How to Preserve Your Digital Legacy with a Trusted Contact
A Total Family Best Practices Guide for Families
When someone passes away, their loved ones are often left wondering: What did they want us to do with their letters? Who should manage their online accounts? How can we make sure their stories and memories aren’t lost?
In today’s digital world, it’s not just about paperwork and wills. Many people are also leaving behind legacy letters, personal reflections, family stories, and digital records that hold deep emotional significance. But without a plan, those can easily disappear.
A legacy contact is someone you choose to help preserve your voice, your stories, and your digital legacy. Whether you’re using a platform like FamilyOS by Total Family or another system, naming a trusted contact ensures that what you’ve written and saved doesn’t get lost — it gets shared with the people who matter most, when the time is right.
What Is a Legacy Contact?
Your legacy contact is someone you choose to manage your FamilyOS by Total Family account (or another digital archive) after you pass away. This person can help preserve your stories, share the letters you’ve written, and ensure your family receives the messages and memories you intended to pass down.
You can assign your legacy contact directly in your FamilyOS settings. Once invited, they’ll receive a notification and can accept the role. You control what they can see and do — and you can change or revoke their access at any time.
This kind of digital legacy planning helps ensure that your values, insights, and voice continue to guide your family, even after you’re gone.
Why This Matters
When families lose someone they love, there’s often confusion around what to do next. Where are the documents? What should be shared, and when? Who gets access to what?
Having a legacy contact already in place helps reduce that uncertainty. It gives your family someone to turn to — someone who understands your intentions. And it gives you peace of mind that your stories and wishes won’t disappear.
This is especially important for families who’ve written legacy letters, vision documents, or personal reflections they want to share across generations. Without a clear system or contact, those words can easily be missed or never passed on.
What Your Legacy Contact Can Do
Depending on the permissions you set, your legacy contact may be able to:
Access your FamilyOS by Total Family account after your passing
View and share your saved legacy letters
Manage family milestones and events
Follow instructions or messages you’ve left behind
Help with legacy document storage and communication with your advisor or family
All of these settings are optional and customizable. By default, your legacy letters remain private — even your advisor can’t see them unless you choose to share. You can also choose to delete your account instead of assigning a legacy contact. The decision is entirely yours.
Choosing the Right Person
A legacy contact should be someone you trust — a spouse, adult child, sibling, or close friend. Ideally, it’s someone who understands what matters to you and can help carry out your wishes with care.
If you’re unsure who to choose, this can be a good conversation to have with your advisor or family. It doesn’t need to be perfect — and you can always update it later.
What If You Change Your Mind?
You can update your legacy contact, change their permissions, or remove them completely at any time — directly in your FamilyOS by Total Family settings. We believe that kind of flexibility is essential, especially as families grow and change.
This isn’t a legal designation like an executor. It’s a digital legacy role — a way to keep your emotional and personal wealth connected to the people you care about.
Why It’s Worth Doing
This isn’t always an easy topic to think about. But naming a legacy contact is one of the most thoughtful things you can do for the people you love. It ensures that someone you trust is there to preserve your words, your stories, and your wishes — not just your assets.
Our goal with FamilyOS by Total Family is to give families a space that can be used across generations. We often wonder what it would have been like if our great-grandparents had something like this — how many stories and insights we would have been able to carry forward.
That’s the kind of future we want to help build.
FAQs: Digital Legacy Contacts and Family Archives
What is a digital legacy contact?
A digital legacy contact is someone you choose to manage or access your online archive, letters, or personal documents after your death. They help ensure your digital legacy is preserved and shared according to your wishes.
Is a legacy contact the same as an executor?
Not exactly. An executor manages your legal estate. A legacy contact helps manage your personal or emotional legacy — like sharing letters, memories, and milestones. The roles may overlap but serve different purposes.
Can I change my legacy contact later?
Yes. You can update or remove your legacy contact and change their permissions anytime through your FamilyOS by Total Family account.
What happens if I don’t assign a legacy contact?
You have the option to delete your account upon death or let your saved content stay untouched. Without a legacy contact, your family may not be able to access the memories and letters you've saved.
How is this different from storing documents in a cloud folder or email?
FamilyOS by Total Family is designed for intentional legacy preservation — not just file storage. It includes permission settings, milestones, and structured letter saving. A legacy contact ensures your content is shared with meaning and timing — not just accessed like a hard drive.
How do I store legacy documents online securely?
Platforms like FamilyOS by Total Family offer encrypted storage, custom permissions, and structured ways to organize your digital legacy — from vision statements to family letters.
