How do you ensure your family can access your digital life if you die?

I maintain a packet of encrypted data that contains an inventory of all of my data repositories along with the credentials needed to access them. It is kept in a physically separated, secure location. I have designated one person to be, effectively, my executor for these things. They have a cert that allows them to decrypt that data. Their task will be to decrypt the inventory list and determine who gets access to what.

For data that I don't want to survive me, I keep it on a server that has a dead-man's switch mechanism that will erase it if I don't reset the switch regularly.

I also make it a point to minimize the amount of this stuff that has to be dealt with (the dead-man's switch is part of this effort). I have no social media accounts anymore, for instance, so nothing needs to be done for that kind of thing.

No need to over complicate it. Every year around tax time print out your statements and put them in a notebook in a secure place and tell your family members or lawyer where it is. With a death certificate they can access what they need especially if they are the beneficiary.

> If something happens to me, my family would have no idea how...

So, in effect: "If something happens to me, I WILL NO LONGER HAVE any banking or investment accounts, nor insurance, nor a will, nor ...".

Basics -

Keep a detailed, paper-based inventory of your stuff. With complete, noob-ready access information. Updated at least annually. In at least 2 different places, known to reliable family members and/or trusted close, old friends.

Remember that you might have a period of disability or unconsciousness before you pass away. (Or before anyone thinks to act on the possibility that you'll pass away.) During that period, most of your online & cloud-stored stuff could vanish - because no one paid the bills or did other maintenance. Or insurance bills could go unpaid, or heat gets turned off at your cabin up north and the pipes freeze and flood it, or ...

Keep a tight lid on how many places you keep the important stuff (vs. cute cat videos or other relative fluff), and on the complexity of accessing any of it. Those important places get listed first in your inventory, annotated with extra details on what important things are to be found there.

I know password managers exist, but they don't solve the "what accounts do I even have?" problem

I keep a list in a simple text file that is encrypted and hidden by appending it to a particular .jpg image file (of which I have thousands). For convenience, I have a little CLI utility I wrote which automates retrieving, decryption, viewing/editing, re-encryption and replacing the data in it's hiding place --- without affecting the carrier file's date/time.

I have retrieval instructions in a sealed envelope with my lawyer and a trusted family member --- only to be opened upon my demise.

I keep backups of this along with all my personal and business documents, will, etc.. Basically, I follow the 3-2-1 backup plan (https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/).

I carry the "1" is strapped to my wrist at all times so it is as safe as I am if not safer.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6784665