Hacker News Invite Code: YCHN<p>LifeEnsured is a service which lets you control the distribution and care of your on-line assets after you pass away.<p>We will modify, transfer or erase your on-line accounts, send final email messages and pass on important files after you are gone. Additionally, we have a growing list of services which we will execute when we have received notification of your passing (i.e. making a web services call, physically printing and mailing a document)<p>We spoke with quite a few folks about what they want to have happen to their on-line life after they are gone and asked what they thought of a service that would assist with this. Most importantly we asked what would make them use it. We did our best to write our results up in an "OKTrends" style data based report here: <a href="http://www.blog.lifeensured.com/?p=16" rel="nofollow">http://www.blog.lifeensured.com/?p=16</a><p>The best reasons for using our service we heard were:<p>1. I want to reduce the emotional or administrative burden on my family<p>2. I want to preserve wealth for my descendants<p>3. I want to communicate information<p>4. I want to be remembered<p>The biggest hurdles and causes of skepticism we heard were:<p>1. I don’t trust you, how do I know you are a credible company<p>2. I don’t see a need<p>3. I have a legal objection<p>4. I have a philosophical objection<p>To address these we<p>1. Partnered with a leading life-insurance distribution company and established an Irrevocable Trust Fund to execute wishes. The fund outlives the company in case something bad happens.<p>2. Put together a list of 50 uses for the product and worked with estate planners to determine the features that address the biggest existing headaches.<p>3. Hired a great trust Lawyer to review everything and help us establish a legal structure that provides value to clients when they sign up, a real Digital Asset Trust.<p>4. Became comfortable with the fact that on-line end-of-life planning isn't for everyone, but for some, it is very important.<p>We are in beta but believe we are at a point where some broader feedback would help!<p>Thanks
While i find this an interesting service i also cant help think about their first customer death. It must be kind of strange moment for the founder thinking "Yay! We completed customer cycle, but someone had to die for that to happen."<p>I'm not saying this is either a good or bad thing, just, ye know, weird.
One of the biggest challenges here seems to be that the web as we know it will likely be nearly unrecognizable 10 years from now, yet yours is a product with a timeline of several decades. Imagine in 10 years how paltry a 100MB file upload limit will likely seem.
This was a business idea I tossed around about 2 years ago, I seriously considered making the leap and going for it because it is a necessary niche of the modern day. But the more I planned and worked on it, the more I realized it wasn't something I wanted to get into. Death is a hard thing to process for me.<p>Ultimately I set it aside. I couldn't do it. So I wish you and the others in this market the best, and hope you find the success you're seeking.
One of my friends started <a href="https://www.entrustet.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.entrustet.com/</a> a few years back. Looks like it's effectively the same service as LifeEnsured.
The serious, formal, and somber text on sites like this ("after you pass...on...into death!") makes me wonder if there's a market for a snarky site that will do the same thing, but present itself in a more amusing, ironic sort of way.<p>Gawker or 4chan aficionados may want a Gawker- or 4-chan styled service, after all.