In this increasingly digital world, many of us are choosing to migrate our files and assets to the cloud. According to Dashlane, the average American will have 300 unique digital accounts and assets by 2022. Storing your important assets online is fast, easy, and convenient. But how secure is it, really? When you’re dealing with sensitive items like digital assets and estate planning documents, you may be feeling uneasy about uploading them to the digital ether. Here, we introduce you to the digital vault as a popular solution that has taken the online storage landscape by storm.
What is a Digital Vault
Are Digital Vaults Secure?
Top 5 Benefits of Having a Digital Vault
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Digital Vault Provider
Digital Vault Estate Planning: Is it a Good Idea?
What is a Digital Vault?
A digital vault is a highly secured online platform through which you can collect and store your digital property. Examples of digital assets include:
Usernames and passwords for online accounts
Music, photos, videos and other media files
Digital files, including estate planning documents
Keys to cryptocurrencies and NFTs
Memberships and membership numbers
Once you set up a digital vault through a service provider, you would be able to begin uploading your digital assets. Digital vaults differ from other types of cloud storage because they offer bank-level security, which helps provide users with peace of mind.
Are Digital Vaults Secure?
Users choose digital vaults to store their sensitive information because they offer bank-level security. Digital vault platforms are secured by 256-bit AES encryption, which meets the highest encryption standards, along with two-factor authentication.
The platforms themselves also cannot see or access any of the data you choose to upload. Only you, and anyone you decide to share your vault with, can access your sensitive data.
Top 5 Benefits of Having a Digital Vault
Staying on top of your digital assets can be a daunting task, especially when you think of it through the perspective of planning your estate. A lot of us feel guilty about using the same password for many of our digital accounts (which we do not recommend) because we have an overwhelming number of accounts and property to keep track of.
However, there comes a time when we need to get serious about stepping up our digital security and taking legacy and succession planning into account. Here are the top 5 reasons why using a digital vault would be to your advantage:
Bank-level Security
Ease of Access
Privacy Control
Stay Updated and Organized
Inexpensive
Bank-level Security
You might already have access to a password-protected cloud storage account. “Can’t I just use that?” The issue with these types of accounts is that they are often not very secure. They may work well for day-to-day use, but are subject to privacy and security breaches.
As we discussed earlier, digital vaults offer premium security that matches standards used by banks. You can have peace of mind knowing that your most sensitive data is stored and protected by the highest level of encryption.
Ease of Access
One of the most impactful benefits associated with digital vaults is ease of access. Digital vault platforms allow you to share access with other users of your choosing, which can be priceless when it comes to emergencies and estate planning.
For example, let’s say that you end up in the emergency room. You need access to your healthcare documents, but you’re not exactly in the condition to pull up the internet. Luckily, you had already made arrangements for your Power of Attorney to be able to access your Living Will instantaneously through your digital vault. This technology allows you and your trusted inner circle to access your most sensitive information remotely, and instantaneously.
Privacy Control
Your Power of Attorney was just one example of how you can control your privacy. Each digital vault platform allows you to share access with other users. This is completely up to you, but it does make sense to share access to your estate planning team, such as your Trust Executor and Power of Attorney.
Some of the more sophisticated platforms even provide customizable options. For instance, you could control the settings such that your POA would only be granted access to your digital vault upon your passing. You have control over how your sensitive data is shared, with whom, and when.
Stay Updated and Organized
In the days of paper trails, there were often estate planning mishaps, such as the spouse not being able to find the combination to the deceased person’s safe, or an heir finding the wrong, outdated version of the Will.
By using a digital vault, you are empowered to keep your data and assets organized and up-to-date. You will have a single, central, and secure location to update your account passwords and conduct version control of your estate planning documents. That way, you have peace of mind that your successors will have access to the correct information upon your passing.
Inexpensive
Digital vaults are affordable, especially when considering the weight and importance of protecting your digital persona. Most platforms offer plans under $100 per year, which is less than $8 per month. This makes it possible for most individuals to obtain a digital vault and give their digital assets the highest level of protection.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Digital Vault Provider
Now, you may be wondering if there are any differences between one digital vault service provider to the next. Here are certain specifications to use to compare and contrast products:
Ability to share your account with additional users
Option to add login information for your digital accounts
Feature that allows you to store account passwords
Amount of storage space
Annual cost and length of free trial
Additional unique features
Most digital vault platforms allow you to store anywhere from 1 gigabyte up to an unlimited amount of data. Typical memberships range between $50 to $80 annually. Choosing the best provider is based on your personal circumstances and any premium features that you desire. Luckily, most platforms offer a free trial so that you can test the waters before making a full commitment.
One digital vault provider to consider is 1Password. With around 81 percent of data breaches being caused by weak or reused passwords, there's never been a better time to tighten up the notch on your account security. With 1Password, all you need to remember is one master password. With this master password, you can access your password manager, which safely stores all of your online accounts and passwords.
Digital Vault Estate Planning: Is it a Good Idea?
An important part of planning your estate is thinking about your loved ones, and what will happen when you pass away. Most of us have hundreds of digital accounts, and even more when we begin to account our files and assets. As society becomes increasingly digitized, our digital persona will begin to carry even more depth and complexity.
This is something to carefully consider when planning our estate. What can we do to make things easier for our loved ones? If we were to pass away or become incapacitated unexpectedly, will they be able to track down critical information that they need?
Using a digital vault can be a great solution to this worrisome problem. We do recommend adding extra layers of security, such as keeping copies of your estate planning documents in digital and hard copy format, just in case. When selecting a service provider, be sure to understand the security measures they have in place. However, once you’ve found a trustworthy provider, you can have peace of mind knowing that your digital data and assets are secured in a central place.
If you don’t have an estate plan yet, now is a great time to start! When it comes to securing your data and protecting your legacy, it’s better late than never! We make the process easy and accessible, and we’re here to help and guide you every step of the way. Get started today.
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