Riga City Funeral Service
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Twenty years ago a person's belongings could be counted and touched. Now a large part of them is on a screen: email, photographs, accounts, subscriptions quietly taking money every month. After a death that part does not disappear — the family simply has neither the passwords nor any idea where to begin.
This article is about the practical side. The legal side of an estate is handled by a sworn notary — that is covered separately in the article on inheritance in Latvia. If you need help with the funeral and the documents, call: +371 2208 4540
These things are not equally urgent, and it is worth sorting them rather than taking on everything at once.
| What it is | Why it matters, and how urgent |
|---|---|
| Automatic payments and subscriptions | Urgent: they go on taking money by themselves. This is where the bills a family discovers months later come from |
| Bank accounts | Handled through the bank with the death certificate, and then within the inheritance matter. There is no need to use someone else's access yourself |
| The mobile number | More important than it seems: confirmation codes arrive on it. While the number is active, some matters are easier to settle |
| In effect the key to the rest: bills, contracts and payment notices arrive there | |
| Photographs and documents in the cloud | Not urgent, but what families most regret losing access to |
| Social media | Last. Each service has its own procedure, and the family has to decide what to do with the profile |
The first is logging into accounts with passwords you have found and "sorting it all out". It seems quicker, but it is access to someone else's account, and later, when the inheritance matter is dealt with, it can raise questions. There is a better route: with documents, through the bank, the service and the notary.
The second is deleting everything at once. In the first weeks it feels right: close it, wipe it, so that it does not hurt. A year later families often look for exactly what was deleted — messages, voice notes, photographs. Deletion cannot be undone. If in doubt, keep a copy and come back to the question later.
The right time to think about this is when nothing has happened. No lawyers or complicated steps are needed — a single sheet kept where the family will find it is enough: which bank holds the accounts, what the mobile number is, which subscriptions exist, where the photographs are kept. Passwords need not be written there.
It is the same idea as funeral planning: stating your wishes in advance takes decisions away from the family at the moment they are hardest to make.
And do not forget what is not digital: rights to a burial plot do not pass by themselves either — they are taken over by application to the cemetery keeper. If the family still faces the funeral arrangement and the paperwork, we take that on.
