Google and Apple legacy settings, and the rest of your life
Legacy settings look after one account. A vault covers the whole picture.
What Google and Apple offer
Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you choose people to be told, and to get some of your data, if your account is not used for a time you set. Apple's Legacy Contact lets people you choose ask for access to your Apple account data after you pass away. Both are free and worth setting up.
What they do not cover
Each one covers its own account. They do not tell your family about your bank, your pensions, your life insurance, your mortgage or where your will is. Many other services have no legacy setting at all.
Where a digital inheritance vault fits
A vault is the one place that lists everything, including the fact that you set up those legacy contacts and who you chose. Your executor starts there and works through the list.
What is a digital inheritance vault?
A digital inheritance vault is a private, encrypted record of what you own, where it is, and who to contact, kept for the people who will sort things out after you pass away. It holds the map, not the money and not your passwords. More about digital inheritance vaults.
Questions
Should I set up Google Inactive Account Manager and Apple Legacy Contact?
Yes, if you use those accounts. They are free. Then note in your vault that you have done it and who you chose.
Is a legacy contact the same as an executor?
No. A legacy contact is a setting inside one company's account. Your executor is the person legally in charge of your whole estate.
Leave your family a map, not a mystery.
Write down what you have and where it is, in an evening. Locked so only you can read it. Passed to your executor only after a verified death.