Author: January Barnes
There has been an influx of “Death Tech” start-ups entering the market since the pandemic. One of the most promising start-ups in this sector to emerge actually launched pre-pandemic but is already starting to yield financial return.
Meet the Legacy Concierge team, who initially started building a wealth protection and digital asset security system in 2017.
The dedicated Legacy Concierge team have invested over 4 years and over 1 million to develop, streamline and innovate the way we protect wealth after a person passes away.
Legacy Concierge is essentially enabling people to safeguard their digital life and assets by securing their digital estate and providing everlasting legacy management. Legacy Concierge secures wealth after a person passes away. Much technology rightfully addresses privacy and data protection during one's life but at time of death, data and documents are vulnerable to bad actors. In fact, one of every eight deaths results in identity or other theft and loss.
Individuals and companies spend millions on the security of personal information and financial records during one's lifetime, but fail to protect assets after death. These assets, both money and memories, combine and become your digital after life.
Who is going to protect your digital after life? What plans have you made?
Not one company noticed this death-tech cybersecurity problem until Legacy Concierge entered the market and spread the word about financial vulnerability after death.
Most people do not leave their heirs and executors with organized instructions on the location of all of their assets. Legacy Concierge LOCKYT™ systems save hundreds of hours of tedious work and thousands of dollars per estate. Legacy Concierge is changing both the way we plan our own passing, as well as how we manage the death of a loved one.
Spearheaded by Co-Founders Betsy Ehrenberg, Damon Altomare and Andrew Levy with Hollywood entertainment Marketing Executive Curt Doty most recently taking the reins as the Chief Marketing Officer. Together they are delivering the next cyber security investment of the future.
How big is the problem?
The death industry which for decades has been notoriously difficult to disrupt with new technologies is now rapidly transforming under the pressure exerted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR™ forecast that amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Death Care Services estimated at US$128.8 Billion in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of US$152.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 4.8% over the analysis period.
Here’s something to think about, what if I asked you how much time and effort you put into planning your wedding? Then I asked you how much time and effort do you plan to put into planning your death? I’d probably be right in presuming you’re not as invested in the latter as one should be, correct?
The death tech sector is larger than funerals and burials; innovation is occurring in wills, estate planning, memorialization, digital legacies, assisted dying, palliative care and end-of-life care. Some cultures have rich and joyous celebrations of the dead, such as Mexico’s Día de Muertos. However in the West, death is much less integrated into the fabric of life.
Yet in the West whilst we celebrate planning weddings, we often get squeamish when talking planning our death. Did you know that the average number of daily weddings worldwide is estimated to be 115,000 and on average number of deaths per day worldwide is 150,000?
So why is it we are so eager to spend months planning and preparing for our wedding, often costing thousands of dollars but when it comes to protecting our legacy, we put it off and are reluctant to spend any money on it?
Let’s face it, death isn’t something we all want to spend time thinking about whilst we’re alive but the reality is that you need to be able to prioritize your death just the same way you might invest and prioritize for your own wedding.
A recent study from McAfee claims that the average American has $55,000 in digital assets. The $55,000 figure is held in over 200 accounts and represents the average monetary value these assets can be worth to a consumer and the people who love them.
Firstly to best understand the importance of protecting your digital assets, let’s break down the difference between physical estates and digital estates.
When writing a will or thinking about your legacy one often instantly thinks of the physical assets, house, car, financial savings and personal items, however today more than ever before our digital footprint is valuable and considered an asset.
Think of all the hours we spend online these days, for example the average person spends approx. 147 minutes per day on social media alone. If time is our most valuable asset then I’d say the time you spend curating, commenting and sharing these experiences is worth saving.
Executors and heirs often do not know how to retrieve the online photos or other memories of a decedent on social media. Legacy Concierge services solve all of these problems.
What are digital assets?
One of the first challenges in navigating the complex web of digital assets is defining what digital assets are.
