Planning for death and navigating life after a loss can be difficult, complex, and expensive. However, several apps, including Lantern, Cake, Empathy, and Everplans, among others, promise to help you.
Before the pandemic, marketers Liz Eddy and Alyssa Ruderman struggled to convince venture capitalists to invest in their end-of-life planning app, Lantern. Potential partners were also skeptical.
“We’d hear, ‘Oh, this is a niche problem,’ which I think is pretty funny,” Eddy says. “Death is literally the only thing on the planet that affects each and every person. “
The last two years have highlighted the importance of such preparation, even for the youngest. Abigail Henson, a 31-year-old college professor, says she began hiring Lantern about 18 months ago to plan her funeral, tell her executor where to locate passwords and what she was looking to do with her social media accounts.
“I’m a planner and I’m struggling, so the concept of being able to have a say in what happens after my passing was appealing,” Henson said.
Planning for death and navigating life after a loss can be difficult, complex, and expensive. However, several apps, including Lantern, Cake, Empathy, and Everplans, among others, promise to help you.
Death creation plan apps have loose equipment for consumers, and most have more premium services available for a fee.
For example, Empathy’s loose offers come with checklists, articles, and collaborative teams for family members facing death. Those who pay a subscription of $8. 99 per month or $64. 99 per year can access a vault and automated equipment to close accounts. Subscribers also get 24-hour access to “care specialists” who can answer questions and help users seek specialized advisors, such as lawyers or tax specialists.
Everplans, a document garage and app, offers a free trial followed by a $75 annual subscription.
Lantern’s loose offerings come with foundational pre-planning tools, a crisis checklist, document storage, and collaboration tools. A one-time payment of $149 provides more resources and the ability to create additional plans.
Cake’s loose features include end-of-life programming, online memorials, a crisis checklist, and document storage. A $96 annual subscription buys unlimited storage, an online legal will, and individual consultations with the app team, says Suelin Chen, co-founder of Cake.
Some apps partner with employers, insurers, banks, and other corporations that provide the ability of the app to workers or consumers as benefits. Apps can also earn referral fees to link users with service providers. Lantern has a “Funeralocity” tool for searching funeral homes, for example, and Cake marries Etereva, who turns the cremated remains into diamonds.
Henson says he chose Lantern because he was looking for a virtual solution that would allow him to carry out the responsibilities of pre-plans at his own pace and share them online with others he trusts. the documents in a locked filing cabinet, which his mother did, Henson says.
“It can be overwhelming to think about it all at once, but the concept that from time to time you can step in and go higher is helpful,” Henson says.
People shouldn’t rely on apps to do all of their estate planning, says licensed money planner and Dr. Carolyn McClanahan of Jacksonville, Florida. Wills and trusts, for example, are difficult to draft and are done through experienced attorneys, she says.
But McClanahan loves apps that have responsibilities like funeral instructions, complex care guidelines, puppy care plans, and draft obituaries.
“Anything that can get other people to start thinking about making end-of-life plans is good,” McClanahan says.
Planning for your death can be a wonderful gift to the other people you leave behind, saving them confusion and stress. But dealing with the aftermath of death can still be a heavy burden, which becomes even more confusing due to grief.
Families spend thousands of dollars and many hours on responsibilities after death, says Ron Gura, co-founder and CEO of Empathy. These responsibilities would likely come from arranging funerals, probate, final bills, service cancellations, and dealing with various government agencies. , adding Social Security and IRS. Apps allows other people to answer some questions and get personalized advice.
“We can show him the things he wants to do now and also tell him what to expect,” Gura says.
Death plan applications are basically based on practical aspects, such as acting responsibilities and downloading vital documents. But many also inspire users to think about their legacy.
Everplans, for example, provides a worksheet for others to create a moral will, a document that communicates their values, life lessons, and ultimate life experiences. Everplans also provides templates and tips for writing letters and creating videos with a legacy message.
Cake’s Chen says other people ask him if running an app to make death plans is depressing. On the contrary, she says. Thinking about what we value and how we should be remembered is an essential part, not only of the process of making plans for death, but also of life, Chen says.
“It gets to the center of what gives meaning to life,” she says. “They remind me every day to make the most of the time I have. “