AARP vs. Trustworthy Digital Vault: How They Compare

Life can take unexpected turns, so it's essential to have your family’s important documents organized, secure, and easy to access at any moment. A family digital vault makes that possible.

Market leader Trustworthy and year-old AARP Digital Vault are two of the options available. In this article, we’ll explain why Trustworthy is the better choice — offering instant organization, stronger security, smarter features, and standout support.

What Is Trustworthy? 

Trustworthy’s Family Operating System® is designed to help you protect, organize, and share your important family and business documents.

Trustworthy, launched in 2020, streamlines information organization with instant organization, automated document uploads, automated reminders, and expert customer service. And we’ll get into its next-level security in a moment.

What Is AARP Digital Vault?

AARP Digital Vault, powered by Prisidio, also intends to help people organize their documents through a secure digital system. This vault, however, includes only some of the safety features and functionality that Trustworthy provides.

To help you understand the differentiators, let’s run through how each service performs across the most important areas.

Trustworthy’s Unmatched Security Offers Peace of Mind

Trustworthy’s advanced security features are unmatched, giving you peace of mind that your sensitive information is safe. 

While both platforms use AES 256-bit encryption and multi-factor authentication with biometrics and are SOC 2 certified and HIPAA compliant, the similarity ends there. 

Trustworthy is SOC 2 Type II certified, meeting additional standards of the American Institute of CPAs. It is SOC 3 certified as well; AARP Digital Vault is not.

Trustworthy’s world-class security measures include:

• Tokenization, which removes your sensitive data from the Trustworthy database and replaces it with a corresponding token to keep your information secure. That means your information is always protected and separate from your account.

• On-screen redaction and physical security keys.

• Advanced threat detection: Trustworthy uses behavior analytics to identify anomalies and unusual activities.

Trustworthy also bests AARP Digital Vault in data privacy standards. In addition to its HIPAA compliance, Trustworthy is compliant with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), two industry-leading standards.

Trustworthy's numerous five-star ratings and 4.8 score (excellent) on customer review site Trustpilot are a testament to its strong security and performance. AARP Digital Vault doesn’t have reviews on Trustpilot, but AARP’s overall rating is only 1.3 (bad). Prisidio has a 4.5 score but from only a dozen or so reviews.

AARP Digital Vault Offers Basic Service at a Basic Price

AARP Digital Vault offers only two plans, and you can’t get either of them without joining AARP first:

• A basic plan for $20 a year.

• An Unlimited plan for $95 a year.

Those are the prices after you’ve paid to join AARP, which is $15-$20 for a first-year subscription.

Trustworthy offers more variety in plans: 

• A basic plan for free, with no time limit.

• Silver: $10 a month (billed annually)

• Gold: $20 a month (billed annually)

• Platinum: $40 a month (billed annually), which includes three hours of access to Trustworthy Certified Experts™. These Experts can provide personalized support — remotely or in person — for organizing your account, or handle your account setup entirely. More details on our Experts appear below.

• 50% Silver and Gold discounts for firefighters, police, paramedics, EMTs, doctors, nurses, active-duty military personnel, reservists, veterans, teachers, and security guards. 

Trustworthy's Paid Plans Don't Cap Your Storage

One area where Trustworthy leads AARP Digital Vault is storage capacity: All of Trustworthy’s paid plans allow unlimited item storage. AARP Digital Vault's basic paid plan caps storage at only 10 MB; its Unlimited plan has no storage restriction.

If you want to ensure you can upload all the important documents in your life without running into a wall, Trustworthy is the clear winner. 

Trustworthy's Automation Streamlines Your Organization

Life is time-consuming and complicated. Your digital vault shouldn’t be. That’s why Trustworthy wins on automation.

Trustworthy keeps your household information organized without requiring you to build or maintain a system yourself. Its structured platform automatically connects your people, documents, accounts, and assets so everything works together as a cohesive whole. As new information is added, it’s instantly organized in the background, while Autopilot extracts key details from your documents to keep everything accurate and up to date.

With Inbox Autopilot, that organization extends to your email as well. Important documents from your Gmail account can be automatically uploaded, categorized, and connected to the rest of your account, ensuring new information is continually integrated without manual effort.

You also benefit from other automations, like Trustworthy’s mobile document scanner, available from its Android and iOS app.

AARP Digital Vault offers some helpful features, too, including mobile scanning. Also like Trustworthy, it provides regular, automated backups to ensure all your information is up to date.

Still, Trustworthy is the clear winner here.

Trustworthy Provides More Support

If this is your first sortie into the world of digital vaults and family organization, you might be a little bit wary, especially if you’re wanting some help with big jobs like estate planning. 

That’s why amazing customer support should be at the top of your wish list when you’re shopping for the best digital vault. So, let’s see how Trustworthy and AARP Digital Vault stack up in this department.

For starters, Trustworthy's website is more detailed about its product features, including its security. In comparison, confirming whether AARP Digital Vault had mobile apps required a 17-minute phone call with two transfers.

If you’re looking for next-level support, you can get access to a Trustworthy Certified Expert™.

Trustworthy Certified Experts™ are professionals who offer personalized, one-on-one help. They assist Trustworthy members with such tasks as onboarding documents, creating digital organization strategies, and connecting with the right legal or planning professionals.

Best of all, you can set up appointments with your Expert when it’s convenient for you. Some of the Experts are available evenings and weekends, too, so you aren’t stuck waiting until Monday morning for advice.

Other Trustworthy Features

Forward emails to your Trustworthy Inbox for fast and easy organization:

• Just forward your family’s important documents to your personalized Trustworthy email address, and they’ll be automatically added to your Trustworthy Inbox, with suggested names and recommended filing locations.

Chrome extension:

• With drag-and-drop functionality, you can easily add files, email attachments, or save screenshots directly to your Trustworthy Inbox. Trustworthy's tool can even pull documents directly from your Gmail account, if you wish.

Trustworthy iOS and Android mobile app:

• Access and share documents on the go.

• Scan and upload documents from your phone.

Scanning:

• Scan and upload documents from your phone.

• Upload documents via a ScanSnap scanner.

Mobile offline mode:

• Access your household information even without the internet — perfect for travel, emergencies, or whenever connectivity is limited.

Information downloads:

• Export your household information anytime so you always have a complete copy of your data.

Collaboration:

• The feature lets you define a trusted network of family members, friends, and advisors. You have complete control over who can view and edit specific documents or categories, granting full or partial access and safeguarding your family’s sensitive information.

• SecureLinks™, with granular permissions to decide who has access to specific documents and for how long. 

Legacy access:

• Allows trusted individuals to access your account when you pass away.

Search feature:

• Quickly locate critical files, folders, and more, whether you’re on your computer or your phone, with just a few keystrokes.

Get started with a free Trustworthy account