Every physical or virtual device — phones, computers, drives, routers, smart home gear, security keys, hardware wallets, even the old hard drives and USB sticks in a drawer — with the metadata that lets the system survive loss, replacement, or inheritance.
Where this Module fits
S-01 Module 1 of 6 in the System area — step 1 of 4 on the dependency ladder (System → At-Home → Financial → Estate).
First in the System sequence, and a good warm-up for every Module that follows. Unless your family runs entirely on paper, any file system you define in the next Module will live on one or more of the devices inventoried here — know what you own before deciding what it holds.
Adds to The Secure Guide: Full device inventory — one entry per device with backup, encryption, and disposal metadata.
Adds to The Family Guide: Device count and types, where the inventory lives, who to call for a lost device.
Every Module adds one section to each guide — that is how the two guides assemble as you work. See what you're building.
Download Text FileNothing is entered on this page — you fill the template in privately.
Text file — the flexible one. Use it as-is, paste it into a spreadsheet, open it in any editor, or paste it into an AI tool to reshape the blank form to fit your family: rename a field, add a row, drop one you don't need.
Print / PDF — the ready-to-use one. Print it and fill it in by hand, or choose Save as PDF and complete it in your own offline PDF app. Either way it stays with you — the finished Secure Guide template goes inside your Vault.
One rule: only ever give an AI tool the blank template. Never paste your real information — passwords, account numbers, anything you'd keep secret — into an AI tool, an online service, or anywhere outside your own Vault. Customizing an empty form is fine; filling it in happens privately, offline. That's the same rule this site follows: nothing sensitive ever leaves your hands.
Secure Guide Starter Template — Devices
One Secure Guide entry per device — fill this template once for each device the family owns. Store the entries inside your Vault; update whenever a device is added, changed, or retired. Work device by device: the first two entries are the slowest, and most take only a few minutes once you have the rhythm.
e.g., Laptop, Smartphone, NAS, USB Drive, Hardware Wallet.
e.g., the operating system and version, or NAS firmware.
Family members who use this device.
Where the device usually lives.
Yes / No. Recovery key is high-friction — store it in the Vault, not in this entry.
e.g., encrypted cloud, external SSD, OS backup target — or "not backed up."
Wipe procedure + recycling or transfer steps.
Maintenance check or password-rotation date.
Where these live, by reference (e.g., the password manager entry name; recovery codes in the Vault) — never the values themselves.
Devices; secure-guide; family-guide; System
Family Guide Starter Template — Devices
This template contains no sensitive information. It can be stored with household documents.
In the matching Secure Guide section: full device inventory — one entry per device with backup, encryption, and disposal metadata.
That detail is what makes recovery possible — and it is protected in the Vault, which opens with The Vault Key. The key is never written here, by design. The people listed on this page know how it is kept, and the steward's job is to keep that path current, so this page never leads to a locked door.
High-level summary — count and types, no serial numbers or credentials.
The one or few devices everything else depends on (e.g., the laptop that carries the system, the steward's phone). The complete list is stored in The Secure Guide.
In plain terms, how the family's devices are used day to day — who works on what, which machine holds the important files, which phones receive the security codes.
Primary owner / steward and the review cadence.
Contact for lost / stolen device support; pointer to the Estate Plan for incapacity.
Anything this page's reader should know that the sections above didn't ask for — the exceptions, the house quirks, the thing you would say out loud while handing this page over.
For more information on how to use these templates, see The Recoverable Family book.
Worked example — Frank's family
Frank is a 42-year-old operations manager. His household runs nineteen devices — his and Sarah's laptops, the kids' phones, a shared family iPad, a smart TV, two gaming consoles, a camera system, a mesh router, and the drawer strays he found in week one. After Lily's phone was stolen at school with no record to give the police, he built the inventory below. His Secure Guide is an encrypted folder tree on his laptop (System / At-Home / Financial / Estate); device credentials live in his password manager under matching entry names.
The Devices spreadsheet sits in the System folder of Frank's encrypted Secure Guide volume — one row per device, nineteen rows. Four representative entries:
Entry 1 — Frank's laptop
Frank-Laptop (ThinkPad, personal — hosts the encrypted Secure Guide volume)
Laptop
Windows 11 Pro, current
Frank (primary)
Home office desk
Yes — BitLocker
Weekly image to the external SSD in the fire safe; documents sync nightly to encrypted cloud storage (see the Backup and Synchronize entry)
Keep the drive until the replacement is verified, then full wipe (Reset this PC → Remove everything) and R2-certified recycler
2026-04 quarterly audit
Password manager → Devices → Frank-Laptop (login PIN, BitLocker recovery key); passkey recovery codes in the Vault
Devices; secure-guide; family-guide; System
Entry 2 — Sarah's laptop
Sarah-MacBook (self-employment)
Laptop
macOS, current
Sarah (business use only — the kids use the family iPad instead)
Sarah's studio desk; travels for client visits
Yes — FileVault (was off until the week-two audit)
Time Machine to the studio external drive; client files in an encrypted cloud folder
Erase All Content and Settings after migration; confirm “no accounts connected” before it leaves the house
2026-04 quarterly audit
Password manager → Devices → Sarah-MacBook (login password, FileVault recovery key); iCloud recovery codes in the Vault
Devices; secure-guide; family-guide; System
Entry 3 — Lily's phone (the replacement)
Lily-Phone (replacement, 2026)
Smartphone
Current; auto-update on
Lily; oversight per the family device agreement
With Lily
Yes — default device encryption; strong passcode kept behind the face unlock
Automatic encrypted cloud backup nightly; photos shared to the family library
Trade in at upgrade after factory reset; verify activation lock is removed
2026-04 quarterly audit
Passcode on file in the password manager → Devices → Lily-Phone; cloud-account recovery codes in the Vault
…and fifteen more rows — the family iPad, the smart TV, both consoles, the camera system, the mesh router, the forgotten Kindle and fitness tracker, and each family phone. If it connects or stores, it has a row.
Family Guide — Frank's entry
This entry sits in the household reference binder in Frank's home office. It contains no sensitive information.
Nineteen devices — laptops, phones, tablets, a smart TV, gaming consoles, cameras, and the router. Types and users are summarized here; no serial numbers or credentials.
Frank-Laptop — it carries the encrypted volume that holds The Secure Guide — and Frank's and Sarah's phones, which receive the account-verification codes. The complete nineteen-device list is in The Secure Guide.
Everyone runs their own machine — Dad's ThinkPad is work plus the family records system, Mom's MacBook is the design business, the kids' phones are theirs, the iPad is homework and travel. Mom's and Dad's phones are the ones that receive the bank and account codes.
Frank — quarterly device audit on a calendar reminder. Sarah holds emergency access to the password manager.
Lost or stolen device: tell Frank first — he can remote-lock and wipe it. If Frank is unreachable, Sarah's emergency access opens the same controls. For any confusing request about a device or account, use the family code word and call back on a number in this Guide.
Drawer strays live in the labeled shoebox in the office closet — if a device isn't in the inventory yet, it goes there until the next audit, not back in the drawer.