A growing share of an estate is digital: e-mail, photos, social media, subscriptions, cloud storage, domain names. No Belgian or Dutch law forces providers to transfer these accounts to heirs. Each large platform has its own process, and most will give you at best a closed or memorialised account, not the content itself.
This article gathers the official forms and stays honest about what you actually get. For the direct links per service, see our short guide.
Three kinds of access
It helps to distinguish three scenarios:
- Closure: the account is deleted permanently. Content is gone.
- Memorialisation: the profile stays visible to others, but no one can sign in or post.
- Content access: a relative can sign in or download a copy. This is the most restricted globally.
Most platforms only offer the first two. Content access is usually only possible when the deceased configured a legacy contact during life.
Google: Inactive Account Manager and form
Google lets you set, during life, an Inactive Account Manager that notifies one or more contacts after a period of inactivity and may grant access to parts of the account. If none was set, a relative submits Google's deceased account form. The request runs in two phases:
- first notification with the requester's ID and a death certificate extract;
- an optional second phase for Gmail or Drive content (rarely granted, often a court order is required).
In practice, families mostly get the account closed and, with no guarantee, a download of public YouTube content.
Apple: Legacy Contact
Apple's Digital Legacy is arguably the most workable option. The user appoints one or more Legacy Contacts during life, each receiving a unique access key. On death, the contact combines this key with a death certificate extract and is given read-and-download rights on iCloud photos, notes, contacts and most files.
Without a Legacy Contact, Apple requires a court order recognising the requester as legal representative. In practice, Belgian and Dutch courts will ask for a notarial certificate of inheritance or equivalent.
Meta: memorialise or remove
Facebook and Instagram only offer memorialisation or removal. Memorialisation needs a short request with the certificate. Removal requires proof of close kinship. Messages, photos and settings are never released.
During life every user can pick a legacy contact allowed to perform limited actions on a memorialised profile: accept new friend requests, change the cover photo, pin a post. This contact never has full sign-in.
Microsoft, Dropbox, Adobe and software licences
Microsoft closes deceased accounts on request but gives no access to Outlook or OneDrive. Dropbox does the same. Adobe and other SaaS vendors cancel subscriptions and stop licences without transferring them.
For locally installed software (a physical PC or Mac), ordinary inheritance rules apply: the hardware enters the estate and the licence follows the hardware unless the terms say otherwise.
Domain names and hosting
.be domain names are governed by DNS Belgium. On death, a relative can request a transfer to another registrant with the certificate and a certificate of inheritance. This usually runs via the current registrar (Combell, OVH, Versio). For .nl, the registry SIDN handles the same with the same documents.
Do not forget hosting and e-mail servers: an annual contract often renews silently.
Cryptocurrency and wallets
Cryptocurrency in a custodial wallet (at an exchange such as Bitvavo, Kraken or Coinbase) follows the normal estate process: file a request with the certificate and a certificate of inheritance. The exchange blocks the account and pays out to the heirs after checks.
In a non-custodial wallet (a hardware wallet or a seed phrase known only by the deceased), there is no recovery process. Without the seed phrase the funds are unreachable. This is the clearest reason to add, during life, a sealed envelope with seed phrases to your estate file.
Plan ahead for your own accounts
The simplest way to help your own heirs is, right now:
- set an Apple Legacy Contact;
- activate Google's Inactive Account Manager;
- pick a Facebook legacy contact;
- share a password manager with a trusted person (e.g. via the emergency delegation in 1Password or Bitwarden);
- store important files in encrypted backups whose seed phrase your relatives can find in a sealed envelope.
For the practical steps after a death see our short guide and use your Nalenta file to track closed accounts.
Honest conclusion
Digital legacy is a technically and legally hard field. Do not promise relatives an access that mostly does not exist. Closure or memorialisation is guaranteed; content download is rare. Prepare your own heirs and stay realistic about what platforms release.