Acting as a Digital Executor: Closing, Preserving, and Transferring Accounts After a Death

When someone dies, the digital footprint they leave behind often falls to one person to handle. Without preparation, that person can lose months sorting through accounts, contacting providers, and untangling devices. This applied course teaches you to handle it methodically. By the end of this course you will be able to take an organized inventory of the deceased person's digital footprint, work with major platforms to memorialize or close accounts, preserve important content, transfer digital assets with monetary value, and protect the family from identity theft and stale subscriptions. What you will learn: - How to take a structured inventory using statements, devices, and password managers as starting points - How to gather the legal documents most platforms require, including death certificates and court orders - How to navigate the legacy contact and memorialization processes of major social media platforms - How to access devices including phones and computers when passcodes are unknown - How to handle email accounts and the cascading impact on linked services - How to transfer or liquidate digital assets including cryptocurrency, domains, and online business accounts - How to monitor for identity theft and cancel recurring subscriptions and obligations The course is structured around six applied modules. Each produces a written artifact: an inventory template, a platform action plan, a device access plan, a digital asset transfer plan, an identity protection plan, and a closeout summary for the family. This course is written for digital executors and family members handling these tasks. By the end you will move from overwhelmed to organized, and the digital cleanup will reflect the deceased person's wishes while sparing the family avoidable losses.