Research launched today by UK bereavement-tech startup, Life Ledger, reveals that bereaved British family members and friends spend over 7 million hours a year shutting down services following the death of a loved one. The research shines a light on the negative impact that the current complex and outdated death notification process has on the bereaved.
“Whilst you can make death notifications online for government services, there’s currently no single, streamlined, way of telling private companies about a death. Unfortunately this means that bereaved families and friends have to contact private companies individually to shut down the accounts. Our research revealed that it takes over an hour to get in touch with a company and ask them to close an account, I know the process can span weeks or months,” said Tremayne Carew Pole, Founder and CEO of Life Ledger.
He continued, “Along with the administrative burden, our research also highlighted the emotional toll that this process causes – nearly a third of Brits (32%) that have made death notifications have suffered trauma as a result, confirming that this process needs to change.”
Uncancelled services can also end up costing large amounts of money. The research revealed that the average Brit has 11.47 services, subscriptions and bills in their name, costing them £285.19 a month. This increases with age, with those 65+ having an average of 12 services in their name and spending £330.24 a month.
If it took a month to complete the death notification process and close down the total accounts, this would cost Brits over £14 million, totalling up to over £171 million lost a year.
UK start up Life Ledger has today launched with the aim of solving these issues by automating the death notification process for bereaved individuals. The platform enables executors and next-of-kin to register a death once, and select all companies to notify from one place. Life Ledger then automatically informs all the relevant companies. Users can also ‘Register a Life’, securely storing details of all accounts, policies, subscriptions and a copy of their will with Life Ledger, sparing loved ones a huge administrative burden once they pass.
On the founding of Life Ledger, Tremayne Carew Pole said, “