The modern will is no longer confined to paper and signatures. It has evolved alongside the way we live — and store — our lives. Today, your online accounts, recorded memories, and stored files form a large part of your estate. Yet these are often left unmentioned in legal documents, creating confusion and loss for loved ones.
Including a digital vault in your will ensures your digital legacy is not only preserved but accessible, structured, and meaningful. A secure platform such as the Evaheld Legacy Vault bridges traditional estate law with twenty-first-century reality, giving executors and heirs a central home for your instructions, documents, and stories.
Why your will needs a digital companion
Traditional wills are excellent at covering assets, property, and guardianship. They are poor at addressing what happens to your online presence, encrypted documents, and sentimental digital files.
The Law Society of England and Wales has repeatedly urged the public to include explicit digital instructions in wills to avoid disputes and data loss. Without this step, executors face locked accounts, inaccessible photographs, and vanishing family history.
By integrating your vault, you turn your estate plan into a hybrid system — legal where it must be, personal where it matters.
What a digital vault actually is
A digital vault is a secure, encrypted online platform for storing and sharing essential information. It can include:
- Personal files and letters
- Legal documents (wills, trusts, powers of attorney)
- Audio and video messages
- Password manager backups or recovery keys
- Photos, family trees, and digital art
Take control of what matters most — set up your free Evaheld Legacy Vault to keep your stories, care wishes, and essential documents safe, organised, and instantly shareable with loved ones and advisers, for life.
Evaheld’s vault combines end-to-end encryption, access controls, and the ability to assign recipients for specific items, such as letters of instruction templates or digital assets beneficiaries.
How to include your vault in your will
1. Reference your vault explicitly
Your will should mention the existence of your vault, its purpose, and where access credentials are held. Example clause (to be reviewed by a solicitor):
“I confirm that I have maintained a secure digital legacy vault through Evaheld, which contains personal letters, directives, and digital asset inventories. My executor and nominated digital custodian shall have access upon my death.”
This ensures legal recognition and prevents accidental deletion of your online history.
2. Appoint a digital executor
A digital executor manages your online materials separately from your financial executor. Their role is to download, share, or archive content according to your instructions.
Guidance from the UK Government Digital Service recommends nominating someone technically capable and trustworthy. In Evaheld, you can assign executor roles directly through permissions.
3. Store access credentials securely
Never write your passwords in the will itself — once probated, it becomes public. Instead, record login recovery methods or links in your vault. The National Cyber Security Centre UK advises keeping authentication tokens separately, accessible only to executors.
Your vault’s role is to unify these documents under a single digital structure.
4. Clarify what to share and when
Using Evaheld’s timed sharing tools, you can specify when recipients access content. For instance:
- Financial data available to the executor immediately
- Family messages released a month later
- Private letters shared on anniversaries
This level of control ensures privacy during the transition period and helps heirs process information gradually.
5. Combine your legal and ethical wills
A vault lets you combine practical documents with reflections, creating a legacy that’s both logistical and emotional. Legal instructions meet moral insight. As the Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement notes, letters, recordings, and reflections help families adapt to loss more effectively than documents alone.
In your vault, upload your ethical will alongside your formal one. Tag each file clearly — legal, personal, spiritual — so executors can navigate easily.
Stay organised and protected — securely store your financial documents in your free Evaheld Legacy Vault to keep insurance policies, superannuation details, and banking records safe, accessible, and easy to share with trusted advisers or loved ones.
6. Align with your minimal viable estate plan
Adding a vault doesn’t complicate your estate; it simplifies it. Your minimal viable estate plan already includes your will, directives, guardianship notes, and asset lists. Your vault consolidates them.
Within Evaheld, you can create separate rooms for:
- Legal documents
- Health directives
- Digital assets
- Messages to loved ones
Each room can mirror your plan’s categories, keeping everything coherent.
7. Safeguard international assets and laws
If you hold property or accounts in multiple countries, cross-border estate rules may differ. The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) recommends using clear documentation for each jurisdiction. A vault simplifies this by allowing you to attach localised documents and translations for each region.
This step is especially important for cross-border estate issues or if your executor is in a different country.
8. Integrate philanthropy and legacy planning
Philanthropy clauses within your will can now link directly to story and intent. Upload a video explanation or reflective note on your philanthropy legacy planning to accompany each donation.
Using a vault makes giving transparent — heirs understand not only what you’ve donated, but why. The Charity Commission for England and Wales confirms that clear rationale documents reduce beneficiary disputes.
9. Update routinely
A vault supports pre-mortem estate planning — ongoing reviews before they’re urgent. Every time you revise your will, update the attached files in your vault. Set reminders to confirm nothing is outdated.
The Law Council of Australia suggests reviewing all directives and related assets every five years. In Evaheld, automated reminders can do this for you.
10. Educate your executor and family
A vault is only useful if people know how to use it. Record a short walkthrough video or written note for your executor, showing where each document lives. Schedule a family meeting for estate planning to introduce everyone to the vault’s structure.
As seen in advance care planning Australia resources, shared understanding prevents both emotional and administrative confusion later.
