Skip to content
English
Request Support
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Legacy Contacts Explained: Digital Continuity for Your Family

A key part of digital estate planning, Legacy Contacts help ensure your online presence and digital assets don’t get lost or locked away.

Overview

In today’s digital world, it is important to consider designating a legacy contact for your most vital online accounts. Many apps and websites offer you the ability to do so- although it might take a bit of research to determine how.

A legacy contact is the most secure way to ensure that a spouse, family member or trusted friend can have access to your personal information and digital files in the event of your death.

Most people today store extremely meaningful information in the digital space- think about that camera reel on your phone, or your long contacts list, or your file hosting account with all of your personal documents and files.

What are some examples of important apps to have a legacy contact in place? Lets take for example your iCloud account, which holds text messages, notes, apps, photos and a lot of other information. Or perhaps your Gmail email address, Dropbox account and maybe your Password Manager, which can assist your loved ones with getting into your other programs and accessing vital information essential to understanding your estate.

At leafplanner, our Concierge team establishes each of our client’s desired legacy contacts at the time of their onboarding, but on some platforms, clients must manually enter their own legacy contact.

If a website or app you use does not currently offer the ability to list a legacy contact, consider leaving a document for your trusted family or friends and provide information on how to access any of your accounts with vital information in the event of your incapacitation or death, so that they can elect to close or memorialize your account on your behalf.

Resources

We have identified below some key resources for understanding the importance of legacy contacts and how to add them to some of the most common websites you might be using.