The definition can also be subject to differing interpretations. A digital asset could be any type of online information you have stored on the web or in the cloud.
the number of digital assets is growing and new digital technology is growing; therefore, the number of digital assets and the places they are stored is changing. Today there are NFTs that sell for millions of dollars. Today there is TikTok videos that are priceless. The definition of a digital asset is an electronic record; it points to something of value or is in of itself of value.
A few examples include your emails, your social media accounts, your LinkedIn profile, or a website for your business. It’s common for people to have up to 100 accounts with usernames and passwords at any given time — and sometimes significantly more.
Traditional wills and other publicly accessible documents are not appropriate communication vehicles for sharing digital asset information.
Unfortunately, digital assets are not always accounted for in regular end-of-life documents like a will.
As a result, there can be situations where someone has died but they continued “living” on Facebook and Instagram due to the simple fact their family couldn’t access their account.
Your digital assets may also include:
Financial services - (checking/savings bank accounts, digital wallets, PayPal, Venmo, retirement accounts, etc.).
Cryptocurrencies - (Bitcoin, Ether, etc.).
Health-related - services (insurance, electronic medical records, etc.).
Home-related - services (mortgage, water/sewer, garbage, power, gas, internet, cable/satellite, homeowner’s insurance, etc.).
Email accounts - (and emails stored in them).
Social media - accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.).
Websites, blogs, and hosting accounts.
Photos (Flickr, Shutterstock) / videos (YouTube, Vimeo) / music you’ve made (Bandcamp, Soundcloud) / music you’ve purchased (iTunes), etc.
E-commerce seller accounts (Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Zazzle, CafePress, etc.).
Forums, wikis, online communities.
Review sites (Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc.).
Subscriptions - including music (iTunes, Spotify, Pandora), boxes/products (Blue Apron, Dollar Shave Club), newspapers/magazines, etc.
Data storage - (iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) and any files stored there.
Streaming services - (Netflix, Hulu, etc.).
Loyalty/reward - programs (airline miles, hotel or credit card points, etc.).
Data storage - on your devices (computer hard drive or tablet/smartphone memory).
Smartphone-related accounts (Apple ID, Google account for Android, etc.).
Apps and data stored in electronic devices.
This is where Legacy Concierge can step in to help secure your future.
By setting up and investing in your digital after life with a service like Legacy Concierge you can help your family navigate the immediate aftermath of your passing through a secure and private platform.
Families and friends of people who die are often unaware of all the important online accounts of their loved ones. It’s not just social media accounts or photos. The dead may leave behind digital investments or cryptocurrency accounts. But no matter what kind of account, getting access to it may be difficult.
Who is Legacy Concierge for?
Legacy Concierge is both a B2B and B2C SaaS start-up, servicing both the general public and businesses alike.
Legacy Concierge has also created an affiliate sales program that authorizes resellers of their LOCKYT services
Shelley Rhoads Perry, JD, TEP from Fiduciary Associates of Naples is an active user of Legacy Concierge services for her clients and states:
“Legacy Concierge is at the forefront of digital estate planning and administration. They have the in-depth knowledge, expertise, and tenacity needed to resolve digital access issues.”
Legacy Concierge offers LOCKYT services that organizes contact lists, estate assets, as well as trust and estate documents. Services include the closure of over 200 accounts, including social media, shopping, subscription, voter registration, financial, credit/debit/ATM cards, pension retirement, real estate property, investments, insurance and annuity policies.
Additionally with Web.3.0 services and assets growing they can also handle your crypto, NFT or next-gen digital assets too!
Consider this, a morbid thought but what would happen if you were hit by a bus tomorrow? Not something we want to visualise but what if the unthinkable happened?
As the saying goes, hope for the best but prepare for the worst. End-of-life related business can be well a messy business, whilst your friends and family are overcome with grief there is unfortunately the business side of things to consider and how best they can navigate this.
Legacy Concierge catalogues, locates and secures these assets using proprietary systems and software, saving hundreds of hours of tedious work and thousands of dollars per estate
Legacy Concierge understands first-hand how many stakeholders are involved when one person passes away and what is needed to form seamless and effective safeguarding of your life-times digital memories and accomplishments.
