Your executor can manage your physical estate. But they will arrive at your digital life with no keys. Here is how to change that before it matters.
When someone dies in New Zealand, an executor steps in to administer their estate. That means locating assets, paying debts, filing the final tax return, and distributing what remains to beneficiaries. It is a serious legal role, usually carried out by someone who is also grieving.
For most of history, this job was manageable with a filing cabinet and a few bank visits. Today, a typical New Zealand adult holds dozens of digital accounts: email, cloud storage, photo libraries, streaming services, investment platforms, KiwiSaver portals, crypto wallets, and subscription apps. None of these are addressed in most wills. And most executors arrive at the digital estate with no way in.
An executor’s digital responsibilities are not always obvious, but they are real. When someone dies, their executor must close accounts to prevent fraud and stop unnecessary charges. They need to recover any financial assets held digitally, including funds in fintech apps, shares held on investment platforms, or cryptocurrency in a wallet. They must cancel recurring subscriptions so the estate is not charged for services no one is using.
Beyond the financial, there is the personal. A locked photo library may hold decades of family images. An email account may contain important records: insurance correspondence, property documents, or receipts that help establish the value of the estate. A business owner’s digital presence may need to be managed or wound down.
All of this is the executor’s problem. Most are not prepared for it.
Even a close family member appointed as executor is likely to face the same situation: a locked phone, no email password, and no inventory of what accounts even exist. The services billing the estate each month are invisible until they show up on a bank statement. The photos, the documents, the correspondence: locked behind credentials that died with the person.
This is not unusual. It is the default. Most people have never told anyone what accounts they hold or where their passwords are stored. The assumption, unstated, is that there will be time to deal with it later. There usually is. But the people who have run out of time all thought that too.
The result for executors is weeks or months of contacting services, filling out forms, and waiting, while the estate sits unresolved and the family waits to move forward.
An executor named in a will has legal authority over an estate in New Zealand. But that authority only extends as far as each platform is willing to recognise it. And most platforms operate under their own terms of service, governed by foreign law.
In practice, an executor can request that most platforms close an account. A death certificate is usually sufficient for this. Some platforms will memorialise an account rather than close it, particularly social media. New Zealand banks are generally cooperative with executors and will release funds once the appropriate documentation is provided.
What they cannot easily get without credentials is access to the account contents. Google, Apple, and Microsoft each have bereavement processes, but they are slow, require substantial documentation, and sometimes still result in a locked account. Apple has historically required a court order before granting access to iCloud. Google’s Inactive Account Manager helps, but only if the account holder set it up in advance.
The platforms that will help most are the ones you prepared before you died. The rest are likely to be a long, uncertain process.
None of this requires a lawyer or a large block of time. An hour of thought and organisation now can spare your executor weeks of uncertainty later.
1. Make a digital inventory
Start with the accounts that matter most: your primary email, online banking, cloud storage, investment platforms, and any service with recurring billing. Note what each account contains and what should happen to it. Some should be closed. Some should be transferred. Some, like a shared photo library, may need to go to a specific person. You do not need to record passwords in plaintext. The goal is a clear map, not a key to every lock.
2. Store credentials safely
If you use a password manager, note which one and where the master credential is stored. If key accounts use two-factor authentication, make sure your executor will be able to receive or generate those codes. A handwritten list in a drawer sounds simple, but it does not get updated when passwords change, has no security, and may never be found. A digital vault designed for this purpose stores information with strong encryption and releases it to the right people at the right time.
3. Write an instruction letter
An instruction letter is a plain-language guide for your executor. It does not need to be formal. It should tell them where your digital vault is, how the access process works, which accounts are most urgent, and what to do with each one. Think of it as the briefing you would give someone before handing them the keys. The goal is that when your executor sits down to start the work, they can begin. Not guess. Not search. Just begin.
4. Use a service built for this
A dedicated digital estate service provides something a drawer and a list cannot: structure, security, and a clear access process. The best of these allow you to store your digital inventory in an encrypted vault, specify what should be released and to whom, and ensure that access happens in an orderly way when the time comes. This removes the burden from your executor and ensures nothing is overlooked.
5. Tell your executor where to find it
Have the conversation while you are here. It does not need to be long. Tell your executor that you have a digital plan, where it is, and who else is involved. Let them know whether you have guardians who hold partial access, and how those people will be contacted. The information is only useful if someone knows it exists.
Most approaches to this problem are either insecure or inaccessible. A list in a drawer has no protection. A password manager solves the security problem but not the access problem: if your executor does not have the master password, it is just another locked door.
Aftr is built for this specific situation. Your digital inventory is stored in an encrypted vault. Access is governed by a guardian-based release system: you appoint trusted people who each hold a portion of the key. No single guardian can act alone. When your executor needs access, the guardians confirm it together, and the vault opens.
This means no single point of failure. It means your executor does not need to know your passwords in advance. And it means the release is controlled by people you chose, not by a platform’s bereavement process or a court order.
Aftr is also independent of any platform. Your vault does not depend on Apple, Google, or any service that might change its policies or close its bereavement process. It is yours, encrypted, held in your name, and released on your terms.
This is not a task that gets easier to delay. Every month that passes is another month of accounts accumulating, passwords changing, and the picture becoming harder to reconstruct. An executor who arrives tomorrow would inherit the current state of things.
An hour now is worth weeks of uncertainty later. And more than the practical benefit, there is a quieter one: the people you leave behind will know that you thought of them, and that you made things a little easier because you did.
Aftr helps you build a secure digital inventory your executor can actually use, with guardian-based access so the right people can act at the right time.
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