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Advice from founder Collin Harris on using YouDeparted.com.

I know it's difficult to think about your own death. Hopefully all of us will live to be 120 years old and die peacefully in our sleep and wake up in heaven.

Storing sensitive information online
Much of the information you will store at YouDeparted only has value to your immediate friends and family. Even if hackers ran away with our servers (then assuming they could somehow crack AES for every account!!), all they would find out is where you wanted to be buried, the location of documents and reminders to turn the water off. This type of information will comprise the bulk of your account.

For extremely sensitive information such as financial user names and passwords, mother's maiden name, social security information, you have two options here. We are very confident in YouDeparted.com’s security and this information can be safely stored on our site. Remember, not even we can see your information since it is encrypted.

Still paranoid? Think perhaps the government with their huge computers could crack our site? Perhaps you just don't trust ANY Internet security for really sensitive information. No problem. Use our site to store the location of this sensitive information. Write your most sensitive information down and then store it in your safe, safe deposit box, up in a cave in the hills, etc. When you die, your survivors will know where to look for the information.

YouDeparted.com was designed to give your family and friends vital information needed in case of your death. At some point in your life, you start accumulating assets, bills, insurance, responsibilities, etc. and often the only one who knows about everything you do is, well, you! Where your will and/or trust ends is where YouDeparted begins with vital information.

When you get run over by the proverbial truck, what happens to all this information? For example, I pay nearly everything on-line these days and often receive no statements. Who would know what was due?

Without good information, my family would be late paying the cell phone, cable, utilities, and other bills. While I was resting peacefully in the ground, they would be trying to figure out who to pay and when! Youdeparted helps your family avoid these problems.

To help organize your essential information, we have many categories and templates to walk you through the process. For example, categories such as Finance have sub-categories where you list banking, business, and other financial information.

Recipients
Make sure you add Recipients to your account and notifiy them that they must unlock your account once you pass away.

What to enter in your account:

Financial Information
A listing of all financial accounts including banks, brokerages, annuities, etc. A listing of all property you own and information about mortgages, taxes, insurance and maintenance and responsible individuals. All safe deposit boxes and key locations. The location of your life insurance and the information needed to make a claim.

Information on all bills you pay including mortgage, property taxes, estimated taxes, electric, gas, water, sewer, garbage, pest control and other utilities, insurance payments, subscription services, cable, cell, etc. What do you pay which would most likely go unpaid in the event of your death?

Your online information. Sites names, user names, passwords and why these sites are important to your survivors.

Letters and Email
Do you like the idea of being able to mail out a final letter or email? These may be practical information or simply a goodbye. These may be updated frequently as needed.

Burial Issues
You may wish to enter everything from what clothes you want to wear at your funeral, and casket information. Do you want to be cremated? To scatter your ashes on Pikes Peak or keep them in an urn by the fireplace? Unless you have made this really clear, you will have no control over your final resting place.

Health Matters
What do you want done if you go into a coma with no hope of ever recovering? Use our Health Directives (which can be accessed by your Recipients before you die).
Do you want to donate your organs? I think you get the picture.

Gifts
Though many major gifts are spelled out in the will, often there are items of interest you wish to give to a family member or friend. Though anything not listed in your will could be contested, in all likelihood, your heirs will honor your requests. For example, giving your baseball cards to one of your sons or your collection of flies (for fishing) to your fishing buddy.

Household items
Does your family know who to call when things break? Do they know how to shut the water off in winter? Only you know all the things you do to keep your household running properly. Be sure to spell it all out and update it frequently.

Business information.
Many of you run your own businesses. Does anybody know all the details? Make sure you give your heirs a really good idea who your suppliers are, where your bank account is, who does the books, and how to continue operations! If you do not leave clear instructions for your businesses, it may fold and incur liabilities after you die, leaving your family and partners with a mess. With just a little bit of planning, your heirs will understand how to conduct or terminate your business in an orderly fashion. This information should be updated as often as necessary. Make it even easier on everybody and tell them what you were working on, the current assets and liabilities and all the other details someone else would need to fill your shoes.

Pictures, movies, audio, documents and other files.
Store from 20MB to 1GB of files and add them as attachments to the entries you create in your account.  When you pass away, your family and friends will be able to see these pictures, watch movies you created for them, and listen to your last thoughts. Some of you may have very large file collections and already have an online storage service, so be sure to include the login details to such accounts.