Why I created 'When I Die Manager'

My father was 45 when he died of a heart attack.

Apart from the sorrow and devastation that such a loss brings, we did not really know anything about his affairs and estate. It was in the mid 1970th, he had just started a business which was doing well. We received lots of verbal promises from his friends and other business associates.

But as so often happens, those promises meant nothing. So we lost the business.

There are lots of people who can tell similar or worst stories. But it comes down to the fact that it takes a lot of effort to figure out how to deal with the estate that is left behind.

In my journey through live I had 3 kids, divorced, later on became a software developer, moved from The Netherlands to New Zealand, met my wife there who was from the US. Together we moved back to the states, Indiana and from there to Washington state on the west coast.

So now I am in my seventies, have children and grand children in 2 countries in Europe and the US, properties in 2 countries, bank accounts in different countries, etc. I am sure that if I would pass away today the ones that are left behind will have a hard time figuring things out about my estate.

I wanted to do something about that and not leave them with a complete mess.

Relying that somebody had already made software to manage my estate planning I did some research. To my surprise the only software that I could find was for professional estate managers and executors of wills. Other software was only to create documents like Will, Power of attorney, etc. And the professionals come in after the fact, to clean up the mess.

I was looking for something that I could use myself, DIY estate planning, where I build up the information that is important and necessary for the executor of my estate. It will make the process less time consuming and can keep the costs down if you need to hire a professional estate executor.

One of my requirements is that the app is also useful while I am still alive, easy to maintain and has a lot of resources.

And I am sure that there are more people interested in that.

So that's why I started, and that process is still ongoing!