The average internet user now manages roughly 100 online accounts, from email and photos to banking, social media, and crypto. When you die, almost none of them simply pass to your family. In most of Canada, your executor has no clear legal right to get in, and the platforms can lawfully shut them out.
This page sets out what actually happens to online accounts after death in Canada: the patchwork of provincial law, the policies of the big platforms, the data on crypto and digital assets, and what to include in your will. Each figure links to a source at the bottom. Updated June 2026.
Digital legacy law in Canada
Canada has a model law for this, but it only takes effect where a province adopts it, and most have not.
1. A national model law exists since 2016
In August 2016 the Uniform Law Conference of Canada adopted the Uniform Access to Digital Assets by Fiduciaries Act (UADAFA), which would give executors, attorneys, and guardians a default right to access a person's digital assets. As a model act, it has no force until a province enacts its own version.1
2. Saskatchewan went first, in 2020
Saskatchewan was the first province to enact UADAFA-based legislation, The Fiduciaries Access to Digital Information Act, in force on 29 June 2020. It gave executors there a clear statutory route to a deceased person's online accounts.2
3. Only a handful of provinces have followed
Prince Edward Island's Access to Digital Assets Act came into force on 1 January 2022, and New Brunswick enacted its Fiduciaries Access to Digital Assets Act in December 2022, with Yukon also adopting the uniform act. That leaves the largest provinces, Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta, still without dedicated digital-asset legislation.3
4. The United States uses a different framework
The American equivalent, the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA, 2015), has been adopted in nearly every US state. It is a separate system from Canada's UADAFA, so US platform guidance does not automatically apply to a Canadian estate.4
Why your executor can be locked out
Even with a probated will and the passwords in hand, getting into an account is not guaranteed.
5. Passwords are not the same as legal access
Platform terms of service routinely forbid third parties from logging in and prohibit sharing credentials, and privacy law (in Canada, PIPEDA) can require a custodian to demand a court order before releasing data. Using the deceased's password without legal authority may itself breach the terms of service, so an executor with the password can still be acting unlawfully.5
How many accounts we leave behind
The scale of the problem grows every year as more of life moves online.
6. About 100 accounts per person
The average internet user has roughly 100 online accounts, a figure that rose about 25 percent during the pandemic, from around 80 in early 2020 to about 100 by late 2020. Each one is a small administrative knot for whoever settles your estate.6
7. The typical person is active on 6 or 7 platforms
The average social-media user is active on about 6.5 different platforms each month, so even a "simple" digital life spreads across many separate services that all outlive their owner.7
8. Facebook is filling up with the dead
A widely cited Oxford Internet Institute study projected that Facebook could hold up to 4.9 billion deceased users' profiles by 2100, and that under a no-growth scenario dead profiles would outnumber living users within about 50 years. The accounts we leave behind do not disappear on their own.8
What the big platforms allow
The major platforms each built their own tools for death. They differ sharply in what they let a survivor do.
| Platform | Tool | What it allows |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook / Meta | Legacy Contact | Manage a memorialized profile; cannot log in or read messages |
| Inactive Account Manager | After 3 to 18 months of inactivity, share data with up to 10 contacts or delete | |
| Apple | Legacy Contact | Up to 5 contacts retrieve iCloud data with an Access Key plus death certificate |
9. Facebook lets you name a legacy contact
Meta lets users appoint a legacy contact who can manage a memorialized profile, pin a post, respond to friend requests, and update the photo, but who cannot log in, read private messages, or remove friends. Memorialized profiles show "Remembering" above the name.9
10. Google can hand over or delete your account
Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you set an inactivity trigger of 3 to 18 months, after which Google can share selected data with up to 10 named contacts or delete the account entirely. It only works if you set it up while alive.10
11. Apple's Legacy Contact needs a key and a certificate
Apple's Digital Legacy program, launched with iOS 15.2 in December 2021, lets users designate up to five Legacy Contacts. After death the contact needs the issued Access Key plus a death certificate to retrieve iCloud data such as photos, messages, and files. Saved passwords, payment methods, and licensed media are excluded.11
12. Most Canadian phones can use Apple's tool
That matters in Canada because iOS holds roughly 64 percent of the Canadian mobile operating-system market, against about 36 percent for Android. The majority of Canadian phone users can set up a Legacy Contact, but only a minority ever do.12
Crypto and digital assets in Canada
Some digital assets carry real money, and crypto is the one most likely to vanish forever at death.
