Before You Depart:
Preparing For The Unexpected

Hello everyone, we’ll get back to covering the usual topics of this blog, but right now we have some important news about our service:

As stated in the last post, we have increased the total secure online storage space that comes with each account. You can now upload from one to five gigabytes depending on the type of membership you have.

We have also changed our annual pricing in order to ensure YouDeparted’s continued quality and security far into the future. Current members will not be affected by the price change until their renewal date.

Our introductory pricing of $9.95/yr for an account with 20mb of space is now $29.95/yr and comes with 1GB.  An account with 2GB is now $39.95/yr and 5GB is now $59.95/yr.

More about the pricing change:
We want the best for you, our customers, and you are buying the YouDeparted service to organize and store vital information which is passed on if something happens to you. You truly rely on our service to do take care of very important matters. In order to ensure that we can offer you the best customer service, security, and product, it is necessary for us to have the resources to do so far into the future. Our pricing change provides those resources.

When you think about it, our pricing is quite a bargain for what you get:
A service that passes on information that will truly help your family if something happens to you.
The ability to create and store an unlimited number of entries and messages for family and friends.
An utterly secure, encrypted, electronic safe deposit box with enough storage space to keep thousands of documents, pictures, movies, audio and more.
A service that helps you get your own life organized.
A service you can use while traveling to keep backups of essentials like your passport, credit cards, itineraries, visas, and travel documents.
Peace of mind because you will know that if something happens to you, your family will have everything they need.

We have decided to significantly increase the amount of file storage that comes with YouDeparted accounts. This will come as welcome news to our members who want to store large amounts of pictures, videos, copies of documents, and other files. Every account includes the ability to create an unlimited number of entries.

Here are the new numbers:
Basic account - 1GB - $9.95/yr
Enhanced Account -  2GB  $19.95/yr
Ultimate Account -  5GB -  $39.95/yr

Greetings! We made a few changes to the front page that we think will help people understand YouDeparted. Take a look: http://www.youdeparted.com.

Ruth Bell Graham was born in China, the daughter of missionaries.  She was 17 when she came to the United States to graduate from high school in North Carolina.  She met Billy Graham at Wheaton College, and they were married in 1943.

 Many people do not know that although Ruth was married to one of the most famous Baptist ministers in the world, she herself remained a loyal Presbyterian all her life, even while assisting Billy with the ministry!

 Mr. and Mrs. Graham had five children, all of whom are now actively involved in their father’s ministry.

 Ruth was not only her husband’s right arm in all matters, she was a prolific author in her own right.  She was the author of over a dozen books, as well as hundreds of shorter articles for magazines and newspapers.

 Mrs. Graham had been in poor health since 1995, when she had a bad fall while testing a swing she had built for her grandchildren.

 On June 14, 2007,  Ruth Bell Graham died, at home, with her husband and five children at her bedside.

 The world has lost a beautiful person.

Billy Graham himself was quoted as saying:  “Our days are numbered. One of the primary goals in our lives should be to prepare for our last day. The legacy we leave is not just in our possessions, but in the quality of our lives. What preparations should we be making now?”

We agree.

Marshall Loeb, of MarketWatch, has some excellent advice for same-sex couples concerning wills, estate planning, power of attorney, etc, and why good planning is even more important for same-sex couples than for straight spouses. Attorney Tanya Harvey, on Loeb’s website, says that:

“. . . estate planning is even more imperative for same-sex couples than for straight spouses because. . . gay couples don’t have the tax and inheritance advantages that marriage conveys, so these benefits have to be created through estate-planning documents.”

“Harvey, a Washington lawyer with the firm Bryan Cave, helps unmarried couples ensure that their partners and families will be provided for in the event of illness or death. When it comes to estate planning, Harvey recommends that gay families start by consulting a lawyer on three key issues:

1.  Power of attorney. Assigning your partner a power of attorney for health care is relatively simple, says Harvey, but it can save you major migraines in the long run. Most hospitals allow only family members related by blood or marriage to visit patients in critical care. If your companion has a power of attorney, it guarantees admittance. It also gives him or her a voice when decisions have to be made about your care.

2. The pros and cons of domestic partnership. Many couples living in states that recognize domestic partners are eager to sign up, but Harvey cautions her clients to consider the potential pitfalls. While domestic partnerships often convey a variety of inheritance, employment and tax benefits, they are difficult to dissolve in some states. Disentangling yourself from a domestic partnership is often as complicated and expensive as traditional divorce, says Harvey, so don’t treat it lightly.

3.  What happens to your legacy? It is essential that each partner has a valid, up-to-date, signed and witnessed will. If you die without a will providing for your same-sex mate, the state determines what will happen to your money and property. “Generally, the surviving partner gets nothing,” says Harvey. Consult a lawyer to draw up a will or a trust. Harvey highly recommends revocable trusts, because they offer privacy and are harder to challenge in court.

For further information on same-sex estate planning, visit Outestateplanning.com or Rainbowlaw.com.”

It is imperative that ALL couples get all of their documents in order, and that the surviving partner/spouse know where these documents are kept.  Thee surviving partner/spouse must have access to everything, right at his/her fingertips, for this will save a lot of headache and heartache and aggravation for all concerned.

It’s important to have all of your important information in one place, but don’t forget to update it regularly.

Outdated information is pretty much useless to your survivors.

