Nevada based YouDeparted provides an encrypted electronic safe deposit box with up to 5GB of space that can be accessed by loved ones in the event of a members death
Members use the service to store important information and last messages. When a member passes away, designated family members and friends may unlock the account. Before an account can be unlocked, a minimum number of Recipients set by the member must independently verify that member’s passing. Once the account is unlocked, Recipients are granted access to information specifically left for each of them, and the emails and letters written earlier by the member are sent out.
Founder Collin Harris got the idea for YouDeparted after his father suddenly fell ill and passed away without specifying his last wishes or requests. Several years later his family members are still struggling to settle matters relating to the death, including where the ashes should be scattered.
In addition to correspondence and email, the service can be used to pass on photo collections, movies, audio clips, copies of documents, and any other files that the member wishes to leave for family members.
YouDeparted are quick to point out that they are not competing with online wills or estate planners; YouDeparted is a service that begins where a typical will or trust ends. No one wants to kick the bucket, but it never hurts to be prepared. YouDeparted is a clever idea that is bound to appeal to the well prepared, or those facing terminal illness. The service costs $9.95 per year.
What has technology come to.
if they get VC backing I’m going to cry
I think this is a great idea. I don’t know how many times I’ve thought about some scheme to leave messages to loved one’s and never got to it for one reason or another. Things like emails that send if I don’t check in monthly could create confusion if I go on vacation or am otherwise distracted and I just never got around to opening a safe deposit box. This is an incredibly convenient way to leave some final words and perhaps an artifact or two. I wish I’d thought of it. My only concern is that I would want to see a plainly stated, easy to locate statement indicating that any stored information would never be data mined for marketing purposes.
Not an original idea…there was a company who did this a couple of years back. I love the business model $10-$80/year until you die.
I’m not sure who the target audience for this is but my parents aren’t technical enough to even think of using a service like this..not a good market. The 40’s, 50’s people are still quite a few years away from passing…and may not even think about a service like this. I’m not sure this will work, or even how compelling it is….though it might be interesting to tell a few people off from the grave.
How do you account for email addresses far into the future? (e.g. I’m sure my email today will be different 5, 10, 15 years in the future).
greatgoodbye.com offers the same from couple of years…
Funny, just yesterday I posted on an idea to create a service where your messages are delivered after you are dead… http://www.huen...-is-someth.html
Pretty lame – So I pop $10 bucks into this, and more importantly my information. I die in x years but the service has gone under.
Why not just buy a family domain – and put everything securely under that? Give each family member a section and so forth.
http://www.futureme.org/ I use it to send myself reminders on occasion.
Deadpool companies can utlize this, except if this service itself deadpools.
If people don’t leave wills or other important documents, what makes you think they will setup an account on a website that has all their information on it.
Hi, I’m one of the founders of youdeparted.com. Thought I’d respond to a few of the comments here.
Allen Stern – Yes, good idea but then you have to be able to set up a website with a login to keep it private. Easy for folks like us but…
Colin C. – You are correct, a large percentage of people die and do not leave a will so I doubt they would use our service. Our service does force one to plan and organize!
I like to think of our site as a personal organizer with a death benefit. You can store all kinds of information here. Travel documents, home inventory, copies of important documents and many small details such as even your locker combination at the gym. If something does happen, at least people you care about will have access to the information.
Thanks for the feedback!
someone will copy this and make it free
Collin – yep, easy for us but I can’t get my mother to give me any info – she barely can use AOL – she is going to setup a profile in your system?
My concern with your service is you going out of business before death occurs.
This is Nick Harris, the other co-founder of YouDeparted, and I’m glad to see us on TechCrunch. I’m a regular reader here and I definitely appreciate the feedback and I have a few things to add:
Steve Cichosz – thanks for the support and in terms of data mining, our terms prohibit it. We actually cannot see any user data since each of their accounts is individually encrypted using 256 bit AES and a key only they have.
