If you're Belgian, your government already built you a free digital vault. It's called IZIMI, it's run by the notary federation, and it will hold your important documents until you die—then transfer them to your legal heirs.
It's a genuinely good service. And for most people, it might be enough.
But "most people" doesn't include everyone. If you want your business partner to access continuity plans while you're in a coma—not dead, just unreachable. If your spouse needs insurance details and account information during a medical emergency. If you have accounts abroad you'd rather keep private. If you simply aren't Belgian. Notary vaults have limitations that matter.
This post compares two approaches to digital legacy: government-backed notary vaults (with IZIMI as the prime example) and automated dead man's switches like Trustbourne. They solve related problems in fundamentally different ways.
What notary vaults do well
Let's give credit where it's due. IZIMI, launched by the Belgian notary federation, offers:
- Free storage for any Belgian adult with an eID or itsme
- Automatic access to notarial deeds signed since 2015
- Sharing controls during your lifetime
- Post-death transfer to heirs via notary
- Institutional backing that isn't going anywhere
The idea is sound: your notary already handles your will, your property deeds, your marriage contracts. Why not centralise document storage with the same trusted institution?
France has similar offerings through individual notary offices (the "coffre-fort numérique notarial"), though these are paid services arranged through your notary—costs wouldn't be significantly lower than a Trustbourne subscription. Germany maintains central registers for wills and powers of attorney through the Bundesnotarkammer, though not a consumer-facing vault. The Netherlands and UK have no equivalent government infrastructure—just private services.
So Belgium is actually ahead of the curve here. IZIMI is free, reasonably well-designed, and solves a real problem.
But it's designed around a specific use case: traditional inheritance within Belgian succession law. Step outside that box, and the cracks show.
Five limitations that might matter to you
1. Death certificates, not missed check-ins
IZIMI releases your vault when a notary confirms you've died. That requires a death certificate, which requires... death.
If you're in a coma, incapacitated by dementia, missing, or simply unreachable for months—IZIMI does nothing. Your files stay locked. Your family waits.
A dead man's switch works differently. Trustbourne checks in with you periodically. If you don't respond after multiple attempts across multiple channels, and your trusted contacts confirm something's wrong, release happens automatically.
This matters for anyone whose biggest fear isn't death, but incapacitation. The stroke that leaves you unable to communicate. The accident that puts you in a months-long coma. The situations where your family needs access now, not after probate.
2. Legal heirs get everything
Belgian succession law (like most European inheritance law) includes "forced heirship" rules. Your legal heirs—spouse, children—have statutory rights to your estate. IZIMI respects this: anything you transfer to a specific contact also goes to your heirs. You can't give your business partner the company passwords without your ex-wife receiving them too.
This is legally correct. It's also practically limiting.
Maybe you want your brother to receive the family photo archive, but your sister to get the letters from your parents. Maybe your business partner needs server credentials and operational procedures to keep the company running, but shouldn't see your personal messages. Maybe you've remarried and want childhood photos to go directly to children from your first marriage without routing through your current spouse.
With notary vaults, succession law overrides your preferences. With Trustbourne, you assign folders to specific contacts. They receive what you chose, nothing more.
3. Recipients need accounts
To receive documents from IZIMI after your death, your contacts need their own IZIMI accounts. That means Belgian eID or itsme authentication. That means they need to be Belgian, or at least have Belgian residency documentation.
Your daughter who emigrated to Canada? Your business partner in Germany? Your old friend in the UK? They can't receive your IZIMI vault directly.
Trustbourne contacts don't need accounts. They verify via email, SMS, and WhatsApp during your lifetime. When release happens, they verify again through the same channels. No registration, no Belgian identity requirements.
4. Storage limits
IZIMI offers 1GB of storage. That sounds reasonable until you try to store a few family videos, high-resolution document scans, or a complete photo archive. One decent-length video and you're done.
Trustbourne offers 5GB in our lowest tier—and we consider generous storage a feature, not an upsell opportunity. Most competitors offer 1GB. We think that's stingy for something as important as your digital legacy. If we find 5GB isn't enough for our users, we'll increase it.
5. Heirs must initiate
When you die, IZIMI doesn't automatically contact your heirs. They need to know IZIMI exists, go to a notary, and request the transfer. The notary verifies the death, confirms heir status, and initiates release. Your heirs then have 24 months to download everything before it's deleted.
This is a reasonable safeguard against premature release. It's also slow, requires action from grieving family members, and assumes they know to ask.
Trustbourne's escalation process is designed for speed without sacrificing safety. When check-ins go unanswered, we contact your designated people. We verify through multiple channels. We give you every chance to stop the process. Then we release automatically, with reminders to ensure nothing expires before your contacts can act.
