How to organize your family's important documents

To organize your family's important documents, make a list of the essentials (identity, property, insurance, accounts and contracts), digitize them as PDF or images, group them by category with clear names, keep them in a safe place and decide who should know where they are. In Legado you store them in an encrypted vault, categorize them and appoint the trusted people who will be able to access them when the time comes.

Step by step

1. Make a list of the essentials

Start with what your family would need to find quickly: identity documents, property deeds and contracts, insurance policies, certificates, bank account information and service contracts. It doesn't have to be exhaustive on day one; you can complete it little by little.

2. Gather and check the originals

Locate where each physical document is and verify that it is current and complete. Note which ones are kept at home, which in a safe deposit box and which are held by another person or institution.

3. Digitize them in good quality

Scan or photograph each document in good light and without cropping. Save them as PDF or image. In Legado the vault accepts PDFs and images (JPG, PNG and HEIC).

4. Name them and group them by category

Use names anyone can understand, for example “Life insurance policy - 2026”, and group them by topic: identity, property, insurance, finances, health. Legado lets you categorize the documents inside the vault.

5. Document what a document doesn't say

Some things are not on any paper: which bank you use, what insurance you have, whom to call first. In Legado you can record life instructions with banks, insurance, assets, key contacts and password references (a pointer to where to find them, not necessarily the password in plain text).

6. Decide who can access them

Choose the trusted people and what they should be able to see. In Legado you appoint heirs with different roles; they only see what you designated.

7. Review at least once a year

Documents expire, accounts change and so do families. Schedule an annual review and update whatever has changed.

By hand or with Legado

By hand, in folders and drawers

• The originals are spread between the house, the office and the safe deposit box, and only you know where each one is.
• Physical damage, a move or an oversight can leave the family without what it needs.
• Sharing copies by email or chat scatters sensitive information.

With Legado

• You upload your documents to a vault that is encrypted in transit and at rest.
• You categorize them and accompany them with life instructions.
• Your heirs access them through a protected web portal: they request access with their email, receive a one-time code and wait 72 hours, a period during which you can cancel the request.
• The free plan allows up to 5 documents (50 MB in total).

Frequently asked questions