When you change insurance agents, or get new passwords, or buy a new riding lawn mower, or do pretty much anything that someone you ‘leave behind’ will have to deal with, be sure you update these things here at YouDeparted.

If you are the only person in your household who knows how to “program” the furnace, leave directions.

If you switch insurance agencies, please be sure that someone knows.

If you wish to leave a personal message, to be given to your loved ones after your death, YouDeparted is the place for that, too.

Your survivors will appreciate having a list of your credit cards, too.

Stop and think for a moment: if you were one of the survivors, what sort of things would you need to know, in order to complete the wishes, requests, and business of the departed?

Wouldn’t it start with knowing what those wishes, requests, and business were? And WHERE to find them?

Right here. YouDeparted. Your loved ones will really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Don’t think for a minute that your survivors are going to automatically know your wishes about organ donation! You might think that because you’ve got it checked on your driver’s license, or because you’re carrying a donor card in your wallet, that after your death someone, somewhere, will have a new and better life because of your kidney or retina or liver. Most of the time, the deceased’s wallet or purse isn’t opened and gone through until after death, and then it’s too late.

If you want to donate your organs after your death, you’ve got to tell someone BEFORE you die. How will your survivors know your wishes if you don’t tell them? After you TELL them, be sure you put it in writing; this is more insurance that your wishes will be considered. Hospitals are required to consult the next of kin before removing organs, and if your family knows you wanted to be a donor, it makes it easier for them to give their consent. Unfortunately, even if you’ve got it in writing, and your family knows your wishes, your survivors can override those wishes and refuse to allow the donation after your death. All the more reason to have an executor who will do your bidding even after you are dead!

A signed donor card or driver’s license provides proof to your family that you wanted to be a donor, but these alone are not legally binding. Even if you have signed a donor registry, that will not guarantee anything. A registry isn’t legally binding, either.

The best way to ensure that your wishes are carried out is to tell your family that you want to be a donor, to put it in writing, both in your will AND separately, and to appoint an executor who will carry out your wishes..

If you are fairly certain that your family will not allow the hospital to harvest your organs, you can assign durable power of attorney to someone who you know will abide by your wishes. A lawyer can help you prepare this document. Be sure it’s someone who will definitely abide by your decisions and your wishes, and be sure you put the documentation where this person can get it BEFORE you are dead.

I suggest that you file it all right here at YouDeparted.

Have you given any thought to what you want to be wearing for everybody’s last sight of you? Most of the time, the deceased is all dressed up, you know.

The thing is, not everybody is best known for being all dressed up. I know I’m not.

If you have any strong ideas about what you’d like to be wearing for that last public appearance, make sure you make those preferences known to your family and to the funeral home. Otherwise, gentlemen, you’ll be wearing that three-piece suit you’ve always hated, and ladies, you’ll be wearing that hideous dress you wore to your niece’s wedding.

Most of the time, people are wearing a hospital gown when they get to the mortuary, so naturally the morticians call the family and request that something with a little more style and coverage be brought in. If there’s a little number you really want to wear for this occasion, be sure that your survivors know about it.

This request, and all your other requests, as well as all of your legalities and policies and passwords, etc, can be stored right here at YouDeparted.

That darn suit/dress was always too hot and itchy, and you never felt like YOU in it. If you’d rather be buried/cremated in your overalls or your bikini or your comfy ol’ jeans and that Pink Floyd t-shirt with the autographs on it, speak out and tell somebody.

And while you’re at it, make your requests known about your hair, your makeup, and those hideous clumps of flowers somebody always plops down right on top of the casket, too. And make sure somebody is standing there guarding against such things, too. If you don’t make your wishes known, you’ll be lying there in that suit you always hated, with a big pile of those creepy white lilies on your chest.

Tell somebody! And then make it official by putting your wishes in writing and storing them with us, right here at YouDeparted.

After several rigorous months of development and testing, the YouDeparted team is taking a quick vacation in Hawaii! We’re soaking up the sun here in Maui, recharging our engines in preparation for the next step which is getting the word out about YouDeparted. We may be on vacation but feel free to contact us with any questions, concerns, and comments.

    We are putting the finishing touches on YouDeparted, are now transitioning to marketing mode. We anticipate a day when millions of individuals around the world are using our service to record everything their loved ones will need to know if something happens, but until we let the world know about us, we are just a great idea. People do not even know to search for a service like YouDeparted.com so our next step is to get the word out! 

    YouDeparted.com is based on a universal human desire: we want our family and friends to be OK if something happens to us. For thousands of years, our ancestors have used Wills to take care of the big things like allocating land and resources but there are so many other things such as our final wishes, last messages and instructions that we want our loved ones to have. In this technological age where much of our lives are spent on the computer, so much is lost and forgotten when we pass away: our email accounts, our photo albums, our online banking accounts, our contacts. YouDeparted.com is the next logical step in passing on the important and the personal. 

    At this time, not very many people are actively searching for an online service that helps you take care of your loved ones by leaving them information and instructions. We have essentially built a product that precedes direct demand. However, given our aging population, and the tens of millions of baby-boomers reaching retirement age, there is a definite and massive indirect demand for our service.

    Over the next several months we are going to actively work on telling the world about YouDeparted.com. Thinking about and preparing for the end of our lives is certainly not ever going to be a “fun” thing to do, but with our service it is a lot easier.  We know people want to take care of their families if something happens, and soon we expect YouDeparted will help a lot of people do just that!