Understanding Recovery with Death

kdbertel

My wife and I have been 1Password users for a while now, and very happy, and we like what we see with 1Password for Families, and are going to be having a conversation soon with getting the full family on-board because it would solve some of our problems. One of them is around death preparation and that sort of thing; we don't expect or hope it to happen soon, but we've had a couple of deaths in the family recently enough that the difficulty in accessing accounts is fresh in our minds.

I am therefore curious about the Account Recovery portion, and in general, how 1Password for Families allows this: "My parents are getting older and I’m the executor of their estate. Will I have access to their accounts when the time comes?"

Let's suppose we have a 1Password for Families account that my father is in. He has the logins to important institutions in his private vault in the 1PfF account. While he's alive, there's no reason I should have access to them.

Let's suppose further that my father passes away. For the sake of argument, let's say he was unmarried, and therefore, doesn't have a spouse who can help.

How can I use the features of 1PfF to get into his private vault, to get the logins to his institutions?

If I can find it, I assume I can use the Emergency Kit. But my father is not always a diligent man, and never actually printed his out. Or his house burned down and we lost the Emergency Kit.

Does Account Recovery handle this situation? (Would I still have to have access to his e-mail?)

Can I get some insight into how this sort of situation could/should be managed?

Thanks!

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AGAlumB

@kdbertel: This is a great question, if a bit somber. I'm sorry that it's something we all have to worry about, but it's important that we do, I think.

To be clear, I'm not sure that Recovery is an appropriate option here. Recovery, after all, is meant to help your family member help you regain access to your account, should you lose your Account Key, forget your Master Password, or both(!) Frankly, the Emergency Kit is exactly what is needed in these cases, for a few reasons:

• It should contain the printed Account Key and written Master Password, and be stored in a safe location — literally, a safe or bank box.
• Unlike with physical belongings, digital "goods" are not well covered by the law.
• The key to (and knowledge of) the secure location of the Emergency Kit can be kept in confidence by a lawyer or entrusted to a family member.

Putting this into place now ensures that the appropriate party will have everything they need to access the 1Password for Families account and vaults with minimal effort upon death (or incapacitation). And then email accounts, bank accounts, and the rest (which will become crucial at that point) will be accessible as well, provided they are stored in the 1Password vault.

It isn't technically possible for AgileBits to provide any of this, since we only ever have the encrypted blob, never the means to decrypt it. And there also isn't a mechanism for someone to be able to Recover a 1Password account only after someone else dies that would prevent it from being used before then. In that case, the best mechanism is the law, which would (for example) require me to furnish a death certificate, signed by the attending physician, in order for my father's belongings to be turned over to me. Grisly to discuss, but crucial nonetheless.

kdbertel

That makes a lot of sense. So, if I bring my family members into the fold, I need to make sure to keep bugging them to print out the Emergency Kit and keep it with their will and so on.

As you said, it's impossible for a digital thing to only trigger after someone is dead; I hadn't before connected turning it into a physical object to solve that problem.

Thanks for your response. :)

Ben

There is some good discussion happening on this subject over at this thread as well. :)

Ben