We have information relating only to those who have opened and maintained an account. If you aunt had an account on Family And Heirs, we can help; if she did not, we cannot. 

Our clients answer our comprehensive listing of questions in many categories, providing their families with answers to all the many questions they will have when that day comes.  Our clients also upload their significant documents to our secure digital storage, so that their family will have immediate access to all their most important documents, records, papers, and photographs.  Among the documents that a client may upload is his or her Will or Trust.

But how do you know if she had an account with us or if she did not? 

Our clients receive two different passwords when they sign up:  (1) an Account password that gives them full access to add and edit their information and upload their important documents (such as their Will or Trust, Deed or Lease, Marriage Certificate (or Divorce Decree), Naturalization Certificate, Passport, Social Security information, Insurance policies, military DD214, etc.); and (2) a second "Read-Only" password, that they can give to their trusted heirs, and which will allow those heirs "Read-Only" access to the client's site. That means they will see everything the client entered for his or her heirs to see, but the heirs' access will only allow them to view, but not change, the client's information and documents. 

So, clearly, if you have been given a password by the client, you know that the client opened an account here. But what if you don't have a password? Then, maybe another relative, such as one or more of your Aunt's children, was given a password by her. 

But some of our Account Holders may not want anyone to view their information while they are still alive and kicking. This is their private information and they may wish to keep it that way. If any of our clients do not want even their trusted heirs to have access to their accounts while they are still here, they can withhold distributing the “Read-Only” password.  If they choose not to provide their Read-Only password to anyone, they should consider attaching the "Read Only" password to their original (signed paper) Will or Trust, so that when the Will or Trust is located, the relatives will be able to then use the password to access all of their information. 

If you have a valid password, the process is very simple: Just go to the Login button at the top of all of our public pages, and choose “Login as Heir.”' You will be taken to a Login Page where you will enter (1) your name, (2) your mom's email address, and (3) the password she gave you, and you will have immediate “Read-Only” access to her information and her uploaded documents. 

But what if your mom had several emails, and you can't get through? Then you can keep trying with each of the email addresses you have for her. 

But you say your mom gave you a password and it just doesn't work and you want access to all her information.  If this is your situation, please see our FAQ No. 11 ("I have my late Uncle’s password, but I just cannot get in"). 

If you don't want your "Read-Only" password holders to see your Will before it's time, then simply do not upload it. But be certain you state where it can be located (i.e., "It's held by Smith & Jones, Lawyers," or "It's in the top drawer of my filing cabinet in a folder with "My Will" written on the tab.") You are entirely free to answer some or all of our questions and to upload only those documents you choose to upload.

If you really don't want any of your relatives to be able to view your account while you're alive, then you should not provide anyone with your "Read-Only" password. Instead, consider writing the "Read-Only" password on your original (signed paper) Will or Trust, or have your lawyer attach the "Read-Only" password to the copy of your Will or Trust at the law firm. That way, when your Will or Trust is seen after your death, your heirs will then obtain the "Read-Only" password so that they can access your information.  

No. You either have the password or you don’t. We don’t know you and we are not going to investigate if you are who you say you are or if you rightfully should have access to the site. So we will not provide you with the password. Sorry. If you wish, you can go to court and get a judge’s order, which we will honor to the extent we are able to do so. It will be up to you to appear before the judge, prove your identify to him or her and demonstrate good cause for the judge to rule in your favor. But without a court order, we’re not handing out any passwords or any of our clients' confidential information.  

That said, we don't have access to any client's passwords or their confidential information.  That information is purposefully not programmed to appear in our Administrative Panel.  Likewise, our clients' answers to our pre-planning questions and their uploaded documents are not displayed for us to view.  We specifically had our program written not to show passwords or any of our clients' confidential data because we want our clients to know that their data is secure from prying eyes.  We recognize that their data is private and that it is none of our business, so we can't see it.   But we know that under the law, we may be ordered to provide this information. This may require us to engage the services of a software engineer to get into the system in a manner not otherwise available to us in an effort to comply with a lawful order.   

Do not confuse your two passwords: You have an Account password that allows you to enter, change, and upload information to your account. You have another “Read-Only” password to allow others to view, but not to modify, the information and documents you have placed in your account. 

In the Account information you can fill in your name and profile information, set up and change your passwords, set up "Two Factor Authentication (2FA)" if you wish, provide answers to our numerous pre-planning questions, and upload some documents, pictures, and letters for your heirs to see. Do NOT ever give anyone your Account password. Anyone with your Account password can change anything or everything in your account. 

But you may give your "Read-Only" password to trusted relatives. If you gave someone your "Read-Only" password and you now wish to revoke that authority, simply go to your Account information and change the "Read-Only" password. Just make sure that those whom you wish to have access are given the new password.

