Compare
What most people are already using, and where it stops
Almost nobody arrives at this problem with nothing. There is usually a note somewhere, or a password manager, or a will drafted a few years ago. Each of those covers part of it. This page sets out which part, and what is left over — including the one row where a will wins outright.
The four approaches
Almost everyone is already using one of these
Written down, stored securely, handled legally, or automated. Each covers part of the problem, and each stops somewhere.
Written down
A note, a spreadsheet, or a sealed envelope in a cupboard. Free, and better than nothing.
Stored securely
A password manager, holding the logins under genuine encryption and nothing else.
Handled legally
A will, which settles who inherits but rarely records where anything actually is.
Automated
An app that releases your data once you stop responding to it for long enough.
And the fifth: LifeWyn
A record of what exists, encrypted on your own device, with instructions attached to every item and a release that has to be earned. It sits between a password manager and a will, and does the job neither was built for.
What it looks like in real life
Four families, four tools, one gap each
In every case the tool did its job. The gap was the job it was never built for.
The note nobody could find
He kept everything in a diary in the almirah. His daughter knew the diary existed; she did not know which almirah, in which house, behind which stack of saris. By the time it surfaced, two policies had lapsed.
A note is hidden to keep it safe — hidden so well the family cannot find it.
The vault that opened all at once
Her password manager had emergency access, and it worked exactly as promised. Her brother received every login on the same afternoon: the bank, the email, the private folder she had never meant him to see. Nothing said which mattered.
Emergency access hands one person everything, and explains none of it.
The will that named heirs, not accounts
The will was clear about who inherited. It said nothing about where anything was. The family held a valid document and still wrote to eleven institutions to find the three that mattered.
A will settles who — rarely where.
The app that opened while he was away
A month in the hills with no signal read, to his inactivity app, as the worst. His family got the notification he had planned for the hardest day of their lives — while he was watching the sun come up over the mountains.
Unreachable is not the same as gone.
A record that stays private while you are alive, explains itself, opens to the right person, and only after real evidence — that is the gap LifeWyn was built to close.
How we compare
Side by side, without rounding anything in our favour
Nine questions worth asking of any approach to this problem, answered the same way for all five.
| Capability | Note or spreadsheet | Password manager | A will alone | Inactivity-only app | LifeWyn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stays private while you are alive | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| The provider can read it | Anyone who finds it | No | Your lawyer can | Usually yes | No |
| Tells your family the account exists | Sometimes | No | Rarely | Yes | Yes |
| Explains what each record is for | No | No | No | Rarely | Yes |
| Release needs real evidence | No | Varies | Through probate | A missed check-in | Documents and identity checks |
| Each person sees only their part | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Covers incapacity, not only death | No | No | Only with a separate power of attorney | No | Yes |
| You can stop it mid-way | Nothing to stop | Sometimes | Not easily | Sometimes | Any time before release |
| Decides who legally inherits | No | No | Yes | No | No |
That last row is the one to sit with. A will decides who inherits; it almost never says where anything is. That gap — months of families writing to institutions blind — is the one LifeWyn exists to close. Most people need both, which is why we say so.
Compare by name
How LifeWyn compares to the alternative you're actually considering
A full breakdown against each specific alternative — what it's good at, what it isn't built for, and the honest verdict.
LifeWyn vs Cipherwill
Both encrypt on your device and both release to the people you choose. The difference is what has to be true before anything opens — and what happens afterwards.
ReadLifeWyn vs Google Inactive Account Manager
Google's tool is free, native to your account, and covers exactly one company. That is both its strength and its boundary.
ReadLifeWyn vs a password manager
Password managers are excellent at the thing they do. Emergency access is a feature bolted onto that thing, not the thing itself.
ReadLifeWyn vs a traditional will
A will decides who inherits. It does not tell anyone what exists, where it is, or how to reach it. These are different problems.
ReadLifeWyn vs Everplans
Everplans is a broad, well-designed estate organiser. The question worth asking is what the storage guarantees are, and what happens at the moment of release.
