Frequently Asked Questions

Golden Navigator is a guided platform that helps you organize your health, financial, and everyday living details — and your legacy wishes — all in one secure place. We walk you through it one Mission at a time, at your pace.

It’s for adults who want to feel organized and prepared, for themselves and for the people they trust. Whether you’re planning ahead, managing a health situation, or simply want your important information in one safe place, Golden Navigator is built for you.

Yes. The best time to get organized is before you need to. Most people who wish they’d started sooner were healthy and busy — they just hadn’t gotten to it yet. Getting prepared now is one of the most thoughtful things you can do for the people you love.

Even simple situations get complicated fast when information isn’t organized and easy to find. Support doesn’t always arrive as a crisis — sometimes it’s a hospital stay, or a stretch when life is just harder to manage alone. When that happens, the people who care about you should be focused on you, not hunting through drawers and old email for documents and passwords. Golden Navigator makes sure they don’t have to.

We recommend one account each. Even in the closest partnerships, each of you has your own documents, accounts, and wishes — and separate accounts mean that if something happens to one of you, the other still has a complete record. Sign up together as Accountability Partners and you’ll earn a discount when you both finish your Missions, while keeping each other on track along the way.

No. We help you store, find, and organize your own information — we don’t give legal, medical, financial, or insurance advice, and we always recommend qualified professionals for those decisions. That said, our questions are shaped around exactly what those professionals, and your family, will need.

Those documents are a great start, but usually not the whole picture. As estate attorneys put it, a will speaks at death — it doesn’t help when you just need a little support today. And a Power of Attorney doesn’t tell your family where your accounts are, which bills to pay, or who to call first. There’s also a practical hurdle: even a properly drafted document can face delays at a bank or hospital, each with its own requirements. We’ve done the research on what different institutions actually need, so you can put the right pieces in place now and make things smoother when the time comes.

You can — and anything is better than nothing. But each of those has gaps. Paper can be lost to a fire or flood. Files on a personal computer or drive aren’t always reachable by the right person at the right moment. Spoken instructions get forgotten. And none of them tells you what to gather, flags what’s missing, or builds an up-to-date roadmap your family can actually follow. Golden Navigator does all of that, and keeps it organized, current, and secure.

Your advisor and attorney are invaluable — Golden Navigator complements them, it doesn’t replace them. They help you create the right documents and strategies. What often gets missed is the day-to-day: where accounts are, which bills to pay, key contacts, health details. And each professional holds only their own piece. Golden Navigator brings it all together, organized and ready for your family to use.

Very. We ordered the Missions on purpose, so the earliest ones cover what your family would need most in an emergency. Finishing even the first two or three puts you well ahead of where most families are. Any progress is real progress.

That’s exactly what Golden Navigator is built for. Life changes, and your information can change right along with it. Update your documents, contacts, and details anytime — My Navigator, our assistant, makes it easy — and we’ll remind you now and then to review key items so nothing quietly falls out of date.

Not at all. You move at your own pace, on your own terms. If a Mission doesn’t feel right yet, skip it and come back later — there’s no deadline and no pressure. The Missions you do finish still make a real difference for the people you love.

No. It’s designed to be used without legal expertise — we guide you through what you need and point you to resources, including free state-specific forms. For complex situations we always encourage working with a qualified attorney, and we make it easy to store and organize whatever they help you create.

We recommend it. They don’t need any details right away — just knowing you have a plan, and that you’ve chosen them, means they’ll know help is there if it’s ever needed. You don’t have to formally name them until you’re ready. When you do, they’ll get clear guidance on what to expect and how to start the conversation.

Yes. We never sell, lease, or rent your personal information, and we never share it with advertisers or data brokers. We share it only with the people you choose to authorize, and with the service providers we need to run the platform — for example, secure cloud storage and the tools that process your documents and keep the service reliable. We may also share information if the law requires it.

Everything you store is scrambled so no one else can read it — both while it sits on our servers and while it travels to and from your device. (For those who like the specifics: that’s AES-256 encryption when stored, and TLS 1.2 or higher in transit — the same standards banks use.) We hold ourselves to the security safeguards used by hospitals and banks, even though we’re not legally required to, because your information deserves that level of care.

Only you, and the people you choose to authorize. Our team cannot see your health records or personal documents. And for the most sensitive numbers — like a Social Security or account number — our system automatically hides everything but the last four digits (so it shows as ***-**-1234) everywhere they might appear: to our support team, in anything the assistant shows you, and in search. Only you, and anyone you allow to download your documents, can see the full details.

No. Our staff don’t have permission to access your information, and our systems are built so they don’t need to — the computers do the reading, not people. If someone on our team ever does need access, for example when you ask us for help, that access is limited, recorded, and traceable to the individual.

No. We don’t use your information for marketing, and we never use it to train artificial intelligence. Your information is used only to provide what you’ve asked for — like building your companion guide and letting you search your own records in plain language. Our AI runs on a service (AWS Bedrock) that does not use your data to train or improve its models.

No. The AI runs inside our own secure space on Amazon’s computers, and your documents never leave it. The companies that build the AI never see your name, your documents, or your questions. Each document is read inside a sealed, temporary workspace that’s cleared as soon as the reading is done.

No company can promise a break-in will never happen — but no single break-in would expose everything, because your information isn’t kept in one pile. It’s separated into layers, each locked on its own, and it’s scrambled while stored — so a thief who reached it would find unreadable code, not your living will. Your information is also walled off from every other member’s.