No. Your Will (or your Trust) is a legal document, duly signed in the presence of witnesses. It cannot be changed with a side-note. You will need to re-do your Will, or perhaps write a codicil, or amend your Trust, and then update the information you have posted on Family And Heirs.

A Trust can be changed with a formal Amendment.  A Will is changed with an amendment that is often called a “codicil."   Codicils can alter, change, add to or subtract from the provisions in the Will.

The requirements for amendments and codicils vary state-by-state. Most states require two witness signatures, while some states allow or require the document to be notarized.

You should visit your lawyer to change a Will or Trust.  First, the lawyer who holds your Will or Trust absolutely needs to know about the changes you are making.  Second, multiple codicils or multiple amendments can create confusion or contradictions. 

As a practical matter, you can leave comments and make your wishes known to your family, and they are generally free to follow them if they all agree to do so.  But always consult your lawyer for changes of any significance.

Absolutely. While there are very substantial differences between a Will and a Trust, they both have the same purpose, which is to make known how you wish for your estate to be distributed upon your death. Wills and Trusts are indistinguishable on this site.  You can read our Blog Post, “What's the Difference Between a Will and a Trust,” to learn more.  Also see another Blog Post, “Wills vs. Trusts – A Simple Chart Comparison.”  

FamilyAndHeirs.com is much more than only a site where you upload your Will or Trust.  We offer a comprehensive Pre-Planning Questionnaire that allows you to provide answers to the numerous questions your family will have when you're gone, but which they never asked or found too uncomfortable to ask.  Asking your parents or grandparents how they want their assets and possessions handed out when they die, and their thoughts and wishes for when they're gone, is often just too difficult a conversation.

With our Pre-Planning Questionnaire, WE ask the questions.  Unlike the Pre-Planning Questionnaires some people complete at the offices of Funeral Directors, and which require appointments to change, ours is on-line so you can change any answer or include any new information at any time day or night.  And you can do so as often as you'd like, with no need to bother anyone at the mortuary.  And you can upload to our secure digital storage the important documents you want your heirs to have, like your Will and Trust, the Deed to your home, the lease for your apartment, your Marriage Certificate (or Divorce Decree), Birth Certificate, Naturalization papers, Passport, military DD214, and any special letters and photos.  All your confidential information is held in encrypted form on our very secure servers.

Absolutely. If you don’t have a Will or Trust, your property will be distributed according to the laws of “intestacy” in your state. What this means is that the state effectively writes a Will for you and determines how your estate should be distributed to your heirs. Many people don’t have Wills or Trusts. Some are happy with the distribution provided under the intestacy laws. Others just think their estate is too small to warrant a Will or Trust. We’re not here to tell you if you should have a Will or not. That is up to you, and if you wish you can seek legal counsel on that subject.

But even if you don't have a Will or a Trust, this website works for you. You still will want to tell your family what your final wishes are, who owes you money, who you pay the rent to, and when it is due, and the amount of the security deposit, where you have a bank account and a safety deposit box, who you’d like to get some special items, who should take care of Fido, who gets the urn or where the ashes should be scattered, etc. There are literally dozens of questions that your relatives would like to ask, and frankly none of them would be answered in your Will even if you had one.

If you want more information about “intestacy,” what it means and how it works, take a look at our blog posting, “What does ‘Intestacy’ Mean?” 

At Family And Heirs we offer a comprehensive Pre-Planning Questionnaire that allows you to provide answers to the numerous questions your family will have when you're gone, but which they never asked or found too uncomfortable to ask.  Asking your parents or grandparents how they want their assets and possessions handed out when they die, and their thoughts and wishes, is often just to difficult a conversation.  With our Pre-Planning Questionnaire, WE ask the questions.  Unlike the Pre-Planning Questionnaires some people complete at the offices of Funeral Directors, and which require appointments to change, ours is on-line so you can change any answer or include any new information at any time of the day or night.  And you can do so as often as you'd like, with no need to bother anyone at the mortuary.  And you can upload to our secure digital storage the important documents you want your heirs to have, like your the Deed to your home, the lease for your apartment, your Marriage Certificate (or Divorce Decree), Birth Certificate, Naturalization papers, Passport, and any special letters and photos.  All your confidential information is held in encrypted form on our very secure servers.

If a client fails to renew, we will eventually delete his or her information. But we will provide several months’ grace. Then, if you’re still around and wish to renew, so long as your account is still up, we will renew it based on the date it should have been renewed. But after a few months without a renewal, the account will be deleted, and at that point, if you wish to rejoin, it require a new membership, and you will have to re-answer all the questions and reload your documents. 

So to answer this question specifically, when you die your account will remain active through the end of its yearly term.  That means that unless you die on the last day, your account will still have some time on the calendar.  And even then, when the annual term runs out, we will keep the account in place during several additional months of a grace period.  But, of course, you're paying for one year, and we'll give you one year and then several months' grace. But then, at some point if not renewed, the grace period runs out and your account will be deactivated and then deleted.

