Is It Safe to Store Your Estate Plan Information Online?

The risk isn't "online" versus "not online." It's whether the information itself is sensitive enough to matter if someone else saw it. A list that says "Checking account, Wells Fargo, ending in 4821" isn't dangerous if it leaks. A list with your full account number, routing number, and login password is dangerous anywhere — a filing cabinet included.

No — and you shouldn't. The useful version of this information is almost never the sensitive version. What your personal representative or spouse actually needs is enough to identify the account and find the rest: the institution, the last four digits, and where the complete details live. That's a pointer, not a password.

If a document or app asks for any of these directly, that's worth a second look before you fill it in.

• Full account or card numbers
• Passwords or PINs themselves
• Social Security numbers, in full
• Crypto seed phrases or private keys

Assume it's a real possibility, because with any online service, it is. The right response isn't to avoid recording anything — it's to make sure what's recorded wouldn't actually hurt you if it were exposed. That's why "last four digits and where to look" beats "the actual number" as a standard, regardless of which platform you use. Beyond that, look for basic signals of a serious provider: encryption at rest and in transit, no full credentials required to use the service, and a clear answer to "who can see this besides me."

Paper has its own risks — it can be lost, damaged in a fire or flood, or simply impossible to find when someone needs it in a hurry. Jeff Broudy, The Folder's co-founder, learned this the hard way: his family's estate plan was destroyed when their "fireproof" safe didn't survive the 2025 Palisades Fire — the exact place his wife and kids had been told to start if anything ever happened to him. A safe rated for fire isn't a guarantee, and a plan that only exists on paper can disappear in an afternoon, with no way to get it back. Digital isn't automatically safer, but it solves the "where is it" problem paper can't. The safest approach usually isn't picking one over the other — it's keeping originals physically secure while keeping a pointer to where they are somewhere your family can actually access.

With paper, not really. Once you've handed over a copy of your documents or a written list of accounts, it's out of your hands for good — even if the relationship changes later. Digital access works differently: a key or permission can be revoked in a click, the moment you decide someone no longer needs it. That's a real advantage, not just a smaller version of the same risk.

A useful test: if a stranger read everything you've recorded, could they open an account, steal money, or access your accounts? If the answer is no — because you've recorded identifying details and locations, not the sensitive material itself — you've done this the right way.