If your information were ever exposed, we’d email you as quickly as we reasonably can, and tell you plainly what happened, what information was involved, and what we’re doing to protect you and keep it from happening again. We keep clear response plans ready and monitor our systems continuously.

You’d never be locked in. You can download your information anytime — a summary plus the original files you’ve uploaded — and we recommend keeping your own copy. If we ever had to wind down, we’d give you reasonable notice and time to take everything with you.

We understand the worry, and here’s the honest answer. Your information already lives in many places — on paper in drawers, in email, at the doctor’s office — and those places often have no locks at all. Golden Navigator puts it behind bank-grade protection: scrambled (encrypted) whenever it’s stored and whenever it travels, kept in the same secure Amazon cloud that banks and hospitals use, and every look at it leaves a record. One well-guarded place is safer than ten unguarded ones.

No — we never ask for it. If your Social Security number happens to appear on a document you upload, we’ll store the document, but the number itself is hidden from our team and from the assistant. Only you, and a Trusted Steward you’ve authorized to download your documents, can see it.

That’s completely fine. You can keep information just for yourself, without sharing it with anyone. You decide what to share, with whom, and when — and you can change your mind anytime.

Scammers often target older adults by pretending to be a company you trust, so our rules are simple. We’ll never call to ask for your password, never ask you to buy gift cards or move money, and never rush you. If anyone does, hang up and check with us or your family directly. A real company never minds being double-checked.

Not at all. It’s built for every comfort level with technology. The step-by-step Missions make it easy to get started, and help is always there if you want it.

No. We’ve ordered them to cover the most important information first, and later Missions build on earlier ones — but you’re free to start wherever makes sense for you, whether that’s health, finances, or legacy.

No. My Navigator uses only the information you’ve entered. It’s built to search and pull up your own records in plain language, so you don’t have to remember exactly where you put something — and it won’t invent anything you haven’t provided. As with any AI, there’s a small chance of an error, so we suggest checking important details against your original documents, which are always in your account. If you spot something wrong, you can fix it yourself or ask our team for help.

Someone you choose to give access to your information — and only what you decide to share. You set how much they can see, and you can limit specific documents or categories anytime. A Trusted Steward isn’t only for the worst case; they can be a help whenever you’d rather not manage everything alone — during a health episode, a busy stretch, or any time you want backup.

No. Naming someone is only the first step. Before a Trusted Steward can see anything, they have to set up their own Golden Navigator account and accept our Terms of Service. Until they’ve done both, nothing is shared — no matter what you’ve set up on your end.

Two things:

• The Basics. By default, a Trusted Steward who has signed up can see the information in your Basic mission — the essentials you fill in first.
• Whatever else you choose. Beyond the Basics, you decide what more (if anything) they can see — and whether they get it now, or only if it’s ever needed.

• Share now: the information is available to your Trusted Steward as soon as they’ve signed up. Good for things you’re comfortable sharing today.
• Only if needed: the information stays private for now. Your Trusted Steward can’t see it unless they ask for it later and you don’t say no. Good for sensitive things you’d rather hold back until there’s a real need.

If your Trusted Steward ever needs that information, they can request it. Here’s exactly what happens:

1. We reach out to let you know they’ve asked.
2. You have 48 hours to say no. If you decline, nothing is shared.
3. If we don’t hear from you within 48 hours, the information is shared then.

You’re in control the whole time. And if anything about a request concerns us, we may ask for more information first, which can delay sharing.

Yes. Every time a Trusted Steward opens your information, we record it and post it to your portal — so you can always see what was viewed, and when.

Anytime. You can turn off a Trusted Steward’s access whenever you want — for example, if you no longer need their help. Turning that off doesn’t remove them as a Trusted Steward; they stay available on an “only if needed” basis until you remove them.

No problem. Your progress saves automatically. Come back whenever you’re ready — there’s no pressure and no deadlines.

Golden Navigator is free during our invite-only beta. Join the waitlist and we’ll let you know when your spot opens. Subscription pricing will be available at launch, with monthly and annual options — and a discount for signing up with an Accountability Partner.

No. If your subscription lapses, your information is kept safely; you can pick back up by renewing (a fee may apply). And you can ask us to delete your data at any time, whatever your subscription status.

Yes. If Golden Navigator isn’t right for you, you can get a full refund within the first 14 days.

Yes, anytime. You can download your summary along as well as the original files you’ve uploaded — no need to wait until you cancel. We’re also building a way to download a fuller package of your information. Either way, we encourage you to keep your own copies of important documents.

Yes, always. You can hide anything from the people you’ve shared with while keeping it for yourself, remove any single item, or delete your whole account — which erases everything permanently. Your information belongs to you; we’re just keeping it safe.

We’ll deactivate your account and schedule your information for permanent deletion. Your data stays recoverable for 30 days — time to change your mind or finish an export — and then it’s permanently deleted. We may keep certain records longer only where the law requires it; once those periods pass, that data is deleted too.

The Trusted Steward you’ve chosen (or their representative) can notify us and, once we’ve confirmed the right documentation — such as a death certificate — gain access to what you chose to share. We’ll give them a guide to walk through the key steps, alongside the information you’ve left. They’ll have free access to the platform for six months, and can continue on a paid plan afterward if they wish.

If you haven’t named one, we’ll work with your Personal Representative to figure out the right next steps. You can also tell us which information should stay private after death — kept from everyone unless the law or a court requires otherwise.