The Simple Step Everyone Should Take: Naming a Legacy Contact on Your Mobile Phone

No matter how young or old you are, or if you just aren’t ready yet to move forward with any type of formalized estate planning, there is one critical thing that everyone should do before they die or become incapacitated: name a legacy contact on your mobile phone!

When I meet with clients to complete their estate planning documents, one of my final steps is to walk them through a summary outline, which is essentially a re-cap of the critical things that were discussed in our meetings. One of these critical steps is a reminder to add a legacy contact to their mobile phone. This is essentially the equivalent of naming a beneficiary on an investment or life insurance policy. Without a legacy contact, after your death, access to the contents of your phone will not be permitted by the phone companies unless someone has the password. Technically, even if someone knows your password, there is no actual permission granted for access and use. The key difference with a legacy contact is that the person who is named on the phone has permission to access the content after your death, even if that person does not know the actual password. The legacy contact only needs to produce a death certificate and their identification in order to gain access to your mobile device after your passing. In the absence of a legacy contact, families face an uphill and losing battle to access your important content.

When I first started advising clients about the legacy contact, it was as a quick reminder for them to add it to their phones. However, as these reminders progressed with more and more clients, I quickly realized how absolutely critical this simple step really is, and how many lives it has affected on a personal level. The more that I advise clients on this simple task, the more stories I hear from them about how this has affected their own loved ones, or people that they know.

After hearing these stories, I now tell my clients to spread the word about adding legacy contacts to their phones. I advise them to bring it up with loved ones, neighbors and friends. It is a critical topic of conversation that not many people even know exists. Hopefully, adding a legacy contact to your mobile phone will become commonplace. In the meantime, my advice is, regardless of whether you have an estate plan in place, at the very least, add a legacy contact to your mobile phone. It only takes a few minutes and you can avoid heartache and unnecessary hassle.

Here are two links which provide more information on the topic. Also, if you want to know how to add your legacy contact, click the QR Code below.