Digital estate checklist for solo founders with no business partner

Digital estate planning for a solo founder comes down to one question: if you were suddenly gone, or in a hospital bed for a month, could someone you trust keep the lights on, pay the taxes and tell your clients what is happening? In a company with a co-founder, the other person already knows. When you are the whole company, it all lives in your head and your password manager.

The free fix is a written checklist: what your business runs on, where each piece is, and who should be allowed to reach it. This guide walks through it in order, then covers the legal documents that make it work.

Three facts make solo businesses different:

• There is no one with authority by default. A sole proprietorship is not a legal entity separate from its owner. If the estate keeps running it after the owner's death, the IRS says the business needs a new EIN, under the estate. Someone has to be appointed and know what to do.
• A power of attorney stops at death. A power of attorney lets someone handle your money or property while you are alive but unable to. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's guidance for agents is clear that the agent's authority ends when the person dies. So you need a plan for both situations.
• Your digital accounts have their own rules. Who may access an online account after death or incapacity is decided by state law and by each provider's terms, not just by whoever has the password.

None of this needs to be frightening. It just means writing things down, on purpose, before you need them.

Use this as your table of contents. Fill in one line per item: what it is, where it is, who to contact, and whether a backup person already has access.

Keep this list somewhere private and offline: a printed copy with your estate papers, and a copy with your attorney. Update it once a year, on the same day you do your annual tax prep.

Start with the money, because it is what your family will need first.

1. List every account that holds or moves business money. Business checking, savings, credit cards, and every platform that collects payments for you.
2. Note where payouts land. If a marketplace or payment processor pays into an account only you can reach, money may sit there until someone with authority claims it.
3. Write down what is owed to you. Open invoices, retainers, and who to contact at each client.
4. Write down what you owe. Recurring bills, loans, payroll or contractor payments, and tax installments.

Ask your bank how a business account is handled if the owner dies or is incapacitated, and whether a second signer or a beneficiary designation is possible on that account type. The answer depends on the bank, the account type and your business structure.

The tax side is where a solo founder's family most often feels lost, so put your accountant's name at the top of the list.

What the IRS says happens after a death:

• The final income tax return is prepared the same way as if the person were alive, reporting all income up to the date of death and claiming eligible credits and deductions. If earlier years were not filed, those may be needed too.
• A refund due on that final return is claimed with Form 1310.
• Form 56 is how a fiduciary, such as an executor, notifies the IRS that a fiduciary relationship has started or ended.
• A new EIN is needed if the estate operates a sole proprietorship after the owner's death; the new EIN is for the business.
• Crypto counts as property. For US tax purposes, digital assets are property, not currency, so holdings and sales need records like any other investment.

On your checklist, note where last year's return is, where your bookkeeping lives, and which state tax accounts you have.

The Uniform Law Commission wrote a model law for this, the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), for states to adopt. It sets a three-tier order for deciding what you wanted:

1. The provider's own online tool comes first. If a service lets you name someone to receive your data and you use it, that choice generally overrides a contrary instruction in your will, as long as the tool lets you change it at any time.
2. Your will, trust or power of attorney comes next, if you did not use an online tool or the service doesn't offer one.
3. The provider's terms of service apply if you gave no direction at all.

The model act also gives a fiduciary access to a list of your messages (who and when), but not their content, unless you consented. If you want your executor to be able to read business email, say so in your estate documents. States adopt their own versions, so check yours with an attorney.

The practical takeaway: use the free official tools where they exist.

• Google Inactive Account Manager shares some or all of your Google account data with up to 10 people after your account has been inactive for a period you set. This is the closest thing to a free "dead man's switch" for your Google data.
• Apple Legacy Contact lets named people request data such as photos, notes, files and backups after your death, using an access key you generate plus a death certificate. Passwords and passkeys in iCloud Keychain are excluded.
• Your password manager may have an emergency-access or inheritance feature. Check its settings and note on your checklist whether it is set up.

For domains, hosting and code, the biggest risk is quiet expiry. Write down renewal dates and which card pays for each, and consider moving key renewals to auto-renew on a long term.

Clients do not need your passwords. They need to hear from a person.

• Keep a short list of active clients with one contact each.
• Draft a two-paragraph notice your backup person can send: what happened, what happens to the work, and who to contact.
• Note where contracts are stored and any termination or handover terms.
• If you have a trusted peer who could finish or hand over work, write their name down and ask them first.

Most "something happens to me" moments are not deaths. They are surgeries, accidents and long recoveries.

For that, the CFPB describes the main options:

• A power of attorney, which gives someone legal authority to make decisions about your money or property. A durable power of attorney becomes effective when it is signed; a springing one is designed to let you manage your own finances as long as you are able to.
• A trustee, who can manage only what is in a trust.
• A court-appointed guardian or conservator, which is what can happen if you are unable to manage your money and you don't have a power of attorney in place.

A power of attorney that covers business matters, plus this checklist, is what turns "emergency access to accounts if incapacitated" from a worry into a plan. Some founders also look at tools that hand over information automatically after a period of silence; Fortholder is one being built for that, but the written list comes first.

Set one calendar reminder a year to update the checklist, and another whenever you add a client platform, a bank account or a domain.

See an estate planning attorney if:

• You don't have a will or a power of attorney.
• You have an LLC or corporation and aren't sure what your operating agreement or bylaws say about death or incapacity.
• You have employees, contractors on retainer, or clients who depend on you for ongoing service.
• You hold crypto or intellectual property, such as code, designs or content, that earns money.
• You live in one state and do business or hold property in another.