LastPass Emergency Access: The Feature That You Didn’t Know You Needed

As a tech-savvy individual, you know the importance of having unique passwords and not re-using the same passwords for multiple sites. And as the number of passwords you’ve memorized has continued to grow, you have read about the importance of using one of the well-known password managers such as LastPass or 1password. But as much of a tech guru as you may think you are, you might not be aware of a feature of LastPass that can help solve some of your estate planning concerns.

Emergency Contact Access. It may not be the reason you downloaded LastPass, but it might become the reason you and your loved ones will be thankful that you did.

As time goes on, more and more of my clients are asking about passing on their assets, including digital assets and digital access. Although both 1password and LastPass have their benefits, this unique feature of LastPass is probably its most valuable.

Here’s how it works. You name an Emergency Contact- a spouse or loved one who you would eventually trust with the information saved to LastPass. If something should happen to you, that individual will request access to your account and information. You will receive an email that if, after a set number of days, you don’t respond to, your Emergency Contact will then get access to all your passwords. This can give them access to bank accounts, insurance, any documents you’ve uploaded to their vault, and whatever digital logins you may have saved on LastPass.

Other password management software may have defaults for sharing passwords for family accounts, or “emergency kits” that you can print out and give a physical or digital copy to a friend or family. LastPass is unique in that it gives you an extra safeguard in case those emergency copies go missing, haven’t been recently updated, or you may not necessarily want people to have access to the accounts until absolutely necessary.

In the long term, your estate planning should include designating beneficiaries, writing a will, and naming guardians of your minor children, but this LastPass Emergency Contact can help fill the gap in what your loved ones need to know online.

Rather than leaving your loved ones struggling on the phone with bank and insurance reps, or perhaps even trying to track down where assets are kept, this gives them a single location to find all the login details they will need to access information. And this isn’t just for worst-case scenarios. Perhaps you’re injured and the medical bills are piling up, or there are insurance complications. A loved one can handle the details, while you focus on recovery.