ReadLifeWyn vs EasyInherit
EasyInherit helps a family through the paperwork after a death. LifeWyn makes sure the family knows what the paperwork is about. These are complements more than competitors.
ReadWhere each one stops
What every approach does well, and the point it runs out
None of these are bad tools. Each was built for a job, and each is still doing that job.
A note or spreadsheet
What it does well
It exists, it is free, and it is better than nothing. Most families who manage a handover at all manage it because somebody wrote something down.
Where it stops
Anyone who finds it can read all of it, which is why people hide it, which is why families cannot find it. It also goes out of date quietly, and nobody knows when it last did.
A password manager
What it does well
Genuine, strong encryption, and it solves the problem it was designed for.
Where it stops
It was built to keep secrets while you are using them, not to pass them on. Most have an emergency access feature, but it hands over the whole vault to one person, and it does not explain what any of it is for. A login to a broker account is not the same as knowing you had a broker account, which branch, and what the family needs to claim it.
Why emergency access is not an inheritance planA will on its own
What it does well
It is the only thing on this page that decides who legally inherits. Nothing here replaces it, and if you do not have one, that is a bigger gap than anything a vault can fill.
Where it stops
A will describes who gets what. It rarely lists where anything is. Families routinely hold a valid will and still spend months working out which institutions to write to. A will also covers death, and not the months of incapacity that sometimes come first.
A will names who inherits, rarely where to find itApps that open on inactivity
What it does well
Simple, automatic, and no paperwork.
Where it stops
The rule they run on assumes that being unreachable means being gone. A three-week trek with a dead phone, a hospital stay with no signal, a stolen handset — in each case an inactivity-only system hands your financial life to somebody while you are alive to watch it happen. Most also give one recipient everything, rather than giving each person their own part.
Why a good inactivity check-in is slow on purposeWhat you probably need
For most people it is two things, not one
A will settles ownership. A vault makes sure the people carrying it out can find what it refers to.
A will
So ownership is settled, and a court is not left to work it out. Nothing on this page replaces it, and if you do not have one, that gap is larger than any vault can fill.
A place where the records live
So the people carrying out the will can actually find what it refers to. LifeWyn is the second of those, and we would rather say so here than have you find out later.
Built on zero-knowledge encryption
Security you can verify, not just trust
Your data is encrypted on your device with keys only you hold — the design, not a promise, is what protects your legacy.
Zero-knowledge
Encrypted on your device
You hold the keys
We never receive them
Ciphertext only
Your vault arrives encrypted
Verified release
Multi-signal confirmation
Questions people ask
The things worth settling before you choose
Is a digital vault better than a password manager?
They do different jobs. A password manager protects secrets while you are using them, and it does that well. It was not built to pass them on, to explain what each login is for, or to check whether a handover request is genuine. Most password managers offer emergency access, but it hands one person the whole vault after a delay, with no explanation attached. If you want the passwords protected today, a password manager is enough. If you want your family to understand what they have inherited, it is not.
What are the alternatives to LifeWyn?
Four, and most people already use one. A written note, spreadsheet or sealed envelope. A password manager with emergency access switched on. A will drafted with a lawyer. Or an app that releases your data automatically after you stop responding. Each covers part of the problem. A will is the only one that decides who legally inherits, and nothing replaces it.
Why choose LifeWyn over an app that releases on inactivity?
Because inactivity is not proof. An app that opens after a run of missed check-ins cannot tell the difference between a person who has died and a person on a trek with a flat phone, in hospital without signal, or simply unreachable for a month. LifeWyn treats a missed check-in as the start of a sequence rather than a verdict: reminders to you, then to your trusted contacts, a waiting period you set, verified documents, and an identity check on the recipient. You can stop it at any point before release.
Does LifeWyn replace a will?
No. A will decides who legally inherits what you own, and LifeWyn does not change that in any country. LifeWyn holds the record of what exists and how to reach it, so the people carrying out the will can find what it refers to. Most families need both.
See the difference for yourself
Start with the ten things only you know — the branch that handles your home loan, where the locker key sits, the policy nobody has heard of. Most people finish that first pass in one evening.