Take your secrets to the grave – this is how you can get your besties on board.
You’re young, single, working hard at living your best life, which looks amazing on IG, but behind the scenes, maybe things aren’t always so curated and even controlled. As we explore and experiment, there’s stuff we do that we would rather keep private. There’s no judgement here. If you take a really close and full look at anyone’s life, you’re bound to find things that you’d rather keep under wraps – forever.
As we journey through life both online and offline, we weave a tapestry of secrets and confessions across our relationships, hiding some in the bottom of our bedroom cupboard and others at the back of the medicine cabinet. We always feel safer putting our secrets in dark places, but today, many of the things we would like to keep private and confidential are glittering along the trails of our digital footprints. We have secrets and confessions everywhere, in web browsers and apps, left in OnlyFans subscriptions, JustSex profiles and Matilda’s shopping carts. There is always something you will never want your mother to come across, but you might show to your best friends and things you would say to a lover on WhatsApp, but would never utter to another soul.
So, what will happen if you unexpectedly die?
If you don’t have a clean-up plan, then it is likely that your mother, father or another next of kin are going to get that really close and full look at your life. And if you’d prefer to have it locked away forever, there is a solution. Your secrets are safe with Heritage Vault. Forever.
Rachelle Best, founder and CEO of Heritage Vault says, “Heritage Vault is your own secure digital vault that helps you organise your financials, personal documents, lists of assets and detailed instructions to your loved ones. Heritage Vault offers 13 easy to populate categories of data, including the Clean-Up Squad category that only your private Clean-Up Squad have access to, Singletons need dependable friends on their team, even after they have passed away. Your ‘Clean-up Squad’ are trusted besties who have agreed to get rid of anything you feel might cause embarrassment or upset if it is found by your other loved ones.”
There are different roles that people may play in the event of a loved one’s passing. While the Executor, usually a professional such as a Financial Advisor, Accountant or Lawyer, will be concerned with the administration of the deceased’s estate, family members or other loved ones also get involved. They take on tasks such as organising the memorial or burial service, cancelling consumer accounts, caring for pets as well as sorting and clearing out possessions that are not itemised in the Will. Clear instructions and wishes help loved ones find their way in these roles during this difficult time of bereavement, and a Heritage Vault will enable you to appoint a Clean-Up Squad to ensure there are no shocks or surprises.
The role of your Clean-Up Squad
Your Clean-Up squad needs to attend to the cleansing of both your physical items and your digital life. They will need an updated list of items and where to find them in your house, your car or even a secret storage unit. This may include old correspondence, diaries and journals, old legal papers, receipts or contracts that don’t matter anymore but you wouldn’t want your mother to see. They may need to throw away meds that nobody knew you took or you may have a stash or two of illicit substances that must be disposed of.
When it comes to your digital life, they are going to need device and account details and passwords so that they can do things like delete your browser history, dating and chat apps, as well as close shopping accounts and give notice on subscriptions that you want to be kept private. You can add or remove people from your Clean-Up squad whenever you want.
How the Clean-up Squad actually works
Rachelle says, “You populate your Clean-up Squad category with the data your confidants need and your instructions. You appoint specific, trusted confidants who can have exclusive access to just this category of your vault. If you have physical or digital ‘secrets’ or matters of privacy, they can discreetly deal with it all. There’s always been a very human wish to ‘take our secrets to the grave’, and this is a modern-day, tech-enabled solution that finally helps us to achieve that.”
The process of populating your Clean-up Squad category in your Heritage Vault will help you to think through and create a list of instructions to deal with your secrets all in one secure place. You can update this at any time. It’s a comprehensive and easy way to leave no stones unturned after you have passed, and helps your loved ones navigate this difficult time as well as they can. It gives you peace of mind that you do have control over your image, your reputation and your legacy, even after you’ve passed.
Create your own Heritage Vault and appoint your Clean-Up Squad here
