Digital Assets Estate Worksheet (Ontario)

Inventory your online life — accounts, photos, crypto, subscriptions — so your executor can actually find and handle it.

Who this is for: anyone in Ontario who lives part of their life online (so, almost everyone) and wants their executor to be able to find, access, and deal with their digital accounts and assets. What you'll get: a fill-in inventory you can print and complete, plus clear instructions on what to record, what not to record, and how your executor's authority works.

⚖️ This is a general guide, not legal advice. It can't account for your specific situation. Use it to get oriented, then confirm the details with a licensed Ontario lawyer.

Why this matters

When someone dies, their executor (estate trustee) has to find and deal with everything they owned — and more and more of that is digital. Without a map, an executor may not even know an account exists, let alone how to access it. Family photos vanish behind a locked phone. A cryptocurrency wallet becomes permanently unreachable. Subscriptions keep charging the estate for months.

A simple inventory solves most of this. This worksheet helps you build one.

⚠️ The single most important rule: do NOT write your passwords into your will. A will becomes a public document once it's probated, and it can't be updated every time you change a password. Keep your access details in a separate, secure list or a password manager (see the box below), and have your will or instructions simply point your executor to where that list is.

What counts as a "digital asset"?

More than you'd think. As you fill out the inventory, think across all of these categories:

• Communication: email accounts, messaging apps.
• Social media: Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.
• Photos & files: phone camera roll, cloud storage (iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive), backups.
• Money & value: online banking, investment/brokerage logins, cryptocurrency wallets and exchange accounts, PayPal/e-transfer, loyalty points and air miles, gift-card balances.
• Money you owe or pay: subscriptions (streaming, software, news, apps), auto-renewing services, web hosting.
• Property & income: domain names, websites, blogs, monetized channels (YouTube, Etsy, online stores), intellectual property.
• Identity & access: password manager, two-factor authentication app, your primary phone number (which controls password resets).

💡 Some of these have real monetary value (crypto, a domain, a monetized channel, points). Others have sentimental value (photos, messages). Both deserve a plan.

Before you start: how your executor's authority works

A practical reality to understand:

• Your executor has legal authority to deal with your estate, which includes your digital assets — but a service provider's terms of service and privacy law can still limit access to an account. Some platforms will close or memorialize an account on proof of death but won't simply hand over the login.
• Don't assume your executor can log in as you. Even with your password, accessing some accounts may breach the provider's terms. That's exactly why the platform legacy tools below exist — they're the provider-sanctioned way to pass on access.
• Privacy law (in Canada, PIPEDA and provincial rules) and the platform's own policies govern personal data. Giving your executor a clear, lawful path — through legacy tools and a stored access list — saves them from guessing.

So this worksheet does two jobs: it tells your executor what exists, and it points them to the legitimate ways in.

Section 1 — Account inventory (fill in)

Print this and complete one row per account. Record where to find login details — not the passwords themselves.

*e.g., "in my 1Password vault," "in the sealed envelope in the safe." Never the password itself on this sheet.

💡 Add rows for anything else. The goal is that your executor, reading this, knows what exists and where the keys are kept — without you having exposed those keys in the document itself.

Section 2 — The secure access list (set this up separately)

Your inventory above points to a secure list. Choose one approach and complete it:

• A password manager (1Password, Bitwarden, etc.). Pick one and set up its emergency access / legacy feature so a trusted person can be granted access. Record which manager you use on the inventory.
  • Password manager I use: ______________________
  • Emergency/legacy access set up for: ______________________
• A sealed, secure physical list (a sheet kept in a home safe or safety deposit box). Record passwords and recovery details here, store it securely, and tell your executor where it is — not what's on it.
  • Where it's stored: ______________________
  • Who knows the location: ______________________

⚠️ Keep the secure list current. The whole system fails if the list is two years and three password changes out of date. Set a reminder to review it (for example, every time you do your taxes).

Section 3 — Cryptocurrency keys (read this carefully)

Cryptocurrency is the area where families most often lose everything — not to theft, but to permanently lost access.

⚠️ If the private keys or seed phrase are lost, the crypto is gone forever. There is no bank, no help desk, and no password-reset. Your executor cannot recover it without the keys.

Plan it deliberately:

• List what you hold and where (which coins, which wallets/exchanges) — without writing the keys on the inventory.
  • Holdings (general): ______________________________
  • Stored on (hardware wallet / exchange / software wallet): ______________________
• Record where the seed phrase / private keys are physically secured (e.g., a steel backup in a safe, a sealed envelope in a safety deposit box).
  • Location of keys/seed phrase: ______________________
• Leave plain instructions for a non-technical executor on how to access the wallet, or name a knowledgeable, trusted person to help — because most executors won't know how.
  • Person who can help: ______________________
• Note any exchange accounts, which may require a death certificate and the provider's own process (verify each exchange's current procedure).

