Digital Memories: What Happens to iCloud Photos When Users Pass?

Photo albums are a quintessential family heirloom. Large binders filled with glossy film photos sit in most people’s cosets, holding valuable memories passed from one generation to the next. However, the days of film roles being developed are behind us, and instead we all walk around with thousands of photos in our phones, entrusting iCloud and Google Photos to hold on to our stories. But what happens to these pictures when their proprietor passes, and how can you help your client secure their digital memories? In this post we will review the planning options for iCloud accounts (data accounts for anyone with an Apple device) and demonstrate how Bequest can offer an easy and secure method of protecting data.

iCloud accounts hold more than just pictures – they hold basically all the data stored on a user’s Apple device. This includes emails, messages, notes, health data, and much more.

It is crucial to note that Apple reserves the right to delete accounts that have been inactive for a year or more. This is not a risk fiduciaries should take when administering the digital portion of an estate, so time is of the essence.

Your client can set a legacy contact on their iCloud account. This is an individual that will get access to your client’s entire iCloud account (health data, messages, emails, photos, call history, and much more) upon presenting Apple with i) a death certificate, and ii) an access token. Here’s how it works:

While Apple’s addition of a legacy contact is a great step forward for estate planning, it is still far from infallible.

Bequest allows your client to connect their photo accounts such that their fiduciary can retrieve them in a matter of days upon submitting a copy of the death certificate to Bequest. Bequest does not rely on legacy contacts, so your client will never be exposing all their data. Bequest will:

Planning for digital photos is not as obvious as sharing a photo album, but it can still be an easy process with tools like Bequest. It is important to plan for your client’s digital assets such that recovery by the fiduciary will be as simple as possible. Legacy contact options may be great for more simple plans, but any client with multiple digital accounts to manage or private business/legal affairs that need to be segregated should look into incorporating Bequest.