How to Set Up Your Digital Vault: The First Hour, Step by Step

LifeWyn asks you to set two secrets, and it is worth understanding the split before you start. The first is your account password — it signs you in, and if you lose it you can reset it by email, the way you would with any service. The second is your vault passphrase. That one is the key to the encrypted contents, and it is the one LifeWyn deliberately cannot reset for you.

The reason is the whole design: your passphrase never leaves your device. It is turned into a key in your browser, that key unwraps your data, and the server only ever holds the sealed result. Nobody at LifeWyn can read your vault, which also means nobody at LifeWyn can hand it back if the passphrase is gone. That is why recovery is set up separately, and why it is worth doing early.

Start at the sign-up screen and register with your email. This step creates the account and nothing more — there is no vault yet, and no encryption keys have been made. You are simply establishing who you are so the rest can be attached to you.

Verify your email when prompted. A verified address is what the account-level reset and the check-in reminders later rely on, so it is not a step to skip.

The first time you open your vault, LifeWyn asks you to create a passphrase and type it twice. Choose something long — a phrase you will remember is stronger and more memorable than a short string of symbols. The minimum is eight characters, but treat that as a floor, not a target.

The moment you confirm it, your browser stretches the passphrase into an encryption key and uses that key to seal a fresh, random key that will actually protect your data. Only the sealed result is sent to LifeWyn. If you return on another device, you will be asked for the same passphrase to unseal it again.

Because LifeWyn cannot reset the passphrase, the safe habit is to arm a way back in on day one, while your head is clear and the vault is still empty. There are two independent routes, and using both is sensible: a recovery phrase that you keep somewhere safe, and a set of trusted contacts who can help you back in together.

Both are covered in their own guide. The important thing at setup is simply to do it now rather than after you have trusted the vault with something you cannot afford to lose.

With the vault unlocked, open it and start adding what matters: accounts, documents, crypto, property, insurance, the small operational details a family would otherwise have to guess at. Each item is encrypted in your browser before it is stored, under a key derived for that item, so two items are never protected by the same key.

You do not have to do it all at once, and you should not try to. Add the few things that would cause the most trouble if they were lost, then come back and fill in the rest over time.

The onboarding checklist walks you through the pieces that make a vault actually useful to the people you leave it for: naming a nominee, recording an executor, adding documents, turning on your check-ins, and writing your first rules. Each step links straight to the screen that does it.

A vault with contents but no nominees and no rules protects your secrets from everyone, including the people it was meant to reach. The checklist exists so that does not happen by omission.