Family Ark Help
Getting Started
Family Ark is a private place to keep the documents, accounts, and everyday details your family relies on — the things you’ll come back to update again and again — alongside the wishes and plans that matter most for the future. Think of it as both a family filing cabinet and an end-of-life planner, living in the same place.
When you first open Family Ark, you’ll be asked to choose or create a profile. A profile is simply your own private space in the app. If you’re the only one using Family Ark on this device, you’ll only ever see one profile, and it’s already picked for you.
If more than one person shares this app — for example, you and your spouse — each of you can have your own profile. On the Dashboard, tap “Switch Profile” at the top to change who’s currently using the app or to add a new profile. If there’s only one profile, you won’t see this button at all.
As you fill in information throughout the app, you’ll often see a “Visibility” choice: Personal or Shared. Personal means only your own profile can see that entry. Shared means every profile on this device can see it — useful for things like a funeral home contact or a household bill that affects the whole family. When you’re not sure which to pick, Personal is the safer choice.
Your Dashboard is the first thing you see when you open the app. It shows which sections you’ve started filling in, a short list of anything you’ve recently updated, and a place to check your reminders. The red Emergency Access button is there for urgent situations — that feature is still being built.
Contacts
Contacts is your address book inside Family Ark. Add anyone important — your attorney, financial advisor, doctor, a close friend, or a relative. Tap Contacts in the menu, then “+ Add” to create a new one. You can mark someone as a favorite by tapping the star, and you can tap their phone number, address, or email to call them, get directions, or send a message.
Tip: Many other sections in the app — like Legal Documents or Medical — let you “link” a saved contact instead of retyping their name and number. Once someone is saved here, you can pick them from a simple list anywhere else in the app.
Personal Information
This is your own core record — full legal name, Social Security number, legal residence, date and place of birth, military records, memberships and awards, and where to find a safe combination or storage locker if you have one. There’s also a spot for a photo, which is used on your Emergency Card if you turn that on in Settings.
Below the main form you’ll find three smaller lists: Family Members, Employment History, and Education. Add as many entries as you need to each — there’s a “+ Add” button for each list. Unlike most other sections, this one always belongs only to you; there’s no Shared option, since it isn’t the kind of information another profile would need to see.
Legal Documents
Use this section to keep track of important legal papers — wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, deeds, and more. For each document, you can note where the physical copy is kept, link the attorney who handled it, when it was signed, and whether it’s still Active, Superseded (replaced by a newer version), or Unknown.
Tip: If you choose “Other” as the document type, you’ll be asked to describe it in your own words.
Important Documents
Keep track of documents that expire and need renewing — passports, driver’s licenses or ID, vehicle titles and registrations, insurance cards, memberships, warranties, and manuals. Set an expiration date on any of these and Family Ark will start reminding you as it approaches: a yellow warning at 30 days out, and a red alert once you’re inside 15 days or past due. These reminders show up both on this page and on your Dashboard.
Tip: Not everything here needs an expiration date — a manual or warranty without one just won’t show a countdown.
Financial
Financial brings together the accounts, policies, and paperwork someone would need to manage your finances. It’s organized into tabs across the top: Accounts, Insurance, Property, Debts, Safe Deposit Boxes, Digital Assets, Income, Credit Cards, and Tax Returns. Switch between tabs to add and view each type — for example, bank and investment accounts under Accounts, life or homeowner’s policies under Insurance, and mortgages or loans under Debts.
Tip: Where a category has a linked contact — like an insurance agent or a creditor — save that person in Contacts first, and they’ll show up as a pick-list option instead of retyping their information.
Digital Life & Passwords
This section helps whoever handles your affairs know what to do with your online accounts — email, social media, subscriptions, and online banking. For each account, note what should happen to it: Delete, Memorialize (turn it into a memorial page), Leave Active, or Transfer To someone. If you choose Transfer To, you can link the contact who should receive it.
There’s also a place to list which password manager you use, such as 1Password or Bitwarden, along with a hint for how to access it. Please don’t write your actual master password here — just enough of a hint that a trusted person could figure out where to look.
Funeral & Memorial Wishes
Share your wishes for your funeral or memorial service — burial or cremation, which funeral home to use, the kind of service you’d like, music and readings, and any charities you’d like donations sent to instead of flowers. There’s also a large space to write a full obituary draft, so your family isn’t starting from a blank page during a difficult time.
Personal Messages
Write a personal letter or memoir note, or attach a recorded video or audio message for someone. You can address a message to a saved contact or simply type in a name.
Letters and memoir notes can be typed right in the app. For a Video or Audio message, on Android you can use Record Video under Attachment to record one right in the app. On Windows, use Browse Files to attach an existing video or audio recording instead — in-app recording isn’t offered there. Either way, once attached it’s encrypted and stored the same as any other document. A typical phone video runs roughly 3-5 minutes before hitting the attachment size limit (less for 4K); trim or lower the resolution first if you need more.
Medical
This section covers your everyday medical information — the kind of thing you’d want handy at a doctor visit or in an emergency: blood type, allergies, chronic conditions, a summary of your medical history, and your current medications. You can also link your health insurance policy and contact.
Tip: Save the related insurance policy in Financial first, and it will show up as a pick-list option here — no retyping needed.
End-of-Life Wishes
This section covers medical decisions for the end of life: whether you wish to be an organ donor, who your healthcare proxy is, and your hospice preferences. You can also link your Living Will, Durable Power of Attorney, and DNR (Do Not Resuscitate order) directly to documents you’ve already saved in Legal Documents.
Tip: Save the related paperwork in Legal Documents first, and it will show up as a pick-list option here — no retyping needed.
Personal Property & Distribution
List meaningful belongings — jewelry, a vehicle, or something sentimental — and who you’d like to receive them. You can link to a saved contact or simply write in a name. For vehicles, there’s a spot to note where the title is kept.
Pets & Dependents
Make sure your pets or anyone else who depends on your care are looked after. For each one, note who should take over their care and who their vet or pediatrician is, along with any care instructions — feeding schedules, medications, daily routines, and anything else a caregiver would need to know.
Home & Household
Keep track of the practical, everyday details of running your household — utilities, service providers, your mortgage, alarm codes, and more. For each one, you can note the account number, a contact, and any instructions someone would need if they had to take over.
Sharing Records Between Profiles
Most sections let you mark an entry as Personal (only you can see it) or Shared (every profile on this device can see it) — useful for things like a joint bank account, a household bill, or a funeral home contact the whole family should know about.
Only the profile that created a Shared record can edit it or change it back to Personal. If you’re viewing a record someone else shared, you’ll see a “view only” note and the Edit and Delete buttons will be grayed out — that’s expected, and it keeps one profile from accidentally taking something away that another profile is relying on.
Managing Profiles
If more than one person shares this device, each of you gets your own profile with your own PIN. From the “Who is using Family Ark?” screen — shown at startup when there’s more than one profile, or reachable anytime from the Dashboard’s “Switch Profile” button — you can add a new profile or delete one that’s no longer needed.
Deleting a profile is permanent and removes everything it owns. If it owns any Shared records, you’ll be asked which of those to keep (so other profiles don’t lose access to them) and which to delete along with the profile. You’ll also need to type the profile’s name to confirm — this can’t be undone.