best source — every subscription appears there at least once.
The lost seed phrase
Crypto has no hotline, no password reset, and no certificate of inheritance that helps. Estimates suggest roughly a fifth of all existing Bitcoin is permanently unreachable. The QuadrigaCX case showed the scale: after the founder's death, keys to around 250 million dollars were missing, affecting some 115,000 users.
The plan: eight steps
The task looks large but it is finite. Anyone who works through these eight steps has arranged more than most people ever do. Tick along — the state stays in this browser.
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The legal line: power of attorney, will, record
Most mistakes happen here, because three different things get confused.
A power of attorney (Vorsorgevollmacht) works while you are alive. It covers the case almost nobody plans for: you are alive but unable to act, after an accident, a stroke, a serious illness. Without it even a spouse cannot simply decide, and a court-appointed guardian may become necessary. A power of attorney surviving death also applies afterwards, until the certificate of inheritance is issued — in practice the most important bridge, because that period can last months.
A will decides who inherits, and only takes effect after death. Its form is strict: under § 2247 of the German Civil Code it must be written and signed by hand, or notarised. A document typed on a computer, printed and signed is not a will — not with a date, not with witnesses, not with a digital signature.
The record — the list of accounts, devices, contracts and locations — is therefore a third, separate layer. It has no formal requirements, but it must be stored safely and kept current. And it explicitly does not belong inside the will: a will becomes part of probate and can be inspected by several parties. Putting passwords or seed phrases there is a security mistake. The will carries the pointer; the data lives elsewhere.