Digital Legacy Vault. Own Your Data, Even After You Are Gone.

Most families discover this in the worst week of their lives. The money is there. The photos are there. The accounts are all still open. But every door asks for a code, and the code goes to a phone on the kitchen table that no one can unlock.

There are two locks. The phone company controls the number. Apple or Google controls the phone and the account behind it. A family that wins the argument with one is still locked out by the other. Neither company is being cruel. They are protecting the account from strangers, and without a plan your family looks like a stranger.

• Apple Legacy Contact. You name a person, and Apple gives them an access key. After your death they need that key and your death certificate to ask Apple for the data in your Apple account.
• Google Inactive Account Manager. You choose up to 10 trusted contacts. After your account has been inactive for a period you set, Google notifies them and can share the data you selected.
• What neither one covers. Your bank, your retirement account, your phone carrier, your mortgage, your business, your land, your insurance, or what you want done with any of them.

The vault does not replace these tools. It makes sure they are set up, records who holds each key, and covers everything they leave out.

Most states, Texas included, have adopted a law called the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. It gives executors and other fiduciaries a legal path to a person's digital property, and it looks first to what the person wrote down. Texas adopted it in 2017.

That is why the vault and your attorney work together. The vault holds the inventory and your instructions. Your will or trust gives your executor the authority to act on them. Ask your attorney to name a digital executor in your estate papers.

• Your phone number and your phone, with a plan to keep the line active..
• Email, your password manager and your main online accounts..
• Bank, retirement and investment accounts, with a flag on any account that has no beneficiary recorded..
• Homes and land, here or abroad: where the deed is, what is owed, and who to call..
• Timeshares, cemetery plots, vehicles, boats and mineral rights: where each deed or title is kept, what is still owed, and whether your family should keep it or sell it..
• Your business: who can sign, who runs payroll, and where the operating agreement is kept..
• Insurance policies and debts, so nothing is missed and nothing is a surprise..
• Where your will, trust and power of attorney are kept, and who drafted them..
• Your funeral wishes and your medical wishes, each in its own section below..
• The bills that must not stop, such as the mortgage, insurance and payroll..
• Letters, videos and voice notes for the people you love..
• A plan for the first 48 hours and the first 30 days, built from your own entries..

No password is ever stored in the vault. Each entry records where the password or the paper is kept, such as a password manager or a safe at home.

• Scan with your camera. The vault cleans the photo into a black and white scan, and you can add pages to make one document.
• Upload files: PDFs, photos, Word files and spreadsheets..
• Link each file where your family will look for it: the deed beside the house, the policy beside the insurance, the DNR beside your medical wishes..
• Each file is locked on your device before it is stored, in the same place you chose for the vault. TechFides never receives it.
• The location data your phone adds to photos is removed before the file is locked..

A scan is a copy. Keep the originals, because courts usually need the original will. The vault records where each original is kept.

Do not scan passwords, card numbers or Social Security cards. The vault is built to point to where those are kept, not to hold them.

• Burial or cremation. Or a green burial, or donating your body to science.
• For a burial: the cemetery, whether you already own a plot, the casket, and where the plot deed and any prepaid funeral contract are kept..
• For cremation: what to do with the ashes. Keep them at home, bury them, place them in a columbarium, scatter them somewhere that matters to you, or share them among the family.
• The service: a religious service, a celebration of life, a graveside service or something private. Where it is held and who leads it.
• The music, the readings, the scriptures and the photos you want shown..
• The people: who gives the eulogy, who reads, who sings, who carries the casket, and who should hear the news first, with their phone numbers..
• Flowers, or a donation to a cause you choose..
• Everything else: notes for your obituary, what you want to wear, the meal after, who takes care of your pet..

You can also write what you do not want. Families argue less when the wishes are written down in your own words.

In Texas, written directions become binding when they are in your will, in a prepaid funeral contract, or in a statement you sign in front of a notary. You can also name the one person who makes the final decisions, with a form called an Appointment for Disposition of Remains. The vault keeps both and tells your family where the originals are. Your attorney can tell you which one fits.

• Whether you want CPR, a breathing machine, or a feeding tube and IV fluids if you are not expected to recover..
• Comfort care and hospice: pain relief, where you want to be at the end, at home or in hospice, and who you want in the room..
• Your faith wishes: a pastor or priest, prayers, last rites..
• Organ and tissue donation..
• Who decides for you if you cannot speak, and who comes next if that person cannot..

Texas uses three main forms. A Directive to Physicians states your wishes about life sustaining treatment. A Medical Power of Attorney names the person who decides when you cannot. An Out of Hospital Do Not Resuscitate order tells EMS not to attempt resuscitation. That last one is the only one EMS can follow, and you sign it with your doctor.

Keep the original DNR where responders will see it, such as on the refrigerator, or wear the approved bracelet. The vault records where each original is, holds a copy, and shares both with your medical agent right away. It does not replace your doctor or the forms.

1. 1You name three key holders: a digital executor, a legacy contact, and a neutral third person such as your attorney or pastor..
2. 2A key holder reports your death, or you miss two check ins in a row..
3. 3A 14 day waiting period begins. You are called, texted and emailed. If you are fine, you cancel it.
4. 4Two of the three key holders approve, each with their own key..
5. 5The vault opens for your executor as a step by step plan, starting with the phone number..

Two parts never wait. Your funeral wishes and your medical wishes are shared from the start with the key holders you pick, and you can change them at any time.

There is a second path for a stroke, an accident or dementia. Your key holders confirm that you cannot act, and a limited view opens for the person who holds your power of attorney. It shows the bills and the business, so life keeps running. Nothing is transferred or closed while you are alive.

This is the same idea behind everything TechFides builds. A business should own its AI. A family should own its records. The vault is kept in an open format, so your family can open it even if TechFides is no longer around.

These prices are planned for early access and may change before launch. There is no charge to store your vault, because TechFides does not store it.

An estate attorney writes the will, and then watches the family struggle with everything the will does not reach. A pastor sits with a widow who cannot get into a single account. A financial advisor holds the investments but not the phone. Each of them already has the trust. The vault gives them something to hand over.

The partner can also serve as the neutral third key holder, which keeps the family's own attorney or church at the center of the plan.

• It is not a will, a trust or a power of attorney. It gives no one legal authority. Your attorney does that.
• It cannot be recovered if all three key holders lose their keys. TechFides has no copy. Print the emergency kit and store it safely.
• It does not store passwords, and it does not sign in to anything for you..
• Banks, carriers and online services follow their own rules and the law. The vault tells your executor what to ask for and where the papers are. It cannot force a decision.
• Property outside the United States follows the law of that country. You will need a local attorney there.
• It cannot make a doctor, a hospital or EMS follow a wish that is not on the signed Texas forms..
• It is in early access. An independent security review has not been completed yet, and we will publish the result when it is.

Straight answers

Frequently asked questions