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How To Send Email When You're Dead
The Narrative Fallacy writes "'The Last Messages Club' is a new service that sends personal emails written prior to one's death to loved ones in the future. The messages can range from a final love letter, guidance for someone left behind, a list of instructions, details on life insurance and other financial information. 'No one likes to think about their impending "demise," but it is much better to be fully-prepared, so that there is less stress on your loved ones after you pass away,' says founder Geoff Reiss. The system works by giving each member a secure and private vault where they are able to create messages to be sent specifically to their chosen recipient. A secure process ensures that messages are only sent after at least two people appointed by the user have confirmed that you have died and other safety criteria are met. 'I thought at first that maybe it was a bit ghoulish but on consideration I think it's a great idea as it would be nice for loved ones to receive messages from me when I'm no longer here,' says a technical adviser to the company. 'It's strange really as it makes you confront your own mortality in a sense.'"
The idea of a will has existed for quite a while now. And your loved ones will, in all likeliness, find it a lot more useful if you leave them a dead-tree folder with all the collected information on insurances, people to notify, financial information etc. Much less creepy than postmortem emails, and less likely to end up in the spam filter. Not to mention that such a folder is useful in other situations too, such as if you have an accident and end up incapable of taking care of your affairs.
It would depend on the state and the intent of the mail. Wills have traditionally required a lot of formalities to be effective (e.g., signatures of the testator and witnesses) with some interesting exceptions (e.g., the "holographic" will, a will written *entirely* in the hand of the testator). Many states have loosened up on the formalities though, but the document would still need to be a clear expression of the intent of the deceased.
Plus, there could be some confusion if the document promised one thing, but another document promised something conflicting. Which one takes precedent? Would courts decide based on when the documents were created or when they were intended to be delivered?
Another thing to consider is that these messages to be sent after death would probably be easier to obtain during lawsuit discovery than a will. A will written with an attorney's assistant may be a privileged document. If subpoenaed, The Last Messages Club may (or may not) fight to protect messages not yet delivered from discovery. But courts are less likely to protect such messages from disclosure than a will (although, perhaps various courts will agree to in camera review, meaning that the judge looks at the document first to decide whether it is relevant to the litigation at hand).
One last thing to consider: your message might produce evidence that could lead to a lawsuit against your estate, and thus hold up your assets. The Last Messages Club could mitigate this problem by allowing your messages to be put on hold for a number of years after receiving proof of your death. This could help ensure that your estate has been disbursed and increase the probability of a statute of limitations being hit.
As is, The Last Messages Club should probably be used to send those personal messages that don't have any real legal implications. If you want to write a will, hire a lawyer and do it right, don't try to do it yourself with a somewhat gimicky service.
A friend of mine's mother passed away a few years ago, and before she died she told her daughter that she had left a very important letter for her. She said that her daughter would find it after she passed away. Well, my friend spent months tearing apart her mother's house and belongings, and never found the letter. Did her mother change her mind at the last minute? Did she hide it too well? Had she never gotten around to writing it? One thing that an email service has going for it is that the message is delivered. There is no finding involved. My friend will agonize about that letter for the rest of her life.
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