The Legacy Concierge Ecosystem
Legacy Concierge understands that forming key partnerships with wealth managers, financial institutions, trust and estate practitioners and trust officers is key to their client’s wellbeing and their overall success.
Legacy Concierge has built solid national partnerships in the USA across insurance, wealth advisors and legal industries.
CEO and Co-Founder Betsy Ehrenberg, with studies in Corporate Leadership from Harvard University adds,
“We have a growing list of affinity partners who understand our value and contribution to their clientele. From Funeral Home and Funeral Directors like Argos (California) and Richard Rosin (Canada) to legal services such as Reynen Court, RIA in a Box and InteractiveLegal Services.”
Not only have they secured long lasting corporate partnerships but they have also laid the groundwork with over 25 international educational programs for attorneys, financial planners, wealth managers, trust officers and funeral directors.
Their LOCKYT Discovery program for digital assets has been launched and are yielding revenue.
The Legacy Concierge platform simplifies complex processes, avoids legal jargon and removes hidden fees, eliminating unnecessary friction at a time when people feel most vulnerable.
Not only does Legacy Concierge secure your websites, social media, online accounts and documents – it allows you to easily share access now or when you pass away. Just like tangible assets, digital assets can have sentimental and/or monetary value.
How they do it?
One of every eight deaths results in identity or other theft and loss. Over $60B in assets are abandoned each year because records are misplaced or stored on electronic devices.
Legacy Concierge has researched and developed over 300 sets of protocols to notify financial service companies, credit card and credit reporting firms, government agencies, housing services, insurance companies, shopping sites, travel agents, colleges, social networks and other account holders.
They’re using technology-driven products and services that identify assets, notify custodians and secure wealth.
Michelle Woodruff an Attorney at Law utilises Legacy Concierge services and explains how it benefits her workflow and clients’ needs
“Legacy Concierge has proven to enhance/benefit the family law component of my practice just as much as the estate planning component. It is integral to the protection of my clients' electronically transmitted data such as state and federal taxes, bank statements, credit card statements, loan statements, etc., all documents which are legally required to be exchanged in a dissolution. Disputes relative to how title to real estate is held are common and having access to a county's recorded documents saves my time and my client's money. I firmly believe my ability to offer the services and protections provided by both Legacy Concierge and LOCKYT to my clients sets me apart from my competitors. Legacy Concierge provides both sophistication and protection and I am proud of my ability to offer its services.”
Julie S Rivers, from Cuddy & McCarthy, LLP goes on to explain how Legacy Concierge has brought tremendous value to her firm too:
“In an age where clients demand efficiency and thoroughness in approach, I have found that Legacy Concierge provides an exceptional product and service to our firm so that I can deliver both to my clients. The fiduciaries are grateful to have an application that makes their jobs much easier and the staff appreciates the aid in its creditor search.”
LOCKYT Legacy Vault - Individual Secure Vault for maintaining and organizing digital and tangible assets for the purposes of estate planning or record keeping.
LOCKYT Discovery – Build a legacy vault and provide a preliminary scan of the digital assets that belong to the decedent. With this service, we explain the exposure that the client has and we assess the security risks of digital asset accounts. Generally, we locate over 100 accounts belonging to the decedent.
LOCKYT Administration – Locate and curate all approved accounts, notify custodians and secure assets such as social media Facebook, LinkedIn, Apple and Google; shopping and subscription sites, community and club memberships, travel rewards, passport and TSA registration, voter rolls, DMV, other government agencies, email and websites.
Advocacy and Education – Help companies and custodians respond to fiduciary requests more user-friendly. As an example, the company worked with Google and also with Apple to reduce documentation, compliance timelines and legal orders that enable fiduciary access to digital assets (email, contact lists, photos, documents, payment records and the like).
Why Invest?
