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Forum Discussion
Legacy Planning feature
Can you please add a legacy planning feature which provides capacity to predetermine how folder content is handled upon proof of death or incapacity being received?
Walter
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey B2of3, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this with us and happy Friday!
As you probably know, the process of accessing a deceased person's account at the moment is outlined here.
Having said that, note that your feedback has been noted in our system - please let us know if you have anything else to add.
Thanks!
I agree completely. The current procedure is entirely inadequate for those who have properly planned for death or incompetency because a court order is NOT required under many trusts and wills for death or incompetency. Most legal documents these days permit automatic transfer of these powers WITHOUT a court order. Please fix this to permit submission of the appropriate legal documents (and, death certificates when applicable) when a court order is NOT required. For example, my will says all of my possessions transfer automatically to my (now) living trust on death, which then becomes a testamentary trust. My trust has trustees listed who will automatically be put in place without a court order. Similarly, if I become incompetent, the trustees of my trust can take over simply by getting multiple specialized doctors to certify my incompetence WITHOUT going to court. The purpose of these arrangement is to AVOID the time and cost of having to go to court. Why would Dropbox require someone to go through this if it's not legally required in order to for someone to access my files?
Other apps now generally have a legacy planning feature that let us automatically designate someone who is able to access our online accounts. Please catch up.
Sharing access should be updated as soon as possible. It should not be limited to direct family members, as you currently have it. We have business partners and close friends who we may want to access files before or instead of legal family members, but currently cannot unless a family member grants it to them. Therefore, it is important to allow the owners of the account and storage content to choose who they want to grant access to before a tragic event occurs. Apple has recently implemented this feature with its legacy contact. Please inform me if you are working on this and when we can expect this option to be available for your users. Thank you.
- Walter
HI garyomartin - thanks for joining the discussion here.
We don't have any updates to add at this moment, but thanks for sharing your thoughts and we'll make sure to pass it along.
Let us know if you have anything else to add.
It is indeed sad that this is not a matter of urgency to Dropbox as people die daily. News Flash!
Having projects on the go with work/colleagues means that at times privacy is required and family members are not amongst those to be privy to developments. In the current climate I would have thought that this topic, first here raised back in 2022, would have been picked up by now as something that needs addressing. I would never want my family to access my dropbox ... none, absolutely none of their business what my business partners and I are working on.IT Legacy will be more and more a topic and eventually Dropbox will have to step up to the plate. hoping this is sooner than later.