💡 Treat your crypto keys with the same seriousness as the deed to your house — except that, unlike a deed, there's no replacing them if they're lost.

Section 4 — Platform legacy tools (set these up now)

Major platforms offer built-in tools to designate who can manage or receive your account after death. These are the provider-sanctioned path and are far more reliable than hoping someone can log in. Set up the ones that apply to you, and note that features and names change — verify each platform's current tool and steps.

• Google — Inactive Account Manager. Lets you decide what happens to your Google data (Gmail, Drive, Photos) after a period of inactivity, and name people to be notified or given access.
  • Set up? ☐ Yes ☐ No — Contact named: ______________________
• Apple — Legacy Contact. Lets you name someone who can access your Apple account data after your death using a provided access key plus a death certificate.
  • Set up? ☐ Yes ☐ No — Legacy contact: ______________________
• Facebook / Meta — Legacy Contact or memorialization. Choose whether your account is memorialized or deleted, and name a legacy contact.
  • Set up? ☐ Yes ☐ No — Choice: ☐ Memorialize ☐ Delete
• Other platforms — check whether your most important accounts (password manager, key email, cloud storage) have an emergency/legacy access feature, and set it up.
  • Configured: ______________________________

💡 These tools work with your worksheet: the worksheet tells your executor the tool exists and who you named; the tool gives that person a clean, lawful way in.

Section 5 — Instructions to my executor (worksheet)

Write your wishes here in plain language. This guides your executor without locking specifics into your will.

Where to find my access details: My secure access list / password manager is: ______________________________ The physical keys/important items are kept at: ______________________________

My wishes, account by account (high level):

• Accounts to close: ______________________________
• Accounts to memorialize / keep: ______________________________
• Photos/files I want preserved and shared with: ______________________________
• Subscriptions to cancel promptly: ______________________________
• Crypto / valuable digital assets — who should receive them: ______________________________

People to notify online (so accounts aren't left active): ______________________________

Anything I do NOT want shared or read (e.g., private messages, certain emails): ______________________________

💡 Consider having your lawyer reference your "digital assets memorandum" in your will, and grant your executor explicit authority over digital assets in the will itself. That combination — authority in the will, details in a private list — is the cleanest setup.

Your digital-estate checklist

• Completed the account inventory (Section 1).
• Set up a secure access list — password manager or sealed list (Section 2).
• Handled cryptocurrency keys with explicit, secure instructions (Section 3).
• Configured platform legacy tools — Google, Apple, Facebook, others (Section 4).
• Wrote instructions to my executor (Section 5).
• Confirmed my will grants my executor authority over digital assets and points to my private list — without containing my passwords.
• Told my executor where the list and keys are kept.
• Set a reminder to review the inventory and access list regularly.

Mini-FAQ

Q: Why can't I just put my passwords in my will? Because a probated will is a public document and can't be updated each time a password changes. Keep credentials in a separate secure list and have the will point to it.

Q: Can my executor legally access my accounts? Your executor has authority over your estate, but a provider's terms of service and privacy law may still restrict logging in. That's why platform legacy tools and a stored access list matter — they give a lawful, practical path in.

Q: What happens to my crypto if I do nothing? If no one has the keys or seed phrase, it's almost certainly lost forever. There's no recovery process. Plan for it specifically.

How Treadstone Law can help

Your digital life is now part of your estate — and the part most likely to be lost if it isn't planned for. We make sure your will gives your executor the authority to handle it and connects to your private inventory the right way — flat-fee and plain-language.

• We draft wills with clear digital-asset authority for your executor.
• We help you set up a digital assets memorandum that stays private and current.
• We coordinate the valuable pieces — crypto, domains, monetized accounts — into your plan.

Serving all of Ontario virtually, with an office in Mississauga.

• 📞 1-844-900-1070
• 🗂️ Start a file online: treadstonelaw.ca/start-file
• 💲 See flat-fee pricing: treadstonelaw.ca/pricing
• ⚖️ Learn more about wills & estates: treadstonelaw.ca/wills-estates

This is not legal advice

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Ontario laws, tax rates, and government programs change, and how the law applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, speak with a licensed Ontario lawyer. Treadstone Law is licensed by the Law Society of Ontario — reach us at 1-844-900-1070 or start a file online.