You've been designated as an emergency contact.

What happens when you get an invitation.

When someone designates you as their emergency contact, you'll receive an email from IvorySafe with a link to accept. Here's the full flow:

1. You get an email from IvorySafe. The email comes from us, not directly from the person who designated you. It explains that they want you to be their emergency contact and includes a link to accept or decline.
2. Create a free IvorySafe account. To accept, you'll need an IvorySafe account. Don't worry, creating an emergency contact account is completely free. You won't be asked for payment information, and there's no trial that converts to a paid subscription. If you already have an IvorySafe account under the same email address the invitation was sent to, you don't need to create another one. Just log in with your existing account and the invitation will be waiting for you.
3. Accept or decline. Once your account is set up, you'll see the pending invitation. You can accept it, or decline if you'd rather not take on the role. If you decline, the person who invited you will know, and they'll need to send a new invitation if they want to try again.

What your account looks like.

Your free IvorySafe account is different from a paid subscriber's account. You won't have a vault of your own, and you won't see the sections that subscribers use to store their information. Instead, your dashboard focuses on the people who've designated you.

You'll see a single page called Emergency Contacts, which lists everyone who's chosen you to step in for them. Each person shows up as a card with their name, your relationship to them, and the current status (Pending, Accepted, or something else). Tapping a card opens a view-only screen with their contact info and the details of your role.

You can be designated by more than one person. Each invitation is separate, and you can accept or decline them independently.

When something has happened.

If the person who designated you has passed away or become incapacitated, this is the moment your role matters. Here's how to step in.

1. Log in to your IvorySafe account. Go to platform.ivorysafe.com and sign in.
2. Open the card of the person you need to report. From your Emergency Contacts page, click their card to open the details.
3. Click "Report as deceased/incapacitated." You'll see a button that opens a confirmation screen explaining what will happen next.
4. Review and confirm the report. When you confirm, four things happen at once: their vault is locked so no changes can be made, they're notified directly with urgent emails and phone alerts, the waiting period begins, and their IvorySafe billing stops.

The waiting period.

When the person designated you, they chose a waiting period. This is the amount of time IvorySafe will wait between your report and the moment you get access. It might be 6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, 1 week, or 2 weeks. You can see what they chose on their card.

During the waiting period:

• The person will get repeated email and text notifications urging them to respond
• If they respond and confirm they're okay, the report is canceled and access is not transferred
• If they don't respond by the end of the waiting period, you'll be granted access

The waiting period exists to make sure access is only granted when it truly should be. It's not a delay you have to wait through suspiciously. It's a safeguard so that a legitimate report succeeds and a mistaken one can be corrected.

What you get access to.

Once the waiting period passes without a response, you'll be granted access to the person's full IvorySafe vault. You'll be able to see everything they stored: financial accounts, insurance information, household details, important documents, contacts, end-of-life planning notes, and anything else they added.

Your access remains available for 12 months from the date you submitted the report. That should give you plenty of time to handle whatever needs to be handled, share information with the family, or take whatever other steps the situation requires.

Stepping down from the role.

If you decide you no longer want to be someone's emergency contact, you can step down at any time.

1. Open their card from your Emergency Contacts page.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the details view. You'll see a link at the bottom that says "Withdraw as [their name]'s emergency contact."
3. Confirm. The person who designated you will be notified that you've stepped down, so they can designate someone else if they want to. Your withdrawal takes effect immediately.

Stepping down is a normal part of the role. Life changes. You might move, get busier, lose touch with someone, or simply realize the responsibility isn't a fit. There's no obligation to stay an emergency contact if you don't want to.

Keeping your password safe.

This is the most important section of this article. Please read it carefully.

Your IvorySafe emergency contact account is protected by end-to-end encryption. Your password is the only key that can unlock it. If you forget your password, we cannot reset it for you. Not over email, not by verifying your identity, not by any means. The same protection that keeps the data safe from hackers also keeps it locked away from you if you lose your key.

This matters more for an emergency contact than for most accounts. Years could pass between when you accept an invitation and when you actually need to step in. If you've forgotten your password by then, the very thing the person trusted you with becomes impossible to do.

What you should do

• Store your password somewhere you trust. A password manager like 1Password, Bitwarden, or Apple Keychain works well and lets you find it on any device. If you don't use a password manager, write your IvorySafe password down and keep it somewhere safe and findable, like a home safe.
• Don't rely on memory alone. Even a strong password you used yesterday can be hard to remember a year from now. Save it the moment you create it.
• Make sure you can still log in occasionally. Every few months, try logging in to your IvorySafe account. If you can't, that's a problem you want to discover now, not in an emergency.

Common questions.

Will I have to pay anything to be someone's emergency contact?

No. An emergency contact account is completely free. You won't be asked for payment information, there's no trial that auto-converts, and you can keep your account indefinitely whether or not anyone is currently designating you.

Can I be an emergency contact for more than one person?

Yes. People may invite you independently, and you can accept or decline each invitation separately. Your dashboard will show all the people who've designated you.

What if I also want to use IvorySafe for my own information?

You can upgrade to a paid subscription anytime to start your own vault. Your existing emergency contact relationships stay intact when you upgrade. Learn more about IvorySafe pricing.

Can I see what's in someone's vault before they pass away?

No. Until you report the person and the waiting period passes, you only see their basic contact info and the waiting period they chose. The actual contents of their vault stay private to them.

What if the person who designated me cancels their IvorySafe subscription?

If they cancel, your emergency contact relationship ends when their subscription ends. They might tell you directly, or you may notice their card disappear from your dashboard. If they sign up again later, they'd need to re-invite you.

I accidentally rejected the invitation. Can I undo it?

No. Once a rejection is confirmed, it's final. The person who invited you will need to send a new invitation if they still want you as their emergency contact.

Can I prepare anything in advance, just in case?

The most useful thing you can do is make sure the person who designated you has chosen a waiting period that makes sense, and that they trust the contact methods (email and phone) they've given IvorySafe. If they ever need to respond to an access request, they need to be reachable. Beyond that, the role doesn't require any preparation. Just keep your account login info somewhere you can find it.