Succession Planning for a Business's Digital Assets

A business owner is the only person with access to the domain registrar, hosting account, email, and website admin. They've never written down passwords. They've never documented how to recover access if something happens. They're the only person who knows the answers to security questions for account recovery.

If they pass away unexpectedly, their family and business partner are locked out. They can't renew the domain. They can't move hosting. They can't access years of email. The business effectively stops existing online.

This is a real scenario that happens more often than you'd think. Most small business owners don't plan for digital asset succession because they assume they'll always be around to handle it.

Succession planning for digital assets is simple, but it's not done by default. You have to be intentional about it.

What needs to be planned

Digital succession planning covers:

Domain and registrar accounts: Who has access? What happens if the primary person is unavailable?

Hosting accounts and servers: How do people access the servers? Who can authorize billing changes?

Email and email accounts: Are they backed up? Can someone else access them if needed?

Website admin accounts: Who can log in and make changes?

Code repositories: If there's custom code, who has access? Is it backed up?

SaaS accounts: CRM, email marketing, analytics, etc. Who has logins?

Financial accounts connected to digital assets: Hosting billing, domain renewal, email hosting. Who can pay if needed?

Credentials for recovery: Security questions, backup authentication, recovery email addresses. Who has these?

For each one, you need: who currently has access, what they can do, what happens if they leave or die, and how successors get access.

Building a succession plan

Step 1: Inventory all digital assets

List everything:

• Domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)
• Hosting provider
• Email hosting
• Website platform (WordPress, Webflow, etc.)
• CRM or customer data
• Code repository (GitHub, GitLab, etc.)
• Analytics tools
• Email marketing tools
• Backup systems
• Financial accounts with recurring charges

For each one, write down: URL, login email, what it's for, and how critical it is to the business.

Step 2: Document access and permissions

For each asset, write down:

• Who currently has access (person's name, not just title)
• What level of access (read-only, admin, etc.)
• How long they've had access
• Whether they created the account or inherited it
• What would break if they left suddenly

Step 3: Create a succession chain

For each critical account, identify:

• Primary person with access
• Secondary person (backup)
• Tertiary person (if both are unavailable)

For a small business, this might be: owner, manager, and business partner. Ideally, not all three are the same age or health status.

Step 4: Document how to recover access

For each account, write down:

• How to reset the password (which backup email to use, where the recovery phone number is)
• Security questions and answers
• Backup authentication methods
• Who at the company can authorize account recovery
• How to contact the provider if something is locked

This is critical. If your primary person dies, their backup needs to know how to get in.

Step 5: Secure the documentation

This document contains sensitive information—passwords, security questions, recovery codes. Where do you store it?

Options:

• Password manager with team sharing (1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane): Encrypted, accessible to multiple people, auditable. Recommended.
• Printed and locked in a safe: Physical backup. Include a note on how to access the password manager if it's physical.
• Encrypted file with copies held by a lawyer or trusted advisor: More ceremonial, but clear that it's a official document.

Never:

• Email passwords to people
• Store passwords in spreadsheets
• Store everything in one person's personal files

Step 6: Test the plan

Annually, do a test:

• Pick one account
• Have the backup person attempt to log in using the documented recovery method
• Update the documentation based on what didn't work

This catches gaps before they become crises.

Step 7: Update when things change

Every time someone new joins the company or someone leaves, update the succession plan. Every time you add a new SaaS tool, add it to the inventory. Keep it current.

Specific recommendations

For passwords: Use a team password manager. Every critical account should have a shared login where multiple people have access. When someone leaves, you change the password and give the new one to their replacement.

For domain registrars: At minimum, two people should have account access. Write down how to recover access if both are unavailable (usually through proof of business ownership with the registrar).

For email: If email is hosted with your domain (example@yourbusiness.com), make sure multiple people can access the email inbox and account settings. If it's tied to one person's personal account, fix that.

For hosting: Admin access should be shared among at least two people. Billing information should be tied to the company, not one person.

