Will my legacy contact have access to my apps locked by passcode?

About Legacy Contacts

Starting in iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2, and macOS 12.1, you can add a Legacy Contact for your Apple ID. Adding a Legacy Contact is the easiest, most secure way to give someone you trust access to the data stored in your Apple account after your death. The data may include photos, messages, notes, files, apps you've downloaded, device backups, and more. Certain information, like movies, music, books, or subscriptions you purchased with your Apple ID, and data stored in your Keychain—like payment information, passwords, and passkeys—can’t be accessed by your Legacy Contact. 

Learn more about the data your Legacy Contact may be able to access

Your Legacy Contact can be anyone you choose, and you can designate more than one Legacy Contact. They don’t even need an Apple ID or an Apple device.

To file an access request after you pass away, they'll just need:

• The access key that you generate when you choose them as your contact 
• Your death certificate

Apple reviews requests from Legacy Contacts and gives them access to your Apple account data only after verifying this information. When access is approved, your Legacy Contact receives a special Apple ID that they can set up and use to access your account. Your Apple ID and password will no longer work, and Activation Lock is removed on any devices that use your Apple ID. 

Learn how your Legacy Contact can request access to your Apple account

Your Legacy Contact has access to your data for a limited time—three years from when the first legacy account request is approved—after which the account is permanently deleted. Please note that if you have more than one Legacy Contact, any one of them can individually make decisions about your account data after your death, including permanently deleting it.

No.

ANY Apple device passcode exists ONLY on that device. (YOU can’t even recover it yourself … nor can Apple)

So … while Apple provides access to the AppleID …

… it’s STILL an element of effective estate planning of how to provide detailed instructions re: device access (if providing device access is indeed a requirement)

There are several viable options for how this might be securely accomplished; but they do need to be thought-thru in advance.

If they have the your passcode AND the device, they ARE “effectively” you.

Presumably w/ the same keychain access you have yourself.

HOWEVER, it’s still not perfectly clear to me how the AppleID of the decedent might behave once the legacy contact is activated (the literature refers to a “Special AppleID.”)