How to leave your passwords to your family without writing them on a sticky note

The average person has 100+ online accounts. When they die or are hospitalised, a spouse can't pay the electric bill, an executor can't stop the streaming subscriptions and a decade of photos sits behind a phone passcode. The fix is not a shared spreadsheet — it's a small set of keys, stored once, with a clear path to reach them.

The four keys that unlock everything else

• Phone passcode — most accounts recover by text message; the phone is the master key.
• Primary email password (and its two-factor method) — the second master key.
• Password-manager master password + recovery/secret key — this unlocks the rest.
• Computer login.

Record an Emergency Kit card

Write down which password manager you use, the account email, a hint (not the password) for the master password, where the printed emergency kit or secret key lives, where the two-factor recovery codes are, and who is set up as an emergency contact inside the manager (1Password Family, Bitwarden Emergency Access and Dashlane all offer this with a waiting period).

Choose a delivery mechanism

1. Password-manager emergency access — a trusted person requests access; you have N days to decline; then it opens.
2. A break-glass link — a time-limited link plus a 6-digit code shared through two different channels, that notifies you when used.
3. A sealed letter with the executor — old-fashioned, works, but goes stale fast.

Write the digital-asset authorization

Most US states have adopted RUFADAA, which lets platforms honour access requests only if you authorised them in writing — in your will, power of attorney or a separate document. Name the person, list the account types, and state whether they may read content or only manage the account.