By Kevin Purdy, Lifehacker – April 26, 2010 at 06:00AM
The fate of your house, car, and Action Comics collection after your death can be planned for in legal documents. Your Gmail and Facebook accounts? That’s a bit murky. New legacy service Entrustet aims to help create legally sound post-mortem password vaults.
Entrustet offers a free account that lets you set up three unlimited password-protected accounts to be transferred over to a trust person upon your passing. How does it know when you’re gone? You assign a trusted person to be your Digital Executor, who will notify Entrustet and then provide a death certificate scan to activate the password conveyance upon your death. You can also assign your estate attorney to execute your Entrustet transfer upon your death, and the site offers up a few attorneys officially on board with Entrustet—though we imagine any savvy attorney can be conscripted for the duty. Additional security and ease-of-use features (for the executor and recipients, at least) are included with paid plans.
It’s a bit like previously mentioned Legacy Locker—it’s a smart idea, but those interested enough in their post-mortem web accounts likely will have their own scheme set up, rather than pay for Entrustet’s extra accounts and features. Still, there are other features to come, like an Account Incinerator, that you might find convenient when you’re not exactly in a position to fine-tune things.
Entrustet is free to sign up for and try out with a few accounts. Tell us the (general) details of your own plans for your online life after your passing in the comments.