Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Find answers to common questions about Safeinity's services, security, and features.

Safeinity is a secure digital estate planning platform that protects and manages your digital assets after death.

Think of Safeinity as a secure vault for your most important information. Store documents, passwords, photos, and personal messages, then designate who should receive them when you pass away. Everything is encrypted and safely stored until your loved ones need it.

You can access your information anytime while you are alive, and your beneficiaries automatically gain access after your death - either through our automated heartbeat monitoring system or through your will.

Basic Plan

$5

per quarter

only $1.67 per month
Essential Protection
  • 1GB secure storage
  • AES-256 encryption
  • Zero-trust encryption available
  • Document vault
  • Manual account management
  • Basic email support
  • No heartbeat monitoring
  • No death certificate validation
Most Popular

Heartbeat Plan

$11

per quarter

only $3.67 per month
Everything in Basic, Plus:
  • 3GB secure storage
  • Heartbeat monitoring system
  • Automated check-ins via email/SMS
  • Beneficiary auto-notification
  • Customizable monitoring frequency
  • Priority email support
  • No death certificate validation

Verification Plan

$16

per quarter

only $5.33 per month
Maximum Security & Validation
  • Everything in Heartbeat, Plus:
  • 10GB secure storage
  • Death certificate validation
  • Professional verification service
  • Legal document review
  • Enhanced security protocols
  • Priority support
Setup: $25 one-time set up fee
Processing Fee: Only charged when validation done. Varies by country. US generally runs $150
Choose Premium

Yes, we use enterprise-grade security measures to protect your sensitive information.

Encryption & Security
  • AES-256 non-deterministic encryption
  • Zero-knowledge architecture available
  • Multi-factor authentication available
  • Secure key management
Infrastructure & Compliance
  • SOC 2 compliant data centers
  • Regular security audits
  • Multiple backup locations
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee

Store any digital information that's important to you and your beneficiaries.

Legal Documents
  • Wills and testaments
  • Power of attorney documents
  • Trust documents
  • Insurance policies
  • Property deeds
Financial Information
  • Bank account details
  • Investment account information
  • Credit card information
  • Cryptocurrency wallet keys
  • Safe deposit box locations
Digital Assets
  • Website passwords
  • Social media account credentials
  • Email account access
  • Digital photo collections
  • Software licenses
Personal Items
  • Personal messages to loved ones
  • Family photos and videos
  • Important memories and stories
  • Final wishes and instructions
  • Contact lists and directories

Our heartbeat system ensures your digital assets are transferred only when appropriate.

Heartbeat monitoring is an automated check that allows you to confirm you are alive and well.

Safeinity sends you a regular email or text that you acknowledge with a button click. Once you stop responding, it is assumed you are incapacitated or deceased.

If you use our death certificate verification service - your passing is investigated and confirmed. Your beneficiaries are then contacted and given access to your documents.

If you do not use death certificate verification, once your heartbeat monitoring period has passed, your beneficiaries are given access.

Basic service does not include heartbeat monitoring. If you use basic service you will need to make arrangements to give beneficiaries access to your documents. You can use our key sharding service to assist you in that process.

How It Works
  1. Regular Check-ins: You receive periodic emails or texts asking you to confirm you're alive and well
  2. Multiple Attempts: If you don't respond, we send multiple reminders
  3. Beneficiary Notification: Beneficiaries are notified and given access to your information
Customizable Settings
  • Check-in Frequency: How often we send reminders
  • Reminder Schedule: How many reminders before escalation
Important

Keep your contact methods current and check it regularly.

We're here to help you protect your digital legacy with comprehensive support options.

Support Channels

What:
Death Certificate Validation is the process of verifying that a reported death is genuine before unlocking access the your protected digital assets and notifying beneficiaries.

Key Points:
Our investigative service performs death verification that confirms a person is deceased by checking authoritative sources (official death records, government registries, certified copies of death certificates, or trusted third-party verification services).

Why it matters:
This service prevents fraud and accidental release of your sensitive data. Ensures the estate process only moves forward after legitimate confirmation.

You are not charged for the investigation until your Heartbeat Monitoring is triggered.

Absolutely! Safeinity is designed for you to actively use and manage your information.

Full Account Access
  • View and edit all your stored information
  • Upload new documents and files
  • Update passwords and account details
  • Manage your beneficiaries
  • Configure heartbeat settings
Export Your Data
  • Download individual files
  • Create backup copies
  • Print important documents
Living Benefits
  • Document Vault: Safe storage for important papers
  • Organization Tool: Keep everything in one secure place
  • Access Anywhere: Available from any internet-connected device
  • Family Sharing: Share specific information with family members
Great Idea

Use Safeinity as your primary secure storage for important information. It's not just for after-death planning!

