When iPhones first came on the market Apple marketed them with the line "There's an app for that." The idea was that there was an app for anything you could possibly want to do. However, there was not, at the time, an app to plan for your own demise. Now there is.
We all know that someday we will pass away. Yet, most people do not plan for that to happen.
Most people do not have funeral plans. They do not have estate plans. They do not even discuss with anyone what they would like to happen after they pass away.
The makers of the new app Cake are betting that if they make planning easy to do from a mobile device that more people will make plans.
The app asks users a series of questions about what they want to happen after they pass away. By paying $99 a year, users' answers to those questions will be given to a personal consultant who will assist friends and family with fulfilling the wishes of app users after those users pass away.
Inverse reported on this new app in "Death Planning App Cake Will Let You Swipe Right on Funeral Decisions."
This app might be a good first step to get people thinking about and planning for what will happen after they pass away. However, that is all that it is: a first step.
Proper planning requires a proper estate plan.
That is not something that can be done by answering a series of standard questions and giving the answers to a personal assistant. It requires the ongoing advice and expertise of an estate planning attorney who can create the necessary legal documents and make sure that changes are made to those documents when appropriate.
If you are interested in the Cake app, make sure that you use it as a first step and not a final one in your planning.
Reference: Inverse (Dec. 3, 2015) "Death Planning App Cake Will Let You Swipe Right on Funeral Decisions."
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