# Legacy contact

Canonical URL: https://olomon.com/financial-glossary/legacy-contact
Markdown twin: https://olomon.com/financial-glossary/legacy-contact/llms.txt
Category: Estate & Legacy Planning (https://olomon.com/financial-glossary/categories/estate-legacy-planning)
Also known as: Digital legacy contact
Last updated: 2026-04-18

## Definition

A legacy contact is a person you authorize in advance to access designated digital accounts, financial records, or platforms after your death or incapacity. Unlike a full account transfer, a legacy contact typically receives limited, defined access — enough to retrieve information, close accounts, or manage memorials.

## Key takeaways

- A legacy contact is about access, not ownership.
- Many platforms (Apple, Google, Facebook) offer their own legacy-contact settings — enabling them now is far easier than fighting platform support later.
- Legacy-contact authority on financial platforms should be coordinated with your overall estate plan and powers of attorney.
- Designating a legacy contact reduces the friction your family faces in their hardest weeks.

## How Olomon thinks about this

_The following section is Olomon's first-party perspective, informed by our work building a financial system of record. It is intentionally separated from the neutral definitional content above._

Legacy access is built into Olomon. You can designate a legacy contact who receives a defined level of access to your record on a triggering event — with full audit trail and the ability to revoke at any time. That's the digital equivalent of leaving the binder in a known place, but always current and always under your control.

## In-depth definition

Your financial life is a network of accounts, devices, and digital identities. Without a legacy contact, your family may have to navigate court orders, customer-support escalations, and password resets to access anything — from photos to bank statements to insurance policies — in a moment when they should be grieving, not negotiating with platforms.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is a legacy contact the same as a power of attorney?

No. A POA grants legal authority to act on your behalf and is governed by state law. A legacy contact is typically a platform-level access mechanism with much narrower scope, and it should be coordinated with — not in place of — a properly drafted POA.

## Sources

1. [Managing Someone Else's Money — CFPB](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/managing-someone-elses-money/) — Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Cited for: Federal guidance on access and authority.

## Related terms

- [Estate plan](https://olomon.com/financial-glossary/estate-plan)
- [Power of attorney](https://olomon.com/financial-glossary/power-of-attorney)
- [Executor](https://olomon.com/financial-glossary/executor)

## Cite this page

Olomon Editorial Team. (2026). Legacy contact. Olomon Financial Glossary. https://olomon.com/financial-glossary/legacy-contact

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