Editor’s note: Home Sweet Home is a feature appearing Mondays in McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. The story focuses on a heartwarming, entertaining or quirky happening affecting the world of home care. If you have a topic that might be worthy of the spotlight in Home Sweet Home, please email Caroline Szachnowski at [email protected].
Planning for one’s end of life is not an easy task. Rikard Steiber, CEO and founder of GoodTrust, has set out to make it better. His company’s end-of-life planning guide helps people and their aging loved ones take charge of their legacies and organize their digital assets.
Personal ties
The death of Steiber’s father sparked the idea for such a company.
“My father passed away in February last year,” Steiber said. “I was sucked into the idea of what happens to your digital stuff when you die.”
GoodTrust essentially allows older adults and their caregivers to store their digital documents in a safe space. The company has four main parts, or as Steiber refers to them, “four corners of a house.”
Digital vault
The first is a digital vault where users can add documents, accounts and social media, as well as grant access to devices. There is also a setting where people can share these files as either available now, or only if something happens to them.
The digital vault also serves an organizational purpose.
“If something happens to a senior, going through all of their stuff to find the most important things is probably a mess,” Steiber said. “Having everything in one place makes it easier. It’s not just in the event if something happens. It’s a matter of getting organized today, which I think is also important to locate all your accounts and documents.”
Speedy wills
The second corner of the house is allowing people to create their wills quickly and easily.
“If you don’t have a will, not only will these financial assets get lost, but actually having guidance is really important,” Steiber said. “It’s the small things that can cause friction for the family, like a dad’s guitar or the toolbox in the shed in the summer house. So instead of arguing about it, they can get some guidance.”
To facilitate this process, GoodTrust has an estate planning tool through which users can create their wills at no cost and in as little as 15 minutes.
Older adults and their families are also able to organize directives, including medical or funeral directives. They can make decisions such as cremation versus burials, to have or to not have a funeral, and who is empowered to care for the older adult in the event of a medical crisis.
“You can also have a durable power of attorney, which allows you to handle your own daily economic affairs like paying your bills,” Steiber said. “Essentially the tools you need and probably should have, but most people probably don’t have them because they don’t want to talk to lawyers or talk about immortality. This is an easy way to get started with that.”
Passing on memories
The third facet deals with how to pass on memories to the next generation — not just glossy Facebook stories, but more personal matters that often are not shared online.
“Some people spend their entire lives on Facebook, but it’s not really the real world that they share,” Steiber said. “So we built a platform where you can share photos and videos. You can make the photos come to life like in Harry Potter.”
Through the use of artificial intelligence, an old photograph of, say, someone’s grandmother, now can show her in various expressions — including a classic smile, silly faces or laughter.
There is also a future messages feature, which functions similarly to a time capsule. It allows people to upload images or messages to the family. One of these versions is referred to as a “last goodbye.”
“You can record a message, say a video message to your family, and it only gets sent out if something happens to you like a last goodbye,” Steiber said. “I have two young daughters, so if something happens to me, essentially they will get the message at my death telling them I love them and I’m proud of them.”
Tracking device
The fourth corner is a tracking service meant for the older adults’ loved ones to use after they pass. Information such as bank accounts, insurance, photos and Facebook memory pages can be tracked down, and it is up to the loved one to decide what to do with that information. This can include deleting, making a memory page or requesting individual files — all of which is done by GoodTrust.
With several options and organizational tools to facilitate end-of-life planning, caregivers and older adults alike can breathe a sigh of relief.
“It’s only a few steps,” Steiberg said. “Sometimes it’s just to start a conversation.”