Your digital legacy is protected and transferred according to your wishes.

Timeline After Death
Trigger Threshold Initial Non-Response Period
Multiple email/text attempts
2-3 Weeks Verification Process
Death certificate verification and legal documentation review (optional)
Day 35+ Beneficiary Access Granted
Designated beneficiaries receive access to your digital assets
Beneficiary Experience
  • Email or text notification of access granted
  • Login credentials securely provided
  • Access to designated information only
  • Ability to download documents
  • Technical support available
Security Measures
  • Authentication required
  • Legal documentation verification
  • Secure data destruction 6 months after transfer

Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security beyond just your password by requiring a second verification step.

How It Works

After entering your password, you must provide a second form of verification. This means even if someone steals your password, they still can't access your account without the second factor.

Authenticator Apps (Recommended)

How it works:

  • Install an app like Google Authenticator, Authy, or Microsoft Authenticator
  • Scan a QR code during setup to link your account
  • App generates time-based 6-digit codes that change every 30 seconds
  • Enter the current code when logging in

Advantages:

  • Most Secure: Codes generated offline on your device
  • No Network Required: Works without cell signal or internet
  • Not Interceptable: Hackers can't intercept the codes
  • Industry Standard: Used by banks and tech companies
Important: Save Backup Codes

When you enable 2FA, we provide backup codes. Print these or save them securely. You'll need them if you lose your phone or authenticator app!

Email Codes (Better Than Text)

How it works:

  • We send a 6-digit code to your registered email
  • Check your email and enter the code to log in
  • Code expires after 10 minutes

Considerations:

  • Requires Email Access: Must have access to your email account
  • Email Vulnerabilities: If your email is compromised, so is your 2FA
  • Delivery Delays: May take a few minutes to receive
  • Better than nothing: Still adds protection vs. password only
SMS Text Messages (Less Secure)

How it works:

  • We send a 6-digit code via text message to your phone
  • Enter the code to complete login
  • Code expires after 10 minutes

Considerations:

  • SIM Swapping Risk: Attackers can hijack your phone number
  • Network Required: Needs cell signal to receive texts
  • SMS Interception: Messages can potentially be intercepted
  • Convenient but weaker: Easy to use but less secure than apps
Our Recommendation

Use an authenticator app for maximum security. If you can't use an app, email codes are safer than SMS. You can enable multiple methods and use email/SMS as backups to your authenticator app.

We use military-grade AES-256 encryption to protect your sensitive information.

Encryption Standards
  • AES-256: Same encryption used by government agencies and banks
  • File Encryption: AES-256-GCM with authentication tags
  • Password Hashing: SHA-256 with over 200,000 iterations and unique salts
Storage Security
  • AWS S3: Documents stored on SOC 2 Type II certified infrastructure
  • Secrets Manager: Keys stored in AWS Secrets Manager
  • Database: Microsoft SQL Server
Protection Layers
  • In Transit: TLS 1.3 encryption for all data transmission
  • At Rest: All sensitive data encrypted before storage
  • Authentication: TOTP-based two-factor authentication available
  • Session Security: HttpOnly cookies with 20 minute timeout
Learn More

For detailed technical information about our security architecture, visit our Technology & Security page.

A Heartbeat Monitoring subscription is needed in order to manage beneficiaries.

Managing beneficiaries is simple and can be updated anytime from your account dashboard.

Adding Beneficiaries
  1. Navigate: Go to Beneficiaries section in your dashboard
  2. Add Details: Enter name, email, and relationship
  3. Save: Your beneficiary is now in the system
Access Control
  • Grant access to specific documents - or all files
  • Set different access for different beneficiaries
Managing Beneficiaries
  • Update Information: Change contact details anytime
  • Add or Remove: 1,000 beneficiaries max
  • Modify Access: Adjust what each person can see
Keep Updated

Review your beneficiary list regularly. Life changes like marriages, divorces, births, and deaths may require updates to your beneficiary designations.

Shamir's Secret Sharing is an advanced cryptographic method that splits your master key into multiple shares.

How It Works

Your master encryption key is mathematically split into multiple "shares" (shards). You decide how many shares are needed to reconstruct the key.

