License Agreement

1. License Grant

Upon purchase of Secure Estate Vault, Secure Estate Vault ("Licensor") grants you ("Licensee") a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Secure Estate Vault digital files solely for your own personal estate planning and organization purposes.

This license does not transfer ownership of the Secure Estate Vault files, intellectual property, or any underlying code to you. You are purchasing a license to use the product, not the product itself.

2. Permitted & Prohibited Use

3. Not a Legal Document

You expressly acknowledge and agree that Secure Estate Vault:

• Is not a will, last testament, or testamentary document of any kind
• Is not a trust or any document establishing a trust
• Is not a power of attorney or any document granting legal authority
• Is not an advance healthcare directive or living will
• Does not constitute legal advice of any kind
• Does not distribute, transfer, or direct the distribution of assets
• Does not establish, modify, or negate any legal rights of any party
• Is not a substitute for consulting a licensed estate attorney

Information stored in Secure Estate Vault has no legal standing in probate proceedings, estate disputes, or any legal process. Courts will not recognize Secure Estate Vault as a legal document. You use Secure Estate Vault with full understanding of these limitations.

4. Password Responsibility

You are solely and entirely responsible for:

• Creating a strong master password that meets the application's minimum requirements (16 characters, including uppercase, lowercase, numeric, and special characters)
• Writing down and securely storing your master password in a location accessible to your designated trusted person after your death
• Not sharing your master password with unauthorized parties during your lifetime
• Ensuring your designated trusted person knows where to find both the vault file and the master password, separately, and stored in different locations
• Updating your password periodically and informing your trusted person of any changes

Secure Estate Vault accepts no responsibility for consequences arising from poor password management, including password loss, unauthorized access, or failure of a trusted person to locate the password.

5. Lost Password, No Recovery

By purchasing and using Secure Estate Vault, you:

• Acknowledge this limitation fully and without reservation
• Accept sole responsibility for password storage and safekeeping
• Release Secure Estate Vault from any and all liability for vault contents that become inaccessible due to a lost, forgotten, or destroyed master password
• Understand that Secure Estate Vault will not and cannot provide any password recovery service under any circumstances

The Secure Estate Vault application is designed to make this clear before sealing, requiring active written confirmation that you have recorded your password before the vault can be sealed.

6. Security Limitations & No Guarantee

While Secure Estate Vault uses AES-256-GCM encryption, currently considered the global gold standard, we make the following important disclosures:

• No encryption is guaranteed to be unbreakable in perpetuity. Advances in computing, including quantum computing, may eventually affect the strength of current encryption standards. We cannot guarantee AES-256 will remain unbreakable forever.
• Security depends on your password strength. The encryption is only as strong as the master password protecting it. A guessable or short password dramatically reduces security regardless of the encryption algorithm.
• Device security is your responsibility. If the device used to create, fill, or seal your vault is compromised by malware, keyloggers, or unauthorized access before or during the session, we accept no liability for resulting data exposure.
• Physical security of your USB or files is your responsibility. We cannot protect the vault file from physical theft or destruction.

7. Unauthorized Access & Hacking, Liability

Secure Estate Vault is designed so that unauthorized access to vault contents requires both the encrypted vault file and the master password. We make the following representations and limitations:

What we are responsible for: We are responsible for correctly implementing AES-256-GCM encryption in the Secure Estate Vault application files as described. If a court of competent jurisdiction determines that we misrepresented the encryption implementation, our liability is limited to the purchase price paid ($37).

What we are not responsible for:

• Unauthorized access resulting from your device being compromised before, during, or after the sealing process
• Unauthorized access resulting from your master password being guessed, stolen, or disclosed by you
• Unauthorized access resulting from your storing the password and vault file together or in an insecure location
• Unauthorized access resulting from you sharing the password or vault file with a party who then misuses it
• Any damages arising from unauthorized access to vault contents, including but not limited to financial loss, identity theft, or privacy breaches
• Future vulnerabilities discovered in the AES-256 or PBKDF2 standards that are outside our control

8. No Warranty

Secure Estate Vault is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties including but not limited to:

• Warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose
• Warranties that the files will function identically in all browsers in perpetuity
• Warranties that the encryption will remain unbreakable against all future technology
• Warranties that the product constitutes adequate or complete estate planning
• Warranties that the product will meet the specific legal or financial requirements of any jurisdiction

9. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Secure Estate Vault and its owners, officers, employees, and affiliates from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising from:

• Your use of Secure Estate Vault in violation of this License Agreement
• Your negligent password management resulting in unauthorized vault access
• Your reliance on Secure Estate Vault as a legal document or as a substitute for legal advice
• Any dispute between you and third parties (including family members or beneficiaries) in connection with your use of Secure Estate Vault

10. Termination

This license is effective until terminated. It terminates automatically if you violate any provision of this agreement. Upon termination, you must delete all copies of Secure Estate Vault files in your possession.

Because the files function offline, termination does not prevent the technical use of already-downloaded files. However, continued use after license termination constitutes breach of this agreement.

Sections 3 (Not a Legal Document), 5 (Lost Password), 7 (Hacking Liability), 8 (No Warranty), and 9 (Indemnification) survive termination of this license.

11. Governing Law

This License Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of California, United States. Any disputes arising from this agreement shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of California, or resolved through binding arbitration as described in our Terms of Service.

12. Contact

Questions about this License Agreement? Contact us at hello@securestatevault.com. We respond within 2 business days.

We are not a law firm and cannot provide legal advice. For questions about estate planning law, please consult a licensed estate attorney in your state.