ChandraB – Our target market is certainly not limited to people like your parents, although you would be surprised how many older people are tech savvy these days. Our main target is baby boomers, since they are nearing retirement age, have children they want to protect, and have things worth passing on. I think you are right that not everyone is necessarily thinking about a service like this, but the point is that the unexpected can and does happen all the time, so it’s a great idea to have everything organized and accessible just in case. In terms of emails changing, setting up your account is not a one-pass deal. You can login at any time (it is an electronic safe deposit box) and update emails or anything else.
Eran Hammer-Lahav – Definitely a bit of a coincidence!
Anatoly – Ha, now that’s an idea I hadn’t thought of before! In terms of us joining the deadpool, that will not happen as we are very well funded and are we are getting lots of signups (gasp, we are actually making a profit!).
Beng – I suppose they could, but I have no idea how they would ever afford to stay in business. Also, I personally would be very concerned about storing important information on a free service.
Why is it that some skeptics talk as though they own a crystal ball?
Go back to your weather forecasts and stock market reports.
Must agree with the general consensus thus far – I’m not too fond on this idea.
Evolutionary, but not revolutionary… as much as I don’t agree with futurist Ray Kurzweil’s timeline for a “technological singularity” (wikipedia that if you’re curious about the deeper parts), I do think he’s right and that it’s coming eventually. One of the main signs that it’s coming is the evolution of what’s valuable, going from corporeal goods having the most vale to information having the most value. As our information becomes more digital, services like these will become the norm as opposed to the safe deposit box. In fact, this is the natural progression of the safe deposit box (hence my first sentence). When that progression will reach completion is up in the air, and the question remains – is YouDeparted.com on time, ahead of its time, or waaay too early for it to hit its time?
Allen Stern – Good concern, but then the web hosting company can go belly up just when the information is needed.
I do agree with Alex, I don’t have a crystal ball either! But we are well funded and the idea is being well received. Besides, we are having fun with this. Check out: http://net.comp...enta.ru/325546/. Only on the internet!
Great.. make money off of the terminally ill… I guess they wouldn’t be the first.
Man imagine if a ton of people invest in that service and die right after the investors foreclose and start selling off assets… I’d be seriously pissed if I was one of the family members!
Professor Print – Not sure what you mean. Our target audience is not the terminally ill.
Aaronontheweb (AjaxNinja) – I was a bit unclear here.
“Founder Collin Harris got the idea for YouDeparted after his father suddenly fell ill and passed away without specifying his last wishes or requests.”
And here I thought you were going to say he got the idea after watching “Things to in Denver when you’re Dead”
If you’ve seen the movie then you know this is like Andy Garcia’s company only spruced up with web 2.0 goodness. If you haven’t seen the movie you should…-Metagg
Look, I really enjoy this site, but the more press this kind of junk gets, the more people are going to keep trying for ideas like this. I have sympathy for the founder, but to attempt to make cash on this idea is unbelievable. Make it free or just cancel your hosting.
Sorry,
Jason
1daysports.com
Hey Jason, how is it any different then spending a ton of money writing a will with a lawyer?
Jason – no sympathy needed. My father lived a very long life. It just would have been nice to know where things were and what he wanted. My step mother ended up taking two flights to Cleveland looking for the name of the cemetary so he could have saved her some money if we had known where. As I started asking around, other folks have had the same problem.
All comments appreciated here! Thanks for taking the time to comment on our site.
I like the idea but not the pricing model. Why not a 1 time fee of $100 to store your documents rather than paying for every year which you are alive?
I think it is a good concept…but I agree with many of the flaws that have been pointed out. (Abandoned email addresses -and- expiring credit cards will be an issue on the recurring payments/subscriptions – especially after a couple/few years). Revenue models evolve over time as a business matures – my guess is this would be one of the few sites that would do very well with an advertising only revenue model (assuming it gets some traction) – lawyer ads pay pretty well.
I do have to say, I enjoyed reading about this company and the idea behind it…and I am very happy to see a frequent TC reader and bootstrapper get a review. I hope they believe in what they are doing and continue to innovate and improve their service. And I hope TC continues to put some smaller guys and gals in the spotlight.
you can partner with us
I think this is a wonderful idea and I’m considering using it. Why? Because unfortunately, accidents happen. I would want my family to have access to passwords so that they could get photos and other memories off of my hard drive and online accounts. This is a real scenario, sad to say.