The privacy question
Here's where notary vaults and private services diverge most sharply.
Notaries across Europe are "obliged entities" under EU Anti-Money Laundering directives. They're legally required to report suspicious transactions to Financial Intelligence Units. This isn't optional—it's how the system works. Most suspicious transaction reports from non-financial professionals in EU countries come from notaries.
This makes sense for their traditional role: property transfers, company formations, large financial transactions. You want oversight there.
But it means anything in a notary vault exists within a system designed for government visibility. Not open visibility—your notary isn't publishing your documents—but accessible visibility when authorities have reasons to look.
Meanwhile, the EU has been studying a centralised asset register since 2021. The proposed system would track bank accounts, securities, real estate, vehicles, crypto, even art and collectibles across all member states. The Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) began operations in Frankfurt in late 2024. Nobody knows exactly what form the final register will take, but the direction is clear: more centralised, more connected, more visible.
None of this means you're doing anything wrong by wanting privacy.
You might have financial accounts in another country—a pension from years working abroad, an inheritance from a relative in another jurisdiction, investments through a foreign platform. Perfectly legal. Also perfectly reasonable to keep the details between you and your heirs rather than routing them through systems designed for government oversight.
You might have business information that's confidential but not illegal. Trade secrets. Client lists. Strategic plans. Things that would harm your company if exposed through any system, even briefly.
You might simply believe that what you own and who you leave it to is your business, not the state's. That's not tax evasion—it's privacy. They're different things, despite what surveillance advocates suggest.
Trustbourne encrypts your files in your browser before upload using AES-256—the strongest widely-used encryption standard. In our maximum privacy mode, we don't hold the keys at all—we literally cannot see what you've stored, even if compelled. We can't report what we can't see.
This isn't about hiding illegal activity. It's about maintaining the privacy that was normal until very recently, and that many people reasonably still want.
What Trustbourne does differently
| Feature | Notary vaults (IZIMI) | Trustbourne |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | Death certificate via notary | Missed check-ins + contact verification |
| Recipients | Legal heirs (required), specific contacts (optional, but heirs still receive) | Anyone you designate, with folder-level control |
| Recipient requirements | Must have own account (Belgian eID/itsme) | Email + phone verification only |
| Storage | 1GB | 5GB and more |
| Release process | Heirs visit notary, request transfer | Automatic after escalation |
| Privacy | Within Belgian notary system | Browser-side encryption, zero-knowledge option |
| Geographic scope | Country-specific (Belgium, France, etc.) | EU + UK |
| Cost | Free (IZIMI) or paid (France, others) | Paid (pricing TBD) |
| Incapacitation | No release until death | Release when unreachable |
Neither approach is universally better. They're designed for different situations.
Which one is right for you?
A notary vault like IZIMI makes sense if:
- You're Belgian and expect to stay Belgian
- Your heirs are all Belgian (or willing to get Belgian ID)
- You want legal heirs to receive everything
- You're comfortable with government-integrated systems
- You primarily store documents (not media) under 1GB
- You only need release after confirmed death
- Free matters more than features
A dead man's switch like Trustbourne makes sense if:
- You need release when you're unreachable, not just dead
- You want specific files to go to specific people
- Your recipients are international—or might be in the future
- You have more than 1GB of important files
- You want your documents fully encrypted with the strongest encryption available
- You value privacy from government-integrated systems
- You prefer automatic release over notary-initiated transfer
- You have accounts or financial details in multiple countries
You might want both if:
- You're Belgian and want IZIMI for official documents (property deeds, marriage contracts)
- But also want Trustbourne for business succession, crypto access, or private communications
- Different tools for different parts of your digital life
What Trustbourne is building
Trustbourne is a dead man's switch service launching in 2026. You store files, designate contacts, and set a check-in schedule. If we can't reach you—through email, SMS, and WhatsApp—and your contacts confirm something's wrong, your vault releases automatically.
We're building for:
- Automation: Release happens without anyone visiting a notary
- Flexibility: Assign specific folders to specific people
- Privacy: Browser-side encryption, with a zero-knowledge mode where we can't see your files at all
- International users: No Belgian ID required, contacts verify via standard channels
- Generous storage: standard, because your digital legacy shouldn't be squeezed into 1GB
We're not trying to replace wills or notaries. We're solving a different problem: what happens to your digital files when you can't hand them over yourself.
If that's a problem you've thought about, we're collecting emails at trustbourne.com. Join the waitlist and we'll let you know when we launch.
Trustbourne is built in Belgium, stores data in the EU, and encrypts everything. We're not lawyers, and this isn't legal advice. For inheritance planning, your notary is still the right person to talk to—we're solving a different problem.