Can my family access my email after I die?

Usually not automatically. Most email providers keep accounts locked even with a death certificate, and access requires a lengthy legal process if it is granted at all. Because email is the reset path for most other accounts, planning ahead is critical.

What happens to my bank accounts when I die?

Banks freeze accounts on notice of death and route funds through probate. Your family needs to know the accounts exist to claim them, which is why a maintained inventory matters more than the passwords alone.

Should I just write my passwords down for my family?

A plain-text list is a security risk while you are alive and goes stale as passwords change. A better approach is an encrypted vault that stores credentials securely and releases them only to the people you choose, only when something has actually happened.

How does Break Glass release my accounts to my family?

Break Glass only opens when the family and friends you designated confirm that you have died or become incapacitated. Nothing releases on silence or a timer alone, and each item is encrypted under its own key that even our staff cannot read.

What Happens to Your Online Accounts When You Die

Most people assume their family will simply "get into" their accounts if something happens. The reality is the opposite. Without planning, your loved ones face locked phones, password walls, and support lines that legally cannot help them. Here is what actually happens, account by account, and how to make sure the right people reach what they need.

Your accounts do not automatically transfer

There is no master switch that hands your digital life to your next of kin. Each provider has its own rules, and most default to keeping accounts locked:

Email. Providers rarely grant access to a deceased person's inbox, even with a death certificate. Since email is the reset path for almost everything else, a locked inbox can freeze your family out of banking, bills, and subscriptions.
Banking and financial apps. Institutions freeze accounts on notice of death and route everything through probate. Your family needs to know the accounts even exist first.
Photos and cloud storage. Years of photos can be lost if no one knows the login or the storage plan lapses and the files are purged.
Social media. Some platforms offer memorialization or a legacy contact, but only if you set it up in advance. Otherwise accounts linger, get hacked, or vanish.
Subscriptions and bills. Auto-renewals keep charging a closed estate until someone finds and cancels them.

Why "just write down your passwords" fails

The common advice is a sticky note or a spreadsheet. Both are bad ideas:

A plain-text list is a security disaster while you are alive.
Passwords change constantly, so any static list is stale within months.
A list found by the wrong person is worse than no list at all.

You need something encrypted while you are alive, and reliably deliverable to specific people only when something has actually happened.

What good planning looks like

Inventory what matters. Email, financial accounts, photos, password manager, and any account with sentimental or monetary value.
Store credentials encrypted, each item under its own key, not in plain text.
Name who gets what. Your spouse may need banking; a sibling may just want the photos.
Require human confirmation. Nothing should release on a silent timer or a single click. Real people you trust should confirm the event first.
Keep it current. A system that prompts updates beats a spreadsheet you forget.

How Break Glass handles this

Break Glass is an encrypted vault built for exactly this problem. You store your accounts, passwords, documents, and final wishes, choose who receives what, and the vault releases only when the people you trust confirm something has happened to you. Not a day sooner. Each item is encrypted under its own key, and not even our staff can read your vault.

Set up your vault in about five minutes.

Break Glass is an encrypted digital-legacy vault that delivers your accounts and final wishes to your family and friends if you die or become incapacitated. breakglass.life