Digital Asset Inventory: How to Catalog Every Online Account

Why the Inventory Comes First

Every other step in digital estate administration depends on knowing what accounts exist. You cannot memorialize a social media profile you don't know about, cancel a subscription you've never seen billed, or file a crypto exchange claim without the exchange name.

Most families discover accounts one at a time over months — a bill arrives, a login notification pops up, a streaming service charges a credit card. A systematic inventory collapses that timeline from months to days.

What to Include

Digital assets fall into six categories. Miss a category and you'll find the account later, usually when it causes a problem.

Email and communication. Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, ProtonMail, iCloud Mail. Email is the master key — password reset links, purchase receipts, and subscription confirmations all live here. Start with email.

Cloud storage and photos. Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Photos, Amazon Photos. Family photos and personal documents often exist only in cloud storage with no local backup.

Social media. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Reddit, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube. Each has its own memorialization or deletion process and timeline.

Financial accounts. Online banking, investment platforms, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, Cashapp, cryptocurrency exchanges (Coinbase, Kraken, Binance), hardware wallet locations.

Subscriptions and recurring payments. Streaming (Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, YouTube Premium), software (Adobe, Microsoft 365), domains, hosting, app store subscriptions, gym memberships with online billing, meal kits, news paywalls.

Business and professional. Domain registrations, website hosting, online store accounts, freelance platform profiles, monetized YouTube channels, affiliate accounts.

How to Find Accounts You Don't Know About

Three sources catch most of them:

Bank and credit card statements. Review the last three months of every card and bank account. Every recurring charge is a subscription. Every one-time charge to a digital company is a potential account.

Email search. Open the deceased's email (if accessible) and search for "welcome to," "your account," "subscription," "receipt," and "password reset." Each result is an account.

Password manager export. If you have authorized access to the deceased's password manager (through emergency access, account recovery, or known credentials), viewing or exporting the vault can show accounts with saved credentials.

How to Organize the Inventory

For each account, record:

• Platform/service name
• Username or email used to register
• Account type (financial, social, subscription, storage, email, business)
• Current status (active, needs cancellation, needs memorialization, needs claim filed)
• Access method (password known, in password manager, unknown, needs recovery)
• Financial value (balance, recurring charge amount, or "sentimental only")
• Action needed (close, transfer, memorialize, download data, cancel billing)

A spreadsheet works. A printable worksheet works. The format matters less than having everything in one place.

Valuation for Estates

If the estate requires formal valuation (estates approaching tax thresholds or undergoing audit), digital assets are valued at fair market value on the date of death. This includes cryptocurrency balances, domain names, monetized content channels, and any accounts with transferable monetary value.

Sentimental-only assets (family photos, personal emails) have no formal market value but are often the most emotionally charged items in the entire estate.

The Digital Estate Toolkit includes a printable inventory worksheet organized by category, pre-formatted with the fields platforms actually ask for when you contact them — so you're not rebuilding the list for every account closure request.