If you cannot get in, you do not have the right password. Maybe your uncle made a mistake when providing it to you, maybe you wrote it wrong, maybe he changed the password after giving it to you. But in any case, if the password does not work, we’re not going to provide you with the right password. We don't even know our client's passwords, and besides, we don’t know who you are and we can't possibly properly investigate your claims, nor do we wish to bear the liability for giving a client's private information to the wrong person.  

That said, we don't have access to any client's passwords or their confidential information. That information is purposefully not programmed to appear in our Administrative Panel. Likewise, our clients' answers to our pre-planning questions and their uploaded documents are not displayed for us to view. We specifically had our program written not to show passwords or any of our clients' confidential data because we want our clients to know that their data is secure from prying eyes. We recognize that their data is private and that it is none of our business, so we can't see it.  But we know that under the law, we may be ordered to provide this information. This may require us to engage the services of a software engineer to get into the system in a manner not otherwise available to us in an effort to comply with a lawful court order. 

We will allow you one week to cancel for a full refund. (For instance, If you signed up on a Monday, you will be allowed to cancel before the end of the following Sunday.)  If you make your cancellation request within that 7-day period, we will delete your account and refund your payment in full.  After one week's time, cancellations cannot be processed. You bought a year’s worth of service and we will give you a year’s worth of service.  If you are beyond the 7-day cancellation period, you may keep the info you uploaded on our server and continue to use our service until your term expires, or you may delete everything, as you choose. In any case, we don’t know what information you have placed on our system because we can't see it.  At the end of the one year term, and after the grace period, we will delete all accounts that are not renewed.

To cancel within 7 days after opening an account, simply send us an email at CustomerService@FamilyAndHeirs.com, advising us that you wish to cancel.  Be certain that you send your email from the same email account that you used to sign up, which we will accept to authenticate the legitimacy of the cancelation. 

This can happen only if your mom failed to keep her information current. The reason we don't do auto-renewals is so our clients will have to visit our site at least once a year to manually renew their accounts, and at that time they should review their data and make sure everything is up-to-date. But if a client fails to update their information, there is nothing we can do for you on this score. There is no work-around. People need to keep their information current.

We do not compete with lawyers. We do not write Wills or Trusts. We do not review them to determine if they are suitable or properly executed. In short, we do not practice law on this site and we do not provide legal advice.

Your firm will hold a copy of your client’s Will or Trust for many, many years. Your client might live on for another twenty or twenty-five years. Your firm will still have the Will or Trust, though the original will be in a Banker’s Box in archival storage by then. 

But who will know to contact your firm? You may be long retired by then, and the deceased's relatives might not know your name, nor would they remember it even if they had once known it. Your firm may have merged or been reformed several times and now it has a different name, and it may have moved two or three times.

You’ll be paid the statutory fee or a negotiated fee for handing the estate, but only if someone contacts you. The heirs won’t know, after all these years, to contact you.  But if your firm is listed as the contact at Family And Heirs, and your client keeps his information up-to-date, your firm will likely get a call from a relative and you’ll be able to retrieve the Will from deep storage (or your deep computer storage) and reopen the account. Likely, when you get the call from a relative who found your name on the Family And Heirs website, this may be your first (and only) knowledge that your client has passed.

Lawyers who write Wills and Trusts, and who do Estate Planning, should consider giving their clients a Family And Heirs Gift Certificate.  It's a useful and thoughtful gift; it only costs $49; and it will alert the clients' heirs to contact you when they have passed.

Your Account at Family And Heirs comes with 25 MB (megabytes) of data storage on our Standard Plan for your uploaded documents. Our Upgrade Plan comes with 50 MB of storage. 

How many documents will only 10 MB hold? A 100-page document in Microsoft Word is about 376 KB (kilobytes) in plain text format. The same text document with formatting expands to 872 KB. One megabyte is 1,000 times bigger than one kilobyte, so theoretically you could place about 1,150 formatted Microsoft Word pages in just 10 MB. But of course, just how many of your pages will fit in 10 MB can't be stated with clarity because some pages are filled with text, while others are half empty or double spaced. Per pc.net: "This means it will take about 500 pages of text to equal one megabyte. If a page has 4,000 characters (single-spaced), then it will take about 250 pages of text to equal one megabyte." 

