When the people you trust are on another continent
Expats, immigrants, and global families have the trust, just not the geography. This setup places pieces so recovery can begin the same day, in the country where you actually live.
The geography problem
If everyone you trust is back home, the naive plan puts every piece an ocean away. Your spouse or local friends then face a recovery that starts with phone calls across time zones, consulates, and an eleven hour flight. The fix is a placement rule: at least three of the five pieces must be reachable in the country where you live.
The setup: three in-country, two abroad
- check_circlePiece 1: a parent or sibling back home. Handed over in person on a holiday visit, with a conversation about what it is.
- check_circlePiece 2: a cousin or old friend abroad, in a different city from piece 1 so one event back home cannot claim both.
- check_circlePiece 3: your closest local friend where you live now.
- check_circlePiece 4: a local attorney or notary, holding a sealed envelope. In many countries notaries are the natural keepers of family documents.
- check_circlePiece 5: printed in your apartment safe or lockbox, with your residence papers.
Recovery starts where you are
Local friend, local notary, and the home safe make three pieces within a taxi ride. The family abroad holds real standing in the plan, but nobody on either continent can recover alone, and no border closing, postal strike, or visa delay can stall the first response.
Write the letter in both languages
The instructions letter, naming the holders and the rule that any three pieces together in the HeirLock app recover the secret, should exist in both languages your family speaks, with a copy on each continent. The recovery will be coordinated over a group chat at 3 a.m. someone’s time; make sure the document everyone is reading says the same thing.
Use visits as the maintenance schedule
You go home every year or two anyway. Make piece checkup part of the trip: confirm the holders still have them, replace any that moved houses, and re-split if the underlying secret changed. For what to put behind the secret, see digital inheritance.
International family questions
Is it safe to mail a piece internationally?
A single piece reveals nothing on its own, so a piece lost or opened in the mail exposes nothing. Even so, hand delivery during a visit is the nicer ritual: you explain what it is, who else holds one, and what three of them together can do.
What if the two countries' legal systems disagree?
Pieces do not care about jurisdiction, which is much of their appeal here. Recovery happens in the app wherever three pieces meet, not through any country's probate process. You should still have a will in each country where you hold significant assets; the pieces simply make sure access does not wait on either court.
My parents abroad are not technical. Can they hold a piece?
Yes. A printed piece in their document drawer works fine. They never need the app or an account. When recovery happens, whoever is coordinating brings the pieces together in HeirLock on one phone.
Which side of the family should be able to recover alone?
Ideally the side where you live, since that is where death or incapacity will be handled first. That is why this setup places three pieces in-country. The family abroad participates in the plan but cannot act without at least one in-country holder.
A plan that works in two hemispheres
Place pieces so the people nearby can start recovery quickly and family abroad can still be part of the plan.
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