General information — not legal advice. Procedures differ between institutions and change without notice. Always confirm the current requirements with the bank, insurer or registrar before travelling to a branch or office.
Last reviewed: 23 August 2026 · Report an error on this page
Digital accounts are where the gap between what a family can technically do and what it is entitled to do is widest. Most families have the passwords. Almost none have the right to use them.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. Logging into someone else's email — even a dead parent's, even with the password written down for you — is unauthorised access to a computer resource, and it can also void the platform's own cooperation. Platforms have processes for bereaved families precisely so that nobody has to do this.
The other reason to go through the front door: an email account is usually the key to everything else. Password resets for banks, brokerages and insurers all land there. Which is exactly why platforms are careful, and why quietly taking over the account is the route most likely to end with everything locked.
Work out what the email account is actually holding
Before touching anything, treat the primary email as a discovery tool rather than a possession. Statements, policy documents, brokerage contract notes, subscription receipts and tax filings all arrive there, and searching it is often how a family finds assets nobody knew about.
If the deceased set up a legacy mechanism — Google's Inactive Account Manager, Apple's Legacy Contact, or a similar feature — use it. Those exist to give a named person lawful access, and they work far better than any request made afterwards.
Where no such mechanism was set up, the platform's bereavement process is the route. Expect to provide the death certificate and proof of your relationship, expect it to take weeks, and expect the outcome to be closure or a data export rather than a handover of the live account.
Stop the money leaving
Week 1
Subscriptions and auto-debits are the immediate financial issue. Streaming services, cloud storage, app stores, SaaS tools, domain renewals and gym memberships all keep charging a card or account that nobody is watching.
The efficient route is usually the bank rather than the platforms: get a list of standing instructions and recurring mandates on the account and card, and cancel at that end. Then go to the platforms for the ones that matter.
Deregister UPI handles and delete saved payment mandates. A UPI ID linked to a frozen account generates failures rather than losses, but a card-on-file at a merchant does not.
Crypto and digital wallets: the hard case
Be clear-eyed about this one. Assets on an exchange can usually be claimed: the exchange has a KYC record and a bereavement process, and will ask for the death certificate and succession documents like any other institution.
Assets in a self-custodied wallet are different. Without the seed phrase or private key there is no recovery mechanism, no customer service, and no authority that can help. If the key was not recorded somewhere the family can reach, the holding is gone — and no amount of paperwork changes that.
Search deliberately for a recorded seed phrase before concluding it is lost: a paper in a locker, a sealed envelope, a hardware wallet, a note in a password manager. Where a holding exists but the key does not, take advice before spending money on recovery services, most of which cannot do what they claim.
Domains, files and anything earning money
Domain names, monetised channels, app store accounts and online businesses are genuine assets with real value, and each registrar or platform has its own transfer-on-death process. Start those early; they are slow and they lapse.
A domain that expires while the family is dealing with other things is usually gone for good, and with it any email addresses running on it. Check renewal dates first.
For photographs and documents in cloud storage, request an export rather than trying to keep the account alive indefinitely. Storage that stops being paid for eventually gets deleted.
Documents checklist
Take this list with you. A filled circle is asked for almost every time; a dashed one depends on your circumstances.
- Death certificateusually requiredEvery platform bereavement process starts here.
- Proof of your relationship to the deceasedusually required
- Your own government photo identityusually required
- Legal heir or succession certificatesometimes requiredUsually required for anything of monetary value, including exchange-held crypto.
- List of standing instructions and card mandatessometimes requiredAsk the bank; faster than chasing each platform.
- Seed phrase or hardware walletsometimes requiredSelf-custodied crypto is unrecoverable without it.
Common questions
We have my father's email password. Can we just use it?
You should not. Logging in with someone else's credentials is unauthorised access regardless of the family relationship, and platforms treat it as a reason to stop cooperating. Use the platform's bereavement process, or a legacy mechanism if one was set up.
Will Google or Apple give us the account?
Generally not the live account. Where the person set up Inactive Account Manager or a Legacy Contact, a named person gets lawful access. Otherwise the realistic outcomes are closure or a data export, after weeks and with a death certificate and proof of relationship.
Should we delete his social media?
Discuss it first — deletion is irreversible, and the profile is often the largest collection of photographs of the person that exists. Consider memorialisation instead, and download an archive before deciding.
He had crypto. Can we get it?
On an exchange, usually yes — there is a KYC record and a bereavement process, and they will ask for succession documents. In a self-custodied wallet without the seed phrase or private key, there is no recovery mechanism and no authority who can help. Search hard for a recorded key before concluding it is lost.
What is the most urgent thing here?
Stopping recurring charges, and checking domain renewal dates. Subscriptions quietly drain an account for months, and a lapsed domain takes any email addresses running on it with it.
Sources
Everything on this page traces back to these. If one has changed since we checked it, the page is wrong — please tell us.
Related guides
If this helped, send it to someone who needs it. Most people find this page in the worst month of their life. Someone you know may be there now.
Nobody should have to search for this
Most of the difficulty in these pages is not the paperwork. It is not knowing what existed, where it was held, or who to ask. That part is avoidable — but only by the person who holds the information, while they still can.
KinSetu is a private record of what your family would need to find: accounts, policies, investments and documents, released to the people you name. It exists so that your family never has to reconstruct it from bank statements.
Start a free recordAbout this guide
KinSetu publishes these guides to help families understand the process of claiming assets after a death in India. They are general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and reading them creates no professional or advisory relationship with KinSetu.
We research each guide from the institutions’ own published forms and circulars, cite them where we can, and review pages periodically. Even so, requirements vary by institution, branch, state and individual circumstance, and they change without notice. We cannot guarantee that any list of documents or steps is complete or current for your situation, and KinSetu accepts no liability for decisions taken solely on the basis of these pages.
Nomination is not inheritance. A nominee is generally the person an institution releases an asset to — not necessarily the person legally entitled to own it, which is determined by a will or by succession law. Where ownership, division between heirs, or a dispute is involved, please consult a qualified lawyer.
Found something out of date or incorrect? Tell us — we check every report and correct the page. Last reviewed on 23 August 2026.