Ask any IT professional how many copies of an important file should exist and you will get the same answer: 3-2-1. Three copies. Two on different media or in different formats. One stored offsite. The rule has been the standard for digital preservation for two decades. Photographer Peter Krogh distilled it in The DAM Book … Read more
The problem: it was never really about the paperwork You know you should get your family’s affairs in order. You have known for a while. The password list, the accounts, the documents, the plan for if something happened to you. You are not lazy, and you are not disorganized about the rest of your life. … Read more
Most family-information documents begin with the data: a list of accounts, a roster of contacts, a stack of document locations. The reader is expected to figure out what to do with the information by inference. This is the wrong way for a Family Guide to open. Imagine the moment your Family Guide is most likely … Read more
If you have ever started organizing your family’s important information, you have probably hit the same wall. You sit down with a notebook or a spreadsheet, you start listing accounts and documents, and within an hour you are stuck on the same question: which of this should be written down where my family can find … Read more
Most families have a Vault of some kind. A fireproof safe with the will inside. A password manager with the bank logins. An encrypted folder with the scanned tax returns. The container exists; the contents are real; the intent is right. Then a single rule, which most families have never heard, quietly undoes all of … Read more