AARP Hearing Center
How a Digital Vault Can Give You and Your Family Peace of Mind
Store vital records securely in the cloud and share them with trusted loved ones when necessary
5-minute read
Learn the advantages of having a secure, online space for your important documents
Key takeaways
- Digital vaults help organize important documents, records and keepsakes in one secure online location.
- Users can control who sees specific files and share information with loved ones or advisers when needed.
- Digital copies of key records can improve preparedness and provide remote access to those items.
Almost everyone has accumulated dozens, if not hundreds, of important documents. They include:
- Birth certificates, marriage licenses, passports
- Bonds, stock certificates, tax records
- Auto, home and life insurance paperwork; deeds; loan documents; vehicle titles
- Military discharge papers, medical and funeral directives
From time to time, you or your family may want or need to share these records with close friends, caregivers, estate planners and lawyers. But what you share with your spouse, kids and parents will surely differ from what your accountant or real estate agent needs to see.
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That’s the goal of a digital vault: secure, encrypted online platforms that let you store and organize digital versions of important documents in the cloud, which can be accessed 24/7 anywhere you have an active internet connection.
A digital vault isn’t meant to replace a safe deposit box or home safe. Instead, it lets you keep secure digital copies of important documents while preserving the originals.
Several major companies and platforms offer secure digital vault subscriptions, including Microsoft OneDrive Personal Vault, GoodTrust, Trustworthy and Prisidio, which, in partnership with AARP, offers members an add-on benefit designed to help families and loved ones in a variety of situations, for $20 a year.
AARP membership add-on
AARP and Prisidio have teamed up to offer a $20-a-year add-on to AARP’s regular $15 membership: the AARP Digital Vault. It’s a secure online way to save and share your most important files.
Digital vaults are for homeowners, so they won’t have to hunt very hard to find the mortgage statements they need when refinancing. Or caregivers who need to stay informed on the medicines that the people they watch over take — and how to reach doctors if a medical crisis arises. Or people planning retirement or wealth transfers, who can easily get hold of IRA or 401(k) statements or their last will and testament.
“The metaphor for Trustworthy is the treasure map: Where do you go to find all the important things?” says Nathaniel Robinson, Trustworthy’s founder and chief executive. “You might have a safety deposit box at the local bank that has some things in it. But if no one knows it exists, they’re never going to find it.”
Prisidio’s cofounder and CEO, Glenn Shimkus, has a similar take. “What I want to do is help people gain control of their important information and documents, keep it safe, get it to others securely, and ultimately make sure nothing is lost when something happens to you,” he says.
How to add items to your vault
To add documents and other items to the AARP Digital Vault, you can upload or drag and drop files from your computer or import them from Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive. There’s also a Request Documents feature you can use when someone else has paperwork you’d like to add to the vault, perhaps a tax statement your accountant has. That person is sent an email with a link to a secure upload portal.
If you’re using the Prisidio mobile app — which, as an AARP Digital Vault subscriber, you can access for free — you can scan an item, use the phone’s camera to capture images or move pics from the photo library into the app.
Important digital items don’t have to be official documents
What you choose to add to the AARP Digital Vault doesn’t have to carry a high monetary value. But it may mean the world to you and your family. You may include treasured recipes passed down for generations. Or photos or videos of sentimental things with instructions that show or remind loved ones where to find the items in the physical world, especially after you die.
In his vault, Shimkus has a video of his father going through a family hope chest. “It’s one of the greatest heirlooms we have because it is the only physical connection my dad had to his mom, because she died on the birthing table.”
All of life’s big moments, whether buying a house or finding a new partner, “typically have an account or document related to them,” says GoodTrust CEO Rikard Steiber.
While digital vaults can store photos, videos and login information, they aren’t intended to replace photo-storage services such as iCloud or Google Photos, or dedicated password managers.
Digital vaults offer protection from natural disasters
Paper and other physical media, such as slides and home movies, are fragile. They can be damaged or lost in fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. They can be stolen too. While physical items may not be replaceable, having digitized versions may relieve some of the pain, especially if that is your only remaining record.
“No one even thinks of really understanding what you have until something like this happens,” Shimkus says. He recommends having a “digital go-bag” documenting your property, valuables and what you need to be aware of as a caregiver, perhaps the medications your mom takes and who all her health providers are, plus the veterinarians who take care of your pets. You may even want to include items such as Wi-Fi codes.
How much do digital vaults cost?
Such services come at a price.
- GoodTrust charges $149 for the first year and $39 for each subsequent year. The price includes attorney-crafted wills or trusts.
- Prisidio charges $20 a year for an AARP Digital Vault subscription, as an add-on to AARP membership. This Essentials plan, as it is called, limits you to 100 documents, 10 people, 10 places and 10 things. The otherwise equivalent $45 per year (or $4.50 per month) Prisidio.com non-AARP member Starter plan has these limits: 150 documents, 15 people, 15 places and 15 things.
Plans cover the sensitive documents you’re storing, plus the people you trust to look them over and directives to places where you keep certain items.
An AARP Digital Vault Unlimited subscription costs $95 per year on top of your AARP membership. The Prisidio.com Unlimited plan for non-AARP members is $150 per year or $16.50 per month.
- Trustworthy has a free component that limits you to a dozen items and has tiered pricing plans up to $40 per month.
The sheer number and types of items you might include in a digital vault can be daunting. That’s why Prisidio/AARP Digital Vault recently rolled out a new feature called “Collections,” which suggests topic areas to help new subscribers get started. Shimkus suggests adding things a little bit at a time.
Among the Collections are ones for Caregiving, Evacuation Plans, Identity Fraud and Attacks, Medical Emergencies, Taxes and Accounting, Residence, and Valuables and Assets. You can also add your own.
Within these Collections are prompts to add items that fit the category.
For example, the Online Accounts Collection is where you will likely enter the login credentials for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and perhaps your password manager.
Under Finances and Investments, you can add banking accounts and the contact info for your accounts or financial planner. And in the Estate and Legacy Collection you might upload your will, power of attorney document and revocable living trust.
Built-in security and privacy
All the companies promise robust security and privacy. Data and uploaded files are encrypted, multifactor authentication is required to log in, and you can log in on phones and computers using facial or fingerprint recognition.
As an AARP Digital Vault owner, you can add a single co-owner who has full access to everything in the vault, as well as a single designated keyholder with whom you may share limited things today but would gain full access if something happens to you.
Prisidio verifies the identity of co-owners and keyholders through a partnership with Clear, the company that authenticates travelers’ identities at airports. Those verified will display a badge inside the vault.
But you can give non-vault owners and non-keyholders access to specific items in your vault on an as-needed or case-by-case basis. They’ll receive an email inviting them into the vault, where they can access only the designated digital materials you share with them.
Shimkus highlights another potential benefit of the AARP Digital Vault: reducing the likelihood of identity theft. “The more scattered you have your information in multiple places, the more likely it is you’re going to be the victim of fraud,” he says. “With a digital vault, it helps you compress and bring everything together.”
And that provides a level of comfort everyone finds essential: peace of mind.
This story, originally published March 21, 2025, has been updated with new information on the AARP Digital Vault.
The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
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