Legacy Locker Archive

Last month we reviewed LastPost which allows you to write letters today to loved ones that will be delivered upon your passing. Today we have found another site that wants to help you manage your online identity in the event of death. The site is called Legacy Locker and I like the concept.

In addition to allowing you to place a letter in your "locker" for your loved ones, you can also create a list of your online passwords. Each password you place in your locker is attached to a beneficiary who would receive the login information upon your passing. The service works with any login info including Flickr, YouTube, eBay, etc. While not listed, I assume you could also place bank information in the locker as well. In fact, one thing they should look at adding is a list of contacts (i.e. an address book) – this way the beneficiary can contact your friends upon your passing.

They claim to have the same security as banks. They note, "our processes for securely delivering information upon a user’s passing require human intervention. Verifiers are contacted via email to confirm a death, and we require the receipt of a physical, printed death certificate prior to releasing any sensitive information." They basically combine technology and humans to make sure no one can get at your passwords without completing all of the security checks.

There is a very basic Legacy Locker plan for free and then pricing is listed at either $29/year or $299/lifetime. I like how they priced the plans because they offer very little for free. It will help to push people into the paid plans.

The Legacy Locker service will open to the public in a few weeks. They will target the service to estate planners which makes good business sense because the estate planners could work in the pricing into their overall fee. I could even see a white-label version for large estate planning companies.

Update: Robert Scoble has a video interview with the Legacy Locker team. Below is part one and you can watch part two on Youtube.