Legacy Access
A planned part of the BT22 Profile: name the people who can access your profile after your death, record what you want to happen, and give them a guided path through what to do and who to contact — with the evidence already organized.
PlannedIn design — not available yet.
Why this exists
When someone dies, the people closest to them are often left piecing together what happened from memory, in the worst week of their lives. With a BT22 Profile, the story is already in the profile.
Too many spouses and families are dismissed or ignored. Organized, dated records that link back to their sources are much harder to wave away than a family’s recollection alone.
Writing down your wishes is like writing a will. It doesn’t mean something is wrong.
Your legacy contact
You choose one or more people — a spouse, a parent, an adult child, a trusted friend — to have access to a side of your profile after you die.
Your wishes
Record what you’d want, so your family doesn’t have to guess. You can choose as much or as little as you like.
Including for CTE and other brain research. It’s time-sensitive: the NIH NeuroBioBank says it must be done within 24 hours of death, and that signing up ahead isn’t required but is preferable. It can go ahead alongside a funeral, cremation, or burial.
Brain banks work with the legal next of kin or the medical examiner, so your family needs to know your wishes (BU CTE Center).
The NIH NeuroBioBank says whole-body donation requires signing up with a medical school ahead of time.
And where, and any ceremony or memorial you’d want.
Who or what you’d want money or donations to go to.
Whether your profile, de-identified, can help us see what could be fixed. Off unless you choose it.
Whatever you’d want your family to know or do.
Legacy Access records what you want. It isn’t a will, a trust, a beneficiary designation, or an advance directive, and it can’t change who inherits anything or who has legal authority. Programs like brain or body donation have their own sign-up and consent steps. Talk to an attorney about your will and beneficiaries, and tell the people close to you what you want.
Naming a program here is an example, not an endorsement. Behind The 22 isn’t affiliated with any brain bank.
For your family
Your legacy contact logs in to their side of your profile. Instead of a pile of papers and phone numbers, they get a guided path.
They see what you chose to share with them, in a view built for them.
It walks them through exactly what to do and who to contact, with anything time-sensitive first — including anything you chose that has a deadline, like brain donation.
Your timeline, records, exposures, and the care that was recommended are already organized, so they don’t have to remember or reconstruct the story.
If they hit an operational problem — a records request that goes nowhere, an inspector general complaint, a benefits failure — they can contact us directly, and we’ll help them navigate it.
These are examples of what the guide is planned to cover. Before launch, it will be reviewed by an attorney and by people who have been through this.
We can help families navigate operational problems. We aren’t a law firm and we don’t give legal advice. When a lawyer is needed, we’ll say so.
Evidence
The biggest thing a profile can give a family — and us — is an understanding of what happened, and of where something could have been caught or prevented and wasn’t. Everything in the profile is dated and linked to its source: the records, the exposures and injuries, the medications, and the referrals that were recommended but never completed.
Documentation doesn’t guarantee any outcome, and it isn’t legal advice. It does mean a family isn’t starting from memory.
We don’t assume an injury caused a death simply because it came before it. The profile keeps separate what the records document, what clinicians or investigators concluded, what care was recommended but not completed, and what remains unknown.
Beyond one family
If you choose to contribute your profile to research after your death, it’s de-identified first. Across many people, it shows where the same weak points keep appearing. That lets veterans, first responders, those who are both, and their families and circles of support target exactly what needs to change, with a strategy, instead of taking shots in the dark.
Actions, not vanity metrics →From red flags to root causes →Oversight Portal →
Contributing to research is a separate choice, off unless you turn it on. It never means your name or records are published.
What it is not
Call or text 988, then press 1, or chat at veteranscrisisline.net. For a medical emergency, call 911.
Before anyone is asked to use Legacy Access, we’ll publish how a death is confirmed and access opens, who at Behind The 22 can see what, how long information is kept, what happens if you never name a contact or can’t be reached, and how the guide was reviewed by an attorney and by families who have been through this.
Have you been through this, or do you work with families after a loss? We’d like your help shaping it: research@behindthe22.com.
Want to hear when Legacy Access opens? Start with a free screener, or tell us what your family would need.
