What is a family dead man's switch?

A family dead man's switch is a conditional delivery prepared for a spouse, adult child, executor, trustee, or another trusted person to receive if the owner stops checking in for the full configured timeline.

Its most useful purpose is not to dump every secret into one inbox. It is to give one person a calm, practical starting point: what exists, where authoritative records are held, who can help, and which actions should wait for legal or professional advice.

A family plan should assume the recipient may be grieving, non-technical, using a different device, and unfamiliar with the owner's accounts. Clear context is more valuable than a folder full of unexplained credentials.

What should you include for your family?

Organise the material into small, labelled groups:

People to contact • Solicitor or estate lawyer • Executor, trustee, accountant, financial adviser, and insurance broker • Employer or business successor where relevant • A technically capable helper the recipient already knows

Records and locations • Where the current will, trust, power of attorney, and advance-care documents are held • Insurance policy numbers and provider contacts • Property, vehicle, loan, and important subscription records • Device inventory and the location of physical backups

Account map • The purpose and provider of important email, cloud, banking, investment, domain, and social accounts • Provider-approved legacy or recovery settings already configured • Which accounts require legal authority before access

First steps • What should be preserved immediately • What should not be closed, transferred, or published without advice • A short sequence for the first day, first week, and first month

What should you not put in one family delivery?

Avoid creating a single catastrophic point of failure.

Do not include every password, every private key, the only copy of a seed phrase, unfiltered browser exports, unnecessary medical records, third-party secrets, illegal material, or instructions that ask the recipient to bypass provider rules.

Private recovery codes should not be stored inside the delivery they decrypt. Authoritative wills, deeds, and signed instruments should remain with the appropriate physical or professional custodian. For highly sensitive assets, consider separating the location, recovery factor, and legal authority across different protected channels.

The principle is minimum useful disclosure: enough for the chosen person to begin safely, not enough for one compromised inbox or device to expose an entire life.

Who should be the recipient?

Choose for reliability and judgement, not only emotional closeness. The recipient should:

• Expect the possibility of a legitimate notification • Retain long-term control of the chosen email address • Understand that technical access is not automatic legal permission • Be willing to contact the named advisers • Know how to identify phishing and verify the service domain • Be able to ask for help without forwarding private links or recovery codes

If different people need different information, prepare separate deliveries rather than one oversized package. A spouse may need household records, an executor may need an estate map, and a business successor may need a continuity runbook.

Simple or Private recovery for family?

The choice is a trade-off.

Simple assisted recovery reduces the chance that a non-technical family member is permanently blocked by a lost code. It also means the provider has a defined, authorised recovery capability.

Private self-custody recovery requires a separate code that the provider does not store. It can reduce provider access to the encryption key, but the family receives nothing usable if the code is lost, destroyed, or never explained.

Choose based on the recipient's ability, your threat model, and the consequences of permanent loss. Test the selected path with harmless files on the recipient's real device.

How often should a family dead man's switch check in?

There is no universal interval. A short interval can create false releases during travel, illness, digital detox, account lockout, or a lost phone. A very long interval delays help after genuine incapacity.

ZeroLatch currently offers guided check-in presets from 30 to 180 days and a separate safety period from 7 to 30 days. A first personal delivery defaults to a 90-day check-in followed by a 14-day safety period.

Treat the timing as an accidental-release control, not a prediction of when information will be needed. Urgent welfare checks belong with people, medical-alert tools, travel-safety services, and emergency authorities.

Family dead man's switch checklist

Before activation:

  • Confirm the recipient address or deliberately accept deferred verification
  • Add a plain-language message and named first contact
  • Remove unnecessary secrets and third-party data
  • Verify every document is current and readable
  • Preserve any Private recovery code outside the delivery
  • Upload a harmless sample file first
  • Review the dates shown by the check-in and safety periods
  • Activate only after the delivery has content
  • Complete a separate-device recipient rehearsal
  • Schedule an annual review and a review after major life changes

The goal is not maximum data. The goal is a tested, understandable path for one trusted person.