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Introducing Legacy Locker

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Jeremy Toeman

It’s with tremendous pride and excitement that I use my first blog post in over a month to announce the launch of Legacy Locker. I’m one of the founders of the site, and I wanted to share a little backstory to where it came from and how it got here.

Two different personal events occured to me in the summer of 2007 that led to the conception of Legacy Locker.  My grandmother unfortunately passed away, but at the age of 94 it’d be hard to say she didn’t live a full life.  She and I used to exchange emails, a pastime of hers she also enjoyed with other friends and family around the world.  My father and I tried to figure out a way to get into her Hotmail account, but had no luck and basically the account is, for all intents and purposes, unavailable.

On a more uplifting side, my wife and I had a son earlier that year, and in the summer sat down with an estate planner to establish a will (did you know in the state of California that if you don’t have a will/estate/trust, probate attorneys will claim 4% of your assets, including your life insurance money?  scam).  Anyhow, after literally hours of discussing my family tree and my various assets (car, 401k, signed Jean Beliveau picture, etc), I had a huge binder: our “estate” (I always pictured something with a mansion).

Last summer on a flight (yup, I remember that well), I had one of those “moments” in life, where I realized that while my physical assets were protected in my estate plan, I had nothing in place to deal with all of my online goods and assets.  My computer’s password, my email accounts (all 5 of them), my Amazon store credit, my wordpress login, etc.  If anything happened to me, virtually all of these assets would become literally inaccessible to my wife (or others), despite the fact that I had a will.  While they were legally protected, in all practical terms they’d become effectively worthless (including the 70+ domains I own through GoDaddy).  Legacy Locker was born.

JT and AdamWhen I returned home, I talked with my wife about the concept, and she completely recognized the need as well.  I went to my business partner Adam, he too thought it made sense.  I talked to a few other friends and close colleagues, and not a one said “nah, dumb idea, what are you thinking?”  So Adam and I raised some money, and hired a team to get things done.

The site is pretty simple to actually use and understand.  Users register, fill out a profile, and assign verifiers (people they trust to confirm their passing).  Next, they create assets and beneficiaries.  An asset is the online account information to a website, basically a username, password, and some notes.  The beneficiary is the person they’d want to receive the asset.  The last feature is called “Legacy Letters”, which are emails that get sent to family, friends, or colleagues with a “goodbye” note (in the future we’ll incorporate video as well).  For more on how it works, click here.

So this morning the site goes live.  The actual working service won’t come online for a few more weeks, as the final touches get put in place.  We’re looking forward to getting everything up and running, collecting feedback, and building a great service.  Our primary goal is to bring Legacy Locker to the attention of willmakers, attorneys, and estate planners who help service the 12.6 million households who have wills in place (and 900,000 new people every year), hence our slightly early launch.

I’ve been building consumer technology, from gadgets to websites, for the past 13 years.  While I’ve worked on some amazing products in my time, this is my first opportunity to use technology in a way to truly help people.  Thinking about loss is hard (which is why not enough people do backups and only 1/3 Americans have wills to protect their families).  Dealing with loss is even harder, and if we can help make that part of life a little easier for some people, I consider that a great accomplishment.

Thanks,
Jeremy

ps – sorry about the no blogging all month thing – I was in the hospital dealing with a nasty combination of appendicitis and Crohn’s disease, but I’m doing much better now thanks!

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Posted in General, LD Approved, Web/Internet | 18 Comments
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18 thoughts on “Introducing Legacy Locker”

  1. Greg says:
    March 10, 2009 at 7:23 am

    Jeremy,

    Sweet idea! I hope it takes off. Let me know if you need a 20-something graduate student tester.

    Greg

    Reply
  2. Dave rad says:
    March 10, 2009 at 7:36 am

    Wow loving this concept!

    Its a concerning thought but being prepared and realistic is important. This is something I had only briefly considered before and it sounds like you are building a great solution! Looking forward to trying it out.

    – dave

    Reply
  3. Pingback: An Afterlife For Your Online Accounts | Technologizer

  4. Dan Rubin says:
    March 10, 2009 at 9:49 am

    I find this idea to be far more efficient than my “passwords – read only in the event of my untimely demise.txt” file that I keep on my desktop.

    Reply
  5. Justin Korn says:
    March 10, 2009 at 10:33 am

    Jeremy – I thought this was an amazing idea the first time I heard it and I still think it is a great idea. I’m looking forward to seeing where this one goes.

    Glad to hear you are doing better!

    Reply
  6. Rohit Sankaran says:
    March 10, 2009 at 10:39 am

    Jeremy – Congrats on launching the site. Looks neat!

    Reply
  7. Stephen Pieraldi says:
    March 10, 2009 at 11:02 am

    We have a similar story at iForem and built our solution on a legal and financial framework to secure our service for generations. How does one have a Legacy Locker without the method to assure it will last.

    Check us out, and I look forward to covering how iForem and Legacy Locker can work as a team to meet the need in this market.

    Cheers, Stephen

    Reply
  8. Pingback: Locking Up Your Legacy

  9. Howard B. Greenstein says:
    March 11, 2009 at 5:33 am

    Absolutely brilliant. Now I can shred the paper version that’s hidden… well no need to go there.
    I’ve also emailed my Trust and Estate attorney with an offer to explain this to him.

    Howard

    Reply
  10. Pingback: » Legacy Locker — why didn’t I think of that? » Ben Drawbaugh

  11. Avi Greengart says:
    March 11, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    Congrats on the launch, Jeremy. Definitely an idea whose time has come. The pricing strikes me as a) high for individuals and b) reasonable as part of an estate planning process. If you have trouble reaching the lawyer/financial planner distribution channel (who may demand commissions), you may have to lower prices and make it up in volume by targeting consumers directly.

    -avi

    Reply
  12. frank elekes says:
    March 12, 2009 at 4:18 am

    you are one amazing young man – i always remind your father that of all things he has you are his best
    keep up the good work – i will definately use his product and recommend the same to all my friends.

    good luck on the upcoming happy occasion
    look forward to seeing you all on your visit to Montreal.

    frank

    Reply
  13. Digidave says:
    March 13, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    An excellent idea and service. Seems like a digital insurance against losing all your data.

    Interested in seeing how it evolves.

    Reply
  14. Pingback: Legacy Locker ensures your digital assets are passed onto your beneficiaries when you die :: Gizmos for Geeks

  15. Lloyd says:
    March 17, 2009 at 11:59 am

    Jeremy,

    Awesome idea. I’ll shoot you an email to discuss it further and see if we can help promote this to our clients around the country. Congrats on a unique and fantastic product.

    FYI, if you name a beneficiary of your life insurance policy it won’t go through probate. Just make sure the person is alive or better yet, use a trust.

    Reply
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About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

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