Who should be your Legacy Steward
A Legacy Steward is the person who finds the plan and follows it. Choose someone calm and easy to reach, tell them while you are healthy, and start with one.
Picture the worst week of your family's year. Now ask: who in that room will calmly find the folder and start making calls?
That's your Legacy Steward: the person you trust to find your plan and follow it. Not a fancy title. A real person, with a real email, who knows you asked.
The best stewards are calm in a mess, easy to reach, and willing. A spouse, an adult child, a sibling, or a close friend. Your executor is often a fit, but not always. If they live three states away and never answer texts, choose the one who will actually open the email.
Three rules:
• Tell them while you're healthy. A surprise login on a hard day is no kindness. Explain the job: finding papers, not making medical choices (unless a signed directive already says so).
• Start with one. Free includes one steward. Two people who both think they're in charge is worse than one clear name.
• Choose by reliability, not seniority. Oldest child isn't a qualification.
Until you send the invite, your list is empty and there is nowhere for your plan to go.
P.S. A two-line text works: "I set up a family vault and named you. Can I show you where things are?"