Without getting too complicated, the point is you can fit a lot of text pages in the 25 MB that comes included with our Standard Plan, and double that with the 50 MBs that is included with our Upgrade Plan. The storage size of photographs raise an interesting issue. Photographs are different sizes, and they are taken with different resolutions. Digital cameras today can take pictures at 5 MP (megapixels), 8 MP, 10 MP, 12 MP, and some of the better ones can take photos at 24 MP and higher.  These larger resolutions can use a lot of storage space. Digital photos in .jpg format can run from 20 KB for a low quality image to 2 MB for a high quality image. But at higher resolutions photos can use a lot more file space. For instance, a photograph shot at 18 MP can vary in file size from 4 MB to 11 MB depending on the amount of color in the image and the amount of light (brightness). Certainly, if you try to upload a bunch of large photographs you may run out of space. But the good news is that you can “resample” a large image down to a much smaller size that would be between 100 KB (0.1 MB) and 500 KB (0.5 MB). If you either shoot your photos at smaller resolutions or reduce (“resample”) the size of your photographs, you can fit a lot of them in your digital storage. Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files come somewhere in between text files and photograph files. Some .pdf’s are created directly from your application (i.e., you have written a text document in Word and you choose to save it as a .pdf), while others are simply scanned (i.e., the scanner takes a picture of the printed page and saves the picture image as a .pdf). So the size of the .pdf file depends on how it was created. But even in the first case, a .pdf file can be larger than expected if one or more fonts are embedded into the PDF document. When .pdf’s are created using photographs (such as scanned images), the size will depend on the resolution of the photograph, and whether the photo is in color (or monochrome or grayscale). But if you save your .pdf files as “Reduced Size PDF,” you can substantially reduce their file size. Our site is designed to hold several of your important documents, some letters, and a few photographs. You can easily fit such files in the 25 MB allocated to each Standard Plan account. 

But if you want or need more space, you can purchase additional secure, encrypted storage for $10 per 10 MB per year.

As for video, at 480p (SD) each minute uses 2 MB, and at 720p (HD) each minute uses 5 MB. When you get up to 1080p, each minute uses 20 MB, and at 4K each minute uses 84MB. So, if you are making a video for this site, use 480p or 720p, or, better yet, upload your video to Youtube, gave it the privacy setting of “private” or "unsearchable", and place the video's URL in your private information on Family And Heirs.

Every account on Family And Heirs is given 25 MB (megabytes) of storage space on our Standard Plan, or 50 MB on our Upgrade Plan, where users can upload significant papers (such as their Wills or Trusts, Deeds, Marriage Certificates (or maybe Divorce Decrees), Naturalization papers, Birth Certificates, Diplomas, Professional Licenses, etc.), as well as any letters they wish to leave, and a few photographs. All of these files should easily fit into the 25 MB that comes with your Standard Plan account. See our FAQ: “How many documents can you upload to your secure, encrypted storage?” 

But what if you need or want more space? Perhaps you have more papers than most people, or you want to upload more photographs. Not a problem. You can always buy another 10 MB of storage space for only $10 per year. All your documents will be stored in encrypted files for your protection. Any additional MB’s you buy will have the same renewal date as your account. That means that if you buy an additional 10 MB for $10 at the time you open your account or upon renewal you will get a full year. If you buy additional MBs mid-way through your account year, you’ll only get six months. Sorry, we can’t have separate renewal dates for your account and your additional memory, and we are not able to handle prorations. But in this example, the difference is only $5.00. Our storage availability is designed for those special papers and photographs that you would like your heirs to have immediate access to when you’re gone.

To purchase additional storage, log into your account, go to “My Plan & Usage,” and hit the button that is titled, “Buy More Storage.”

We are not a place to store a backup copy of your entire computer, or a place to share documents with colleagues. Frankly, other services are far less expensive on a per megabyte basis, but more expensive because they will require you to buy, as their smallest offering, a much larger storage area. Dropbox, for instance, at the time of this writing, will sell you 2 TB (terabytes) of storage for $119.88 a year. Another service, Wasabi, will sell you 1 GB (gigabyte) for $71.88 a year. These are both excellent services, and they offer excellent value. If you need massive file storage, they offer a more economical price on a per MB basis. 

But most likely, you did not come to FamilyAndHeirs.com to backup your entire computer. So for only an additional $10 per year you can get the additional storage you may need. You can, of course, buy an additional 20MB for $20 a year, or 30MB for $30 a year. Start off with us without buying extra storage. You will likely find that the 25 MB that comes standard with each account (or the 50 MB that comes with our Upgrade Plan) will fulfill your needs. If and when you fill 70% of your allocated storage you will get a notification on screen that you are filling up your space, and you will be able to decide whether to buy additional storage. It’s your choice, and at an additional $10 per year for an additional 10 MB, it’s not too expensive. 

Here’s an idea if you’d like to post videos in high resolution without going to the expense of purchasing extra memory from us: You can always post your video as “private” or “unsearchable” on YouTube and then place the YouTube video's address (the URL) in your Questionnaire answers, or type the URL and a description of the video on a new document and upload that document with your other uploaded files on FamilyAndHeirs.com.