Your Legacy Contact is the person you trust to step in when you no longer can — someone who can access your Myend plan after you’re gone and help carry out what you’ve decided. Choosing who that should be is one of the most important decisions in your plan, and it’s worth taking a moment to think it through properly.
What a Legacy Contact actually is
A Legacy Contact is someone you name in Myend to receive access to your account after you pass away. They’re not just a name on a list — once access is granted, they can see your finalized directives, read the goodbye messages you’ve left for people, view your contacts, and reach the vault items and documents you’ve shared with them. They’re the person who makes sure your plan actually reaches the people and instructions it was written for.
A Legacy Contact is not automatically the same thing as a legal executor or a financial trustee. Those are formal legal roles defined by your will or by state law. Your Legacy Contact can absolutely also be your executor — many people choose the same person for both — but the Legacy Contact role in Myend is specifically about carrying out your wishes inside the app: notifying Myend, unlocking your plan, and passing information on to the right people.
Who should you choose?
Most people start with the person closest to them — a spouse or partner, an adult child, a sibling, or a close friend. The right choice is less about closeness on paper and more about trust: this is someone you’re comfortable knowing will read your private wishes and act responsibly on them.
A few questions worth asking yourself:
- Who do I trust to handle sensitive, personal information with care?
- Who is likely to be reachable and capable of acting when the time comes?
- Is there someone level-headed enough to follow instructions calmly during a difficult time?
Consider naming a second Legacy Contact
You can name more than one Legacy Contact, and it’s a smart move. Life is unpredictable — your first choice might be unavailable, unreachable, or, in some circumstances, gone before you. A second Legacy Contact acts as a backup, so your plan doesn’t depend on a single person being reachable at exactly the right moment. It’s a small extra step that makes your whole plan more reliable.
What a Legacy Contact can — and can’t — see while you’re alive
While you’re alive, your Legacy Contact has no access to your plan at all. It stays locked and private — for your eyes only. They can’t view your directives, read your messages, or browse your vault. Naming someone as a Legacy Contact doesn’t hand over any information; it just designates who Myend will turn to later.
They also can’t change anything in your plan or delete your content, ever — that ability belongs to you alone.
How access is granted after you’re gone
Myend doesn’t hand over access on a single click or a single claim. Three things have to line up before a Legacy Contact can get in:
- Your Legacy Contact notifies Myend and provides their Access Key — the credential they received when you invited them.
- Their email is verified, confirming it’s really them.
- Your Proof of Life check-ins have gone unanswered. Myend reaches out to you first — this isn’t an instant handover the moment someone reports something. Only once your check-ins have genuinely lapsed does access unlock.
This layered approach exists so that access can never be triggered by mistake, by a false report, or by someone acting without your actual passing being confirmed. Nothing is released by accident.
Setting up a Legacy Contact
Setup is straightforward:
- Add the person as a contact in Myend.
- Mark them as a Legacy Contact.
- Send them the invitation. They’ll receive an Access Key and their own free Myend account, which they’ll use if and when the time comes.
It’s worth letting your Legacy Contact know, in conversation, that you’ve chosen them — so the invitation doesn’t arrive as a surprise, and so they understand what you’re asking of them.
A note on Proof of Life
Proof of Life is the check-in system that protects this whole process. You’re prompted to check in on a schedule, and if a check-in is missed, Myend doesn’t jump straight to notifying anyone — it escalates gently, with reminders to you first, before anything moves toward your Legacy Contacts. This is what keeps the system safe: your plan only unlocks when your check-ins have genuinely lapsed, not the moment something looks off.