11. Prepare for data longevity
Your vault is designed for decades of security, but laws, technologies, and platforms evolve. Export your files regularly and store backups in an external encrypted drive. The National Archives UK provides standards for long-term file preservation.
By ensuring redundancy, you make your vault truly future-proof.
12. Balance privacy and transparency
Not everything belongs in a will — and not everything belongs in a vault. Highly confidential documents like tax filings or litigation records may stay with your solicitor. But notes, wishes, and memories benefit from accessibility.
Evaheld’s privacy controls let you decide exactly who sees what, and when — ensuring ethical digital inheritance.
A living system, not static storage
Including a digital vault in your will transforms legacy planning from a static legal form into a living system. It merges compliance, storytelling, and technological foresight. Your executor gains clarity; your loved ones gain connection.
Begin by referencing your vault in your will, uploading key files, and linking your executors to their digital responsibilities. The combination of legal authority and emotional depth ensures your legacy remains accessible and intact.
A paper will protects what you owned; a digital vault preserves who you were.
Future-Proof Your Legacy: Stories, Wishes, and Documents in One Secure Vault
Your life is a rich tapestry of stories, relationships, and intentions. The Evaheld Legacy Vault is the dedicated platform to protect it all, giving your family the priceless gift of clarity, connection, and peace of mind for generations to come.
And you're never on your own. Charli, your dedicated AI Legacy Preservation Assistant, is there to guide you. From the moment you start your Vault, Charli provides personalised support—helping you set up your account, inviting family members, sending content requests, and articulating your stories and care wishes with empathy and clarity.
Take control of your legacy today. Your free Evaheld Legacy Vault is the secure home for your most precious assets—ensuring your family memories, advance care plans, and vital documents are organised, safe, and instantly shareable.
Take control of what matters most — set up your free Evaheld Legacy Vault to keep your stories, care wishes, and essential documents safe, organised, and instantly shareable with loved ones and advisers, for life.
1. Preserve Your Family’s Living Story & History
Transform your memories into a timeless family archive that future generations can truly experience. Within the Evaheld Legacy Vault, you can record videos, capture photos, write reflections, and create Legacy Letters — weaving together the laughter, lessons, and love that define your family’s identity.
Preserve more than moments: build a living digital time capsule where your heritage, traditions, and wisdom are safe, searchable, and shareable. From everyday memories to milestone events, your family’s story will remain a permanent bridge between generations — a place your loved ones can return to whenever they need comfort, connection, or inspiration.
2. Secure Your Care & Health Wishes
Ensure your voice is heard when it matters most. With the Evaheld Legacy Vault, you can create and store a digital Advance Care Directive, record your healthcare preferences, and legally appoint your Medical Decision Maker. Grant secure, instant access to family and clinicians, and link it all to your Emergency QR Access Card for first responders—ensuring your wishes are always honored.
Watch our Founder's Story to learn why we’re so passionate about Legacy Preservation and Advance Care Planning
3. Protect Your Essential Documents with Bank-Grade Security
Consolidate your critical records in one bank-grade encrypted vault. Safely store your will, power of attorney, insurance policies, and financial documents with precise permission controls. Never worry about lost, damaged, or inaccessible paperwork again. Your documents are organised and available only to those you explicitly trust.
4. Strengthen Family Bonds with Your Living, Collaborative Legacy
Transform your Legacy Vault from a static archive into a living, breathing family hub that actively deepens connections across generations and distances. This is where your legacy is built together, in real-time.
Let Charli, Your AI Legacy Preservation Assistant, Be Your Collaboration Catalyst. Charli proactively helps your family connect and create. She can suggest content requests, prompt family members to share specific memories, and help organise contributions—making it effortless for everyone to participate in building your shared story.
Create private or shared Family Rooms to connect with loved ones, carers, and trusted advisors. Within these Rooms, you can:
- Share precious memories as they happen, making your Vault a dynamic, growing timeline of your family's life.
- Send and fulfill collaborative content requests, ensuring you preserve exactly what your family cherishes most—from that funny holiday story to cherished family recipes.
- Schedule future-dated messages for birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones, allowing you to offer wisdom, love, and connection for years to come.
Evaheld is more than a digital vault; it's your family's private collaboration platform for intergenerational storytelling. It’s the simplest way to ensure every voice is heard, every memory is captured, and every bond is strengthened—today and for the future.
Start Your Free Evaheld Legacy Vault in Minutes
Join thousands of families who have found peace of mind. Setting up your free, permanent Vault is quick and simple.
- Safeguard your story for future generations.
- Ensure your care wishes are respected.
- Shield essential documents from loss and ensure instant, secure access.
The Best 3 Resources to Get Started
- Create Your Legacy Statement in 10 Minutes Flat
- Prevent Family Conflict with Our Legacy Kit
- Get Inspired: See Powerful Ethical Will Examples
Our Commitment: No One Left Behind
Evaheld believes that every story deserves to be protected, without exception. Our "Connection is All We Have" Hardship Program ensures that financial circumstances are never a barrier to legacy preservation and advance care planning.
If you are facing financial hardship, contact our team to learn how we can provide a free Vault. We are here to help you secure what matters most.
Learn More About Evaheld’s Hardship Support Program
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