Estate Planning
What happens to your important information if something happens to you? The Heartbeat Protocol ensures your trusted family members can access what they need, when they need it—without compromising your security today.
We call it the "hit by a bus" problem. If something unexpected happens to you—an accident, a medical emergency, or worse—your family needs access to critical information:
Where are they? What are the login details?
Health, life, home, auto—who do they call?
Employer, attorney, financial advisor
Email, subscriptions, utilities
Most security solutions create a catch-22: either your data is accessible (and vulnerable), or it's so locked down that your family can't get to it in an emergency. The Heartbeat Protocol solves this.
The Heartbeat Protocol is a "dead man's switch" for your digital life. It monitors your activity and, after a period of inactivity you define, allows your designated beneficiaries to request access to specific information.
Choose how long you can be inactive before the protocol activates (7-365 days). Pick what feels right for your lifestyle.
Choose trusted family members who can receive access. They must have an EstateHelm account—this isn't a public link anyone can use.
Decide exactly what each beneficiary can access. Your spouse might get everything; your adult child might only get general household info.
If you're inactive long enough, beneficiaries can request access. But there's a buffer period (2-30 days) during which you can cancel with one tap.
Only after the buffer period passes without cancellation are the encrypted packages released to your beneficiaries.
The Heartbeat Protocol maintains our zero-knowledge architecture. Your security during normal operation is exactly the same:
Recovery packages are encrypted to each beneficiary's public key when you create them. We never have access to the contents.
Beneficiaries must have their own EstateHelm account and be able to unlock their private keys. No anonymous access.
When access is requested, you'll see it prominently displayed every time you log in. The pending request is impossible to miss.
Even if someone somehow triggers a request, you have 2-30 days to cancel it. One tap and it's stopped.
You decide exactly what each beneficiary can access. Create separate packages for different people with different levels of access:
Your Personal Vault keys—since they already have household access, release your private documents they don't normally see
Legal documents key—so they can access the will, power of attorney, and estate planning documents
All keys—full access to manage the estate, handle accounts, and ensure your affairs are properly settled
Beneficiaries receive read-only access to the information in their packages. They cannot modify, delete, or add data.
Life happens. Maybe you were hospitalized, lost your phone, or just took an extended off-grid vacation. If the protocol triggers and you return:
During the buffer period, cancel the request with one tap. Crisis averted.
Even after release, you can revoke individual packages. Beneficiaries lose access immediately.
Update your beneficiaries, change timing, or pause the protocol entirely.
The Heartbeat Protocol is available on our Estate tier plan. This ensures the feature is available to users who need comprehensive household management and digital legacy planning.
If your subscription lapses and you can't log in, we keep your protocol active—you might be unable to renew for the very reason beneficiaries need access. If you do log in after lapse, your subscription is marked as expired and the protocol is deactivated (since your login proves you're active). You'll need to resubscribe to continue using EstateHelm.
That's what the buffer period is for. Even after the inactivity threshold, your beneficiaries must explicitly request access, and you have 2-30 days to cancel. Any login or activity resets the timer.
No. Beneficiaries can only see that they're designated in a protocol and how many days until they might be eligible to request access. They cannot see any of your actual data until packages are released.
The pending request is prominently displayed when you log in, and one tap cancels it. The buffer period (minimum 2 days) ensures you have time to respond even if you're traveling or temporarily unavailable.
The timing (inactivity threshold and buffer period) is set at the protocol level. However, you can create different packages with different keys for different beneficiaries, controlling exactly what each person can access.
If you delete your account, the protocol and all packages are scheduled for permanent deletion. Your data is retained for 90-180 days to complete any pending access requests, then permanently removed. Beneficiaries lose their designation and cannot request access after deletion.
By activating the Heartbeat Protocol, you explicitly authorize EstateHelm to automatically release your encrypted recovery packages to your designated beneficiaries when your configured conditions are met. You are solely responsible for choosing trusted beneficiaries and maintaining accurate beneficiary information.
For complete details on the legal terms governing the Heartbeat Protocol, including consent for automated access, service availability disclaimers, and data retention policies, please review our Terms of Service (Section 5).
The Heartbeat Protocol requires EstateHelm's servers for automatic release. But what if you want a backup that works no matter what—even if EstateHelm doesn't exist anymore?
The Heartbeat Capsule is a self-contained, offline-accessible export of your entire vault. Store it on a USB drive, include a portable browser, and your family can access it 5, 20, or 50 years from now—no internet, no servers, no service required.
Learn about Heartbeat CapsuleSet up your Heartbeat Protocol today and give your family peace of mind.
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