For code: If custom-built, the code should be in your company's GitHub account, not a contractor's. Document how to access it and how to build/deploy it.

For recovery codes: Tools like Google Workspace give you recovery codes if you lose access. Keep a printed copy of these in a locked location. Include instructions on how to use them.

For succession if someone dies: If a key person dies, their family might inherit their personal accounts (email, GitHub, etc.). This could lock you out of business accounts tied to their name. Use company accounts for business access, not personal accounts.

What succession planning protects against

Death of a key person: If the person managing digital assets dies, the business has clear procedures to transfer access instead of losing it.

Departure of a key person: If a developer or manager leaves, you know how to regain access to accounts they managed.

Health crisis or disability: If a key person can't work temporarily or permanently, a backup person can step in.

Account lockout: If someone forgets a password or their account is hacked, you have documented recovery procedures.

Vendor failure: If your hosting company goes down, you know how to move to a new host because you have access to your account.

Disputes or unhappy departures: If someone leaves on bad terms and you suspect they'll try to lock you out, you already have backup access documented.

Cost and effort

Building a succession plan for digital assets takes a few hours, once.

• Inventory: 30 minutes
• Document access: 30 minutes
• Create succession chain: 30 minutes
• Write recovery procedures: 1 hour
• Secure the documentation: 30 minutes
• Annual test: 30 minutes

Total: 3–4 hours initially, 30 minutes annually.

Compare that to the cost of losing access to your domain, hosting, email, and website because a key person wasn't available. That could be thousands of dollars in rebuild costs plus downtime.

If you're a key person reading this

If you're the person who has most digital access in your organization:

• Stop being a single point of failure
• Add a backup person to critical accounts
• Document how to recover access
• Don't rely on you being there to handle emergencies

This is good for your business and good for you—it means you can take vacation without worrying about emergencies, and it protects your business if something happens to you.

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FAQ

Should we include passwords in the succession plan? Yes, but stored securely in a password manager with multiple access levels. Not printed or emailed. A team password manager where credentials are encrypted but accessible is the standard.

What if we're a one-person business? You still need a plan. Identify at least one trusted person (spouse, business partner, lawyer, accountant) who can access your accounts if something happens to you. Give them a locked document with instructions.

Should we tell people what's in the succession plan? Yes, after you create it. Especially the people who might need to use it. "If something happens to me, contact [person] and here's the succession plan showing how to access everything." This isn't morbid—it's responsible.

What if we're concerned about one person having too much access? You can split access. One person has domain registrar access. Another has hosting access. Another has email. Document who has what and how to contact them. This reduces single-point-of-failure risk while keeping access clear.

Should we get legal help with this? For a small business, you can do it yourself. For a larger business with significant digital assets, having a lawyer review it is worth it. They can make sure it's enforceable if you need to use it during an actual succession.

How often do we update the plan? Annually at minimum, or whenever someone joins or leaves, or when you add a new critical system. Keep it current.

What if someone in the plan becomes unavailable (illness, quit, moved)? Update immediately. Don't leave it as is. The whole point is that there's a clear person to contact. If that person isn't available, update.

Should the succession plan include financial accounts? Yes, at least for accounts with recurring charges (hosting renewal, domain renewal, email hosting). Someone needs to be able to pay these bills if the primary person isn't available.

Can we store the succession plan in the cloud? Yes, in an encrypted password manager that you control. Not in email or unencrypted cloud storage. It contains sensitive credentials—encrypt it.

What about recovery after deletion or data loss? Include backup and disaster recovery information in the plan. "Our backups are stored at [location]. To restore from backup: [steps]. Contact [person] if you need to restore."

Should we have multiple copies of the plan? Recommended. One in your password manager. One printed and locked in a physical safe. One with a lawyer or trusted advisor if you want a third backup. This ensures nobody can lose it.

What if we have a family business where everyone works together? You still need a plan. Document who has access to what. What happens if two of three family members are unavailable. How does the third person take over. Make it clear and written down.