13. Many Canadians own digital assets
An RBC Wealth Management study found 34 percent of Canadians own digital assets, including 17 percent with online gaming or gambling accounts and 16 percent with crypto, yet 51 percent had not considered, or did not know whether they had considered, digital assets in their estate planning.13
14. Crypto ownership sits around 10 to 13 percent
The Ontario Securities Commission found 13 percent of Canadians owned crypto assets or crypto funds in 2022, falling to roughly 10 percent in 2023. Crypto held on a lost device, or in a wallet whose seed phrase no one else knows, is effectively unrecoverable on death, because there is no "reset password" and no custodian to compel.14
15. Estate-planning awareness still lags
A 2026 CIBC poll found 94 percent of Canadians believe everyone should have a will, but only 52 percent actually have one and just 29 percent have an estate plan. With digital assets folded into modern estates, that gap means a growing volume of value goes unmanaged.15
What to put in your will
You cannot fully control a platform's rules, but you can make sure your executor knows what exists and is authorized to deal with it.
16. Inventory your digital assets and name a digital executor
Canadian estate advisors recommend listing your digital assets across categories, photos and email, social media, crypto and online financial accounts, loyalty and rewards points, domain names, and monetized accounts, and naming a digital executor in your will. Many of these hold real financial or sentimental value and are lost simply because no one knew they existed or how to reach them.16
The practical takeaway: keep a private, secure list of your accounts, set up the legacy tools the platforms already offer, and write a will that names an executor and grants authority over your digital estate. To start in a guided way, use our will generator, or read our related data on wills in Canada, inheritance disputes, and dying without a will. For the document itself, see how to write a will and our will template.
Frequently asked questions
Can my executor access my online accounts?
Only with the right authority. In Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Yukon, provincial law gives a fiduciary a clear route. Elsewhere it depends on the platform's policy and may require a court order. Naming the assets and an executor in your will, and using the platforms' own legacy tools, is the most reliable approach.
What happens to my crypto when I die?
If no one has the wallet's private key or seed phrase, the crypto is effectively gone, because there is no password reset and no company to compel. Record access details securely and reference them in your estate plan.
Should I just write my passwords in my will?
No. A will becomes a public document on probate, so never put passwords or keys in it. Keep them in a secure password manager or sealed inventory, and have the will point your executor to that record.
The clearest takeaway: your digital life will outlive you, and only planning makes it accessible to the people you trust. To begin, use our will generator or read how to write a will.
Sources
- 1Estateably (estateably.com)
- 2MLT Aikins (mltaikins.com)
- 3ABlawg (University of Calgary) (ablawg.ca)
- 4Estateably (estateably.com)
- 5ABlawg (University of Calgary) (ablawg.ca)
- 6NordPass (nordpass.com)
- 7Backlinko (backlinko.com)
- 8Oxford Internet Institute (via CNBC) (cnbc.com)
- 9Meta Transparency Center (meta.com)
- 10Google (google.com)
- 11Apple (apple.com)
- 12Statcounter Global Stats (statcounter.com)
- 13RBC Wealth Management (rbcwealthmanagement.com)
- 14Ontario Securities Commission (osc.ca)
- 15CIBC (cibc.com)
- 16BMO Private Wealth (bmo.com)
About the author
Max Kuch
Max Kuch has spent years studying succession law, estate planning, and the consumer side of inheritance, including the fast-moving area of digital assets. For GetAWill he gathers and synthesizes data from official, academic, and industry sources and explains it in plain language.