Vetted tools — 3 phases, honest prices

Only three steps of the packet need an outside tool at all. For each one we give you our pick, an alternative, and the free route — with the real price, checked October 2026.

How to read this page: Start Here is our pick and why. Also Good If is when another option fits you better. Free Route is the $0 way to finish the step. Prices are charged by those companies, not by us, and are not included in the packet price.

Phase 1 — Password manager

Slot	Tool	Price	Why
Start Here	Bitwarden	Premium $19.80/yr · Families $47.88/yr	The only manager with true timed emergency access for a spouse (they request access, a wait you set runs, then view or take over). Cheapest full solution.
Also Good If	LastPass	Premium $36/yr · Families $48/yr	You want emergency access in a long-established consumer brand. Emergency Access is on Premium/Families.
Also Good If	1Password	Individual $47.88/yr · Families $71.88/yr	You want the most polished app and are all-Apple. Honest limit: it has no contact-based emergency access — your spouse uses a printed Emergency Kit stored with your estate papers.
Free Route	Apple Passwords / Google Password Manager	$0	Already on your phone. Limit, stated plainly: no family rescue of the vault — pair it with Apple Legacy Contact or Google Inactive Account Manager (both free, both set up in the packet).

Phase 2 — Legal documents (only if you don't have them)

We don't draft documents and this isn't legal advice. If a document is missing, one of these three paths fits almost every family:

Slot	Path	Price	Why
Start Here	Trust & Will	Will $199 single / $299 couple · Trust $499 / $599	Guided, state-specific online documents. Military and first responders: their site lists a 20% discount through GovX.
Free Route	FreeWill	$0	Real attorney-built templates, funded by charitable bequests. Living trust is free only in California.
Also Good If	A local estate attorney	Median about $625 for a will · $2,475 for a trust	Your life is complex — blended family, a business, a special-needs child, a trust that needs funding. This is the right answer more often than the internet admits.

Phase 3 — Where your finished packet lives

Slot	Home	Price	Why
Start Here	Our Notion template	Included · free Notion account	Comes with the packet. It lives in your workspace — we never see your filled copy.
Also Good If	Printable Docs / PDF version	Included · $0	You don't use Notion, or you think on paper. Same 12 sections.
Also Good If	The Nokbox	Lite $69 · Original $129	You want one physical box for the whole system: 15 categories, 67 folders, 72 checklists. Honest note from its own reviews: thorough, but "overwhelming at first" — our guided order fixes that.