See here for more info on why this is important:
http://www.sili...re-digital.html
You have a great market for online gamblers. They have accounts that they need to be able to allow someone to take care of if they ‘disappear’ but would never give anyone access to the account while they are alive
My Dad left a file on our computer labeled “After Mike is Gone” that had all his insurance info, and other important documents. My mother spoke about it so fondly, it was so considerate of him to do and made life easier for her. I like the idea. Although I agree, it may be making money in the short term, what happens if you run out of money before I die?
Well, I think that to gain trust from the customers, the comapny needs to insure itself against bankruptcy and guarantee that services for existing customers will be upheld for 100 years after bankruptcy.
That should get rid of the (correct) trust problems.
Nice idea, but I doubt that such a gloomy service will get traction. Most people don’t want to deal with death.
ob.max.headroom:
That’s…. *wonderful*, isn’t it?
Yes, it’s definitely difficult to think about death in our society. But if you think about death in advance and prepare for it like Nick suggests, you’d be amazed at how fear subsides in the shadow of your actions to confront the unfathomable—your death. I spend $80+ a year on a safety deposit box at the bank. Why not backup these valuable docs online? Youdeparted.com is a good idea. In response to others on sending emails from the grave, you can do this at http://www.thelastemail.com. Apparently, your principal survivor has to furnish a death certificate for your last email to be delivered.
Thanks again for all the feedback – we want the service to be as good as possible and your comments really do help. I have replies to several of you:
Nays – We have considered and still may implement a 1 time fee structure, but for now we want the barrier to entry to be minimal with the base $9.95/yr plan.
Dave – Thanks, and in terms of expired emails and credit cards, we actually check in with each customer on an annual basis to make sure their info is updated. The advertising only model is something we are actually looking into at this moment for free accounts, but we will continue to offer premium accounts with up to 5GB of space. We do believe in what we are doing because we think the service can be really beneficial to people and their families, and certainly plan to innovate and improve the service over time!
Bdb – I really appreciate the support! As a regular here, I’m very used to the “passionate” commenters, and I’m sure I’ve been one of them in the past! Even the harshest comments provide us with information that will help us improve the service. Regards.
Amy Wilsch – Story of My Life is a nice website, and I’m definitely open to discussing partnership opportunities. (;
Ivan Stork – Thanks – and I recommend trying one of our 14-day free trials. In an ideal world, accidents wouldn’t happen, losing someone would be a seamless transition, and our service wouldn’t be necessary, but the “real scenario” you mention is very much the sort of thing we hope our service will help survivors through.
Craig Cockburn – Your article covers some of the exact reasons we created the service. Only with our service you can easily keep your major accounts and passwords updated, whereas doing that in a will would be time consuming and difficult.
TJ – There’s a new target I had yet to consider!
Salem – Your dad obviously had some great foresight and I’m glad it made life easier for your mother. I would note that a personal computer may crash, be stolen, or get destroyed. The idea with our service is that you can still store everything on your computer, but also on an encrypted electronic safe deposit box where your data is regularly backed up and you can specify private messages for separate individuals. If we did run out of money, we would notify every account holder and provide them 90 days to retrieve the information they stored in their account. More likely though, we would be bought by another firm and the service would continue under new management.
Bjoern – I agree that gaining trust from our customers is very important, and although there isn’t bankruptcy insurance, we have set aside funds to keep the service running for 100+ years even if we stopped making any money today.
Yohay – I would agree that a lot of people “don’t want to deal with death,” but disagree with the traction statement and provide Wills and the entire estate planning profession as examples of how gloomy services have gained massive traction.
Denise Carson – Over the course of running this business, we have learned that talking about death in our society is difficult, but there also seems to be a trend towards more openness and acceptance of the inevitable as a part of our lives. I’ll be very interested to get a copy of your upcoming book “Parting Ways: The New Rituals of Dying, Death and Mourning in America.”
Thanks again for the feedback everyone!
This idea is an important development of the new internet world we live in. But note that it is not a new idea. deathswitch.com has been doing this for years. And I think(?) they may have a patent on the technology.
hi i enjoyed the read