Example: (3,5) Scheme
  • 5 total shares created
  • Any 3 shares can reconstruct the key
  • 2 or fewer shares reveal nothing
  • Shares can be given to different people
Security Properties
  • Perfect Secrecy: Less than threshold reveals no information
  • Fault Tolerance: System works even if some shares are lost
  • No Single Point of Failure: No one person has complete access
  • Mathematically Secure: Based on proven cryptographic principles
Use Cases
  • Family Trust: Share with multiple family members
  • Business Succession: Distribute among board members
  • Estate Planning: Require consensus among beneficiaries
  • Backup Strategy: Store shares in different locations
Important Notes
  • Choose threshold carefully - not too low (insecure) or too high (inaccessible)
  • Keep shares in secure but accessible locations
  • Document who has which shares
  • Consider geographic distribution

Best Practice: Safeinity has found that more people than you might expect will lose shards, even when large sums of money are involved, so plan accordingly when setting the threshold.

We can work though these situations - sometimes - but the cost can run into the thousands of dollars and the process can take months. It's best to avoid the situation entirely by planning carefully.

We have secure account recovery options while maintaining the highest security standards.

Password Reset
  1. Request Reset: Click "Forgot Password" on login page
  2. Email Verification: Check your registered email for reset link
  3. Create New Password: Choose a strong, unique password
  4. Regain Access: Log in with your new credentials
Lost 2FA Access?

If you've lost access to your authenticator app, use your backup codes. If you don't have backup codes, contact support for account recovery assistance. Recovery may not be possible in all cases.

Account Recovery
  • Email Verification: Verify ownership via registered email
  • Identity Verification: Additional verification may be required
  • Support Contact: Our team can assist with recovery
  • Security Questions: Answer your pre-set security questions
Prevention Tips
  • Use KeePass to store your password securely
  • Save backup codes in multiple secure locations
  • Keep your email address current
  • Enable 2FA for maximum security
  • Write down recovery codes and store offline

Need Help? Contact support at support@safeinity.com

You can cancel your subscription at any time with no penalties or hidden fees.

Cancellation Process
  1. Download Data: Verify you have local copies of your files
  2. Access Settings: Go to Account Settings > Close Account Immediately
  3. Cancel Subscription: Complete form and click "Close My Account" button
  4. Confirm: Confirm your cancellation request
Refund Policy
  • Refunds: Safeinity does not currently offer refunds
After Cancellation
  • Data Retention: All account data is wiped immediately
  • Permanent Deletion: After 30 days, all files are permanently deleted

Questions about billing or cancellation? Contact our billing team at support@safeinity.com

Storage limits depend on your subscription plan, with generous allowances for most users.

File Upload Limits
  • Maximum File Size: 500 MB per file
  • Supported Formats: All common file types accepted
  • Encryption: Files encrypted with AES-256-GCM
  • Upload Speed: Optimized for large files
Storage by Plan

Basic Plan: 1 GB total storage

Heartbeat Monitoring: 3 GB total storage

Death Certificate Verification: 10 GB total storage

Need More? Additional storage available for purchase

What You Can Store
  • Documents (PDF, Word, Excel, etc.)
  • Photos and videos
  • Audio files
  • Archives and backups
  • Scanned documents
  • Encrypted files
Need More Storage?

Upgrade your plan or purchase additional storage blocks.
Go to Account > Storage Plan to see options and pricing.

Safeinity offers three subscription tiers designed to meet different needs and budgets.

Subscription Tiers
Basic Plan
  • Secure document storage (1 GB)
  • AES-256 encryption
  • Manual file sharing with beneficiaries
Heartbeat Monitoring Plan
  • Everything in Basic, plus:
  • Beneficiary management
  • Automated heartbeat monitoring
  • 3 GB storage
  • Automatic beneficiary notification
  • Customizable check-in frequency
Death Certificate Verification Plan
  • Everything in Heartbeat Monitoring, plus:
  • Professional death verification service
  • 10 GB storage
  • Legal documentation review
  • Fraud prevention
How to Upgrade
  1. Access Settings: Go to Account > Subscription Settings
  2. Choose Plan: Select your desired plan tier
  3. Review Changes: See pro-rated pricing and new features
  4. Payment: Secure checkout via Stripe
  5. Instant Access: Upgraded features available immediately
Downgrades
  • Can downgrade to lower tier anytime
  • Change takes effect at end of current billing period
  • No immediate charge - prevents double billing
  • Storage must fit within new plan limits
Pro-Rated Billing
  • Credits Applied: Unused time credited toward upgrade
  • Fair Pricing: Never pay twice for the same period
  • Transparent: See exact calculations before confirming
Special Offer

Annual subscriptions save compared to quarterly billing. Switch billing frequency anytime in your account settings

Yes! You can switch between quarterly (3-month) and annual (12-month) billing at any time.

Billing Options
Quarterly Billing (3 Months)
  • Pay every 3 months
  • More frequent payments, lower upfront cost
  • Flexibility to change plans more often
  • Good for trying out the service
Annual Billing (12 Months)
  • Pay once per year
  • Save compared to quarterly
  • Lock in current pricing for a full year
  • Best value
How to Switch
  1. Navigate: Account > Billing Period
  2. Choose Frequency: Select quarterly or annual
  3. Review: See when change takes effect and pricing
  4. Confirm: Approve the billing period change
When Changes Take Effect
  • Current Period: Continue with existing billing
  • End of Period: New billing frequency starts
  • No Interruption: Seamless transition
Smart Billing

Your subscription automatically renews at the end of each period. You can cancel anytime with no penalties, and your service continues until the end of your paid period.

Absolutely! You have complete control over which beneficiaries can access which files.

File Assignment Options

Navigate to Dashboard. Click the Manage Assets / Beneficiaries button to manage relationships. The system offers two approaches:

Option 1: Assign Files to a Beneficiary
  1. Select a beneficiary from the dropdown
  2. See all your files with checkboxes
  3. Check files this person should receive
  4. Already assigned files auto-checked
  5. Save to update assignments
Option 2: Assign Beneficiaries to a File
  1. Select a file from the dropdown
  2. See all your beneficiaries with checkboxes
  3. Check who should receive this file
  4. Existing assignments auto-checked
  5. Save to update assignments
View All Relationships
  • Summary Table: See all file-beneficiary assignments
  • Search & Sort: Find files or beneficiaries quickly
  • Quick Removal: Delete relationships with one click
  • File Titles: Easy identification of documents and people
Smart Assignment
  • Visual Feedback: Existing assignments automatically checked when you select a beneficiary or file
  • Flexible: Same file can go to multiple beneficiaries
  • Selective: A particular beneficiary can be limited to specific files
Use Cases

Example 1: Send financial documents only to your spouse

Example 2: Share family photos with all children

Example 3: Give business documents to your business partner

Example 4: Send medical records to your healthcare proxy

Zero-knowledge encryption is the ultimate security option where even Safeinity cannot access your encrypted data.

How It Works

With zero-knowledge encryption, your data is encrypted before it leaves your device. The encryption happens entirely in your browser.

Standard Encryption
  • Data encrypted with Safeinity-managed keys
  • We can decrypt for account recovery
  • Easier password reset process
  • Customer support can assist with access issues
  • Best for most users
Zero-Knowledge Encryption
  • You must manage your encryption key
  • We cannot decrypt your data - ever
  • Maximum privacy and security
  • No account recovery if master encryption key lost
  • Best for ultra-sensitive information
Advantages
  • Complete Privacy: Nobody but you can ever access your data
  • Government Proof: Even court orders cannot decrypt your files
  • Trust Not Required: Don't have to trust Safeinity or anyone
  • Peace of Mind: Ultimate data security
Critical Warnings
  • Lost Master encryption key = Lost Data: No recovery possible
  • No Reset Option: Support cannot help if you forget your master encryption key
  • Backup Responsibility: You must manage your own backups
  • Write It Down: Store key in physical safe or KeePass
  • Test Access: Verify you can log in before relying on it
  • Test: Verify you can download and decrypt your files
Should You Use It?

Use Zero-Knowledge If:

  • You have extremely sensitive data
  • You are comfortable managing passwords
  • You use a reliable password management system (KeePass recommended)

Use Standard Encryption:

  • You want account recovery options
  • Extremely good security is good enough

You have complete control over your data and can request permanent deletion at any time.

Before You Delete
  • Download Data: Verify you have local copies all files you want to keep
  • Save Beneficiary Info: Record beneficiary contact details
  • Notify Beneficiaries: Tell them about closure if needed
Account Closure Process
  1. Cancel Subscription: Go to Account (top right) Close Account Immediately
  2. Verification: Confirm your identity via email
  3. Final Confirmation: Confirm you want permanent deletion
  4. Data Wiped: All account data permanently deleted immediately
  5. Data Wiped: All files permanently deleted after 30 days
Grace Period

NONE

What Gets Deleted
  • All Files: Documents, photos, videos - everything
  • Personal Info: Name, email, phone, address
  • Beneficiaries: All beneficiary data and relationships
  • Encryption Keys: All encryption keys destroyed
  • Account Data: Login credentials, preferences, settings
  • Heartbeat Settings: Monitoring configuration deleted
  • Billing History: Payment records permanently removed
  • Billing History: Your data on Stripe, our payment processor remains. It cannot be deleted by Safeinity.
Privacy Guarantee

When data is deleted, it's permanently erased from our servers and backup systems. We comply with GDPR right-to-be-forgotten requirements. Deletion is irreversible and complete.

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