In our increasingly digital world, the average person is reported to have over 25 discrete online logins, a number that is probably vastly understated, especially for wealthy investors
In addition, ecommerce businesses, valuable domain names and revenue producing blogs — to name just a few — are an increasing source of wealth. Yet many individuals don’t fully comprehend the breadth and complexity of the assets and information they hold online.
As a result, many people are not adequately securing their assets during their lifetimes, let alone planning for their effective administration, protection or ultimate transfer after death or incapacity
With all things digital, it is important to note that the pace of change in cybersecurity is incredibly rapid. That’s why investing in a start-up that already has 4 years’ experience in the industry makes it automatically ahead of the curve.
Digital Asset management's worldwide length is expected to attain USD 10220 Million through 2026, from USD 3157 five million in 2019, at a CAGR of 18.3% in the course of the next five years.
This is as a result of the high adoption of cloud-based storage that has given rise to a collective workflow in the sales and marketing field as the volume of digital assets increases.
As the cybersecurity intersection with death will be increasingly de-stigmatised, conversations about securing assets after death will shift. Tech-enabled companies such as Legacy Concierge will empower people to exercise greater control over the security decisions surrounding end of life, including how they’re memorialised and remembered.
If you’re looking for an opportunity to capitalise upon the infinite growth possibilities in this sector then do check out Legacy Concierge’s latest Start-up Engine fundraising campaign.
Legacy Concierge already has version 1.0 live and are already generating revenue. Legacy Concierge is solving a problem that everyone and their loved-ones will face one day and that over 3 million people just in America alone have to face every year.
The core Legacy Concierge market is the top 5% of estates (150,000 people) each with an average wealth of over $3,000,000. Concentrating on the wealthy client sector is key to uplifting the entire death tech sector, for example in the early 20th century it wasn’t until the wealthy started utilising cremation services that the sector took off and middle-class folks soon followed suit.
By focusing on the wealthy client sector they can then bill on average $7,000 per estate, thus resulting in an addressable market of over $1B per year. Legacy Concierge has products and services to suit any budget ranging from 75 dollars to 10K.
There is also the benefit of being an early investor/adopter of this space. According to Legacy Concierge research, they are not aware of another company that has the substantial suite of software and library of protocols to document assets, close accounts and retrieve personal online memories.
By investing in Legacy Concierge you may capitalize on their early advantage by engaging with law firms, trust companies, and legal-tech platforms, many of whom know Legacy Concierge already and are using their services.
Legacy Concierge has laid the groundwork with a robust sales process by presenting over 25 international educational programs for attorneys, financial planners, wealth managers, trust officers and funeral directors. Our Its Affiliate LOCKYT Provider programs have been launched.
Growth and Exit
With your investment, Legacy Concierge can launch the company’s three tier marketing program, continue to identify, implement and introduce new and profitable products, provide ancillary functionality generating referral fees and deliver services addressing asset vulnerabilities – protecting wealth and improving privacy for all.
It is clear, from a customer perspective that putting a plan in place to protect your digital assets ensures valuable financial accounts are protected today to secure your future for tomorrow.
From an investor perspective, it's clear that Legacy Concierge is a smart cyber-security investment. This sector also saw a surgence in capital investment due to the pandemic. As a result death and planning for your death is at the forefront of people’s minds and the demand for end-of-life planning solutions has increased dramatically.
One thing is certain, as our love for the digital world grows by the day and so too does our digital footprint into new and exciting virtual lands, so too will our need to protect this digital ecosystem.
Find out more about the benefits of Legacy Concierge and how you can invest in this growing start-up here:
Start-up Engine fundraising campaign https://www.startengine.com/legacyconcierge
All investment strategies and investments involve risk of loss. Nothing contained in this website should be construed as investment advice. Any reference to an investment’s past or potential performance is not, and should not be construed as, a recommendation or as a guarantee of any specific outcome or profit.
About the Author:
Founder/Head Tech Reporter and Podcaster of ParlayMe an interactive tech-news platform for startups, investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders. January is also a speaker, moderator and thought-leader for global tech conferences and events #ParlayWithUs - Become a ParlayMe Member today https://www.parlayme.com/memberships