Indians are obsessed with wills, nominations, property papers, and every other traditional aspect of succession. What they don’t see coming is the far bigger threat sitting right in their pocket: their passwords. The biggest point of failure in inheritance is no longer the law. It’s digital.
Here is the reality: You can’t claim what you can’t find. And you can’t find what you can’t open.
Across Indian households, there is typically one person who handles everything—investments, bills, demat account, UPI apps, bank logins, email, even the OTP-linked phone. The rest of the family operates on trust. That confidence is misplaced.
Here is the uncomfortable truth. If that key family member dies without sharing the digital access trail, the family is stuck. Not for a day or two. For months. Sometimes for years.
Here is a situation seen often: A person has a demat account, a couple of mutual funds, a PPF, some FDs, a few savings accounts, an EPF passbook, a credit card, and a few small insurance policies. They manage all of this through a single Gmail account linked to one phone number. No one else has the phone password. No one else knows the email login. The bank login is saved only in the browser of that personal laptop. And the laptop itself has a password.
When this person passes away, the family is locked out of every single gate. They don’t know which bank is active. They don’t know where the investments are. They don’t know if any SIPs exist. They don’t know where the insurance policy copies are. They don’t even know how many accounts they’re supposed to chase.
They can’t claim what they don’t know exists.
People underestimate this because the consequences don’t show up while they’re alive. The family only discovers the depth of the problem once the login fails, the OTP doesn’t come, and the bank says they need account details to even begin the transmission process.
This problem stays invisible while a person is alive. It reveals itself only after death, when access fails and the bank demands account details to begin any process.
This is the new Indian wealth divide. Not between the rich and poor. But between the person who knows the passwords and the family who doesn’t.
No will can fix this. The solution to this requires discipline.
Start with a simple digital asset register. Not a fancy spreadsheet. A simple document listing where accounts exist—banks, demat, mutual funds, insurance, EPF, PPF, NPS, credit cards, wallets, loans and property records.
Next, create a digital access plan. Not by scattering passwords, but by using either a sealed physical record stored securely, or a password manager with clear post-death access instructions for your spouse or executor.
Then, align all your accounts to one clean email ID that is known to the family. Not your college Gmail or a random ID you created when you were 10. One clean address used only for personal finance.
Finally, leave a map of money flow: which account pays which bills; which bank is primary; which number receives OTPs; which demat account holds what. This isn’t over-preparation. It’s basic adulthood in a digital economy.
People avoid doing this because the discussion feels uncomfortable. Some avoid it because they feel their spouse isn’t financially savvy. Some avoid it because they think it’s complicated. And some avoid it because they simply don’t have time for all this.
Digital access is now a bigger part of succession planning than a will. Most families don’t lose wealth because of bad intentions or legal disputes. They lose it because they don’t know where it is or how to reach it.
Most of your wealth is not in your bank account. It is behind your passwords. And if your family doesn’t have access, it doesn’t matter how hard you worked to build it, it is likely to be gone after you are gone.
Vijaykumar Puri, partner at VPRP & Co LLP, Chartered Accountants. Views are personal
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