When you only trust one or two people
The advice to spread pieces among five trusted people assumes you have five. Plenty of people do not. Here is how to run a full strength setup anyway, by letting places and professionals hold pieces for you.
The problem with a short list
Maybe your family is small, scattered, or complicated. Maybe you have one sibling you trust completely and a best friend, and that is the whole list. The temptation is to give each of them everything, which puts your most important secrets one stolen phone or one bad falling out away from disaster.
The better answer is to keep the strong recovery rule, three pieces required out of five created, and fill the empty slots with holders that are not people at all.
The setup: two people, three places
- check_circlePiece 1: your sibling. Saved on their phone or printed and kept with their own important papers.
- check_circlePiece 2: your best friend. Same idea, a different household in a different part of town.
- check_circlePiece 3: printed and hidden inside a specific book on your shelf. Fold it flat behind the dust jacket or tape it inside the back cover. Choose a book you would never sell or lend.
- check_circlePiece 4: a safe deposit box at your bank, which your executor can open with the right paperwork after you are gone.
- check_circlePiece 5: a sealed envelope in your attorney’s file, kept alongside your will. Lawyers hold sealed documents for clients all the time.
Why this is safe
No single holder, human or not, can do anything alone. A burglar who finds the book has one piece and needs two more from places they do not know exist. Your sibling and friend would have to conspire, and even then they would only reach two of the required three without also knowing your hiding spots.
The instructions letter
The pieces are useless if nobody knows the plan, so write one page of plain instructions and keep it with your will: who holds a piece, where the printed ones live, and that any three together recover the secret in the HeirLock app. This letter contains nothing sensitive. It can name the book and the bank branch openly, because the locations only matter to someone who is supposed to be collecting pieces.
Keep it alive
Once a year, check that the book is still on the shelf, the box rent is paid, and your two people still have their pieces and remember what they are for. If the secret behind the pieces changes, for example a new password manager, split it again and replace all five. For what to put behind the pieces in the first place, see digital inheritance.
Small circle questions
Is it safe to hide a printed piece inside a book?
Yes, because a single piece reveals nothing on its own. Someone who stumbles on it finds what looks like a block of meaningless text. The recovery rule still requires three pieces, so a found piece is a dead end for a snoop and a lifeline for your family.
What if I genuinely trust nobody?
You can run a setup where every piece lives in a place instead of a person: hiding spots, a safe deposit box, and professionals like an attorney who hold a sealed envelope as part of their normal duties. See the private person workflow for a full version of that design.
Why five pieces instead of three?
Requiring three of three means a single lost piece locks everyone out forever. Creating five and requiring three gives you two spares, so a flooded basement or a closed bank branch is an inconvenience, not a catastrophe.
Does my friend need the app or an account to hold a piece?
No. A piece is self contained. Your friend just needs to keep it somewhere safe and know what it is for. There is no account, subscription, or service involved.
A full strength setup with a short trust list
Use people, hiding spots, a bank box, and an attorney file when your trusted circle is small.
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