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January 24, 2024
Question

1Password Access after Death, Legacy Contacts

  • January 24, 2024
  • 131 replies
  • 17476 views

I am not planning to die anytime soon, but sometimes things happen.

Beyond securing my 1Password details in an Escrow account, or with a lawyer, or in a bank lockbox, does 1Password offer any means of allowing one or more designated member of the 1Password Families account to access the 1Password account in case of the primary owner's passing?

Apple now offers the ability to add one or more https://support.apple.com/en-us/102631 so that in case of your untimely demise, an Access Key and a Death Certificate allows Apple to grant the holder of both of these to get a new Apple ID that has access to your Apple ID Account.

It may be something 1Password wants to consider, though I realize that reviewing Death Certificates may not be on the high list of priorities for the team!


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131 replies

1P_Tommy
1Password Employee
October 29, 2024

@GuitarChord

I've merged your topic with an existing one and mentioned to our team you would be interested in seeing this sort of feature. Please look over the discussion above for possible suggestions that you can use. The team will consider all suggestions. I am unable to make any promises about when/if such a feature will be available.

ref: PB-43753208

October 29, 2024

@1P_Tommy
Thank you for getting my request in front of the team that would be in charge of implementing it. I'm hoping that they will consider it seriously. I don't know the demographics of 1Password users, but for those of us old enough to be dealing seriously with estate questions this is a very good feature to have.

I will take a look at the entire discussion above as you suggested.

October 29, 2024

+1 for me on this feature!

1P_Tommy
1Password Employee
October 30, 2024

You're most welcome.

I also noted the +1 for you Former Member :)

ref: PB-43823937

November 15, 2024

+1 for me as well!

1P_Tommy
1Password Employee
November 15, 2024

@lindea

I've added your voice to the request.

ref: PB-44407345

December 10, 2024

I switched to 1Password from LastPass. The only thing I miss is the emergency contact feature. The thought of my incapacity or death and my family not having access is terrifying to me. The workarounds presented involve significant security concerns versus the elegant and straightforward LastPass solution to this issue that faces all humans. Please address.

secretbam11
December 10, 2024

doctordogfish
I have the same desire:
“I want more and more not to leave a mess for my survivors.“
As 1PW probably has most of the info your survivor “legacy contact” would need, they certainly would not know how to easily find the needed info (e.g., 1PW info, physical credit card & wallet location(s), financial advisor contact info, locations of cash/checkbook in the house, Will/Trust attorney, lockbox location, ……)

My thought is to create a document (e.g., Word, PDF) with the above kind of info (& more - everything I can think of) so that my survivor legacy contact would easily be able to find needed info (at least my thoughts) after my passing.
This doc would be “living” (i.e., add/update info as needed). Print it and/or email it (maybe better) to my survivor legacy contact(s) with a detailed, easily found subject keywords (e.g., “After My Death Info”. Re print/send it after updates.

1P_Tommy
1Password Employee
December 11, 2024

Thanks folks. I've share your interest in a Legacy Access feature with the team.

ref: PB-5075958

December 12, 2024

Adding to this mountain of requests for legacy access.

I use Simple Login instead of Fastmail for unique email addresses for every service so, on top of family not being aware of unique long passwords for every service, having MFA or a passkey for access- they won't even know what email address is being used for any given service. 1Password access after that bus finally catches me is going to be critical.

That said, I'm hoping the legacy feature, if and when we get it, allows designation of a specific vault (or a tag/category) to provide access to. I'd like to be able to organize or some how specify which credentials should be shared if I'm snuffed out.

I've got nearly 500 items in 1Password currently and I can only see that growing as time goes on and I use the tool for more and more items which I expect would be stressful, confusing, and exhausting to sift through when successors would need maybe a dozen or two credentials. I'd also prefer to keep things such as shared, work related, social media and other dumb things private and basically make it as simple as possible for less tech-savvy and unfamiliar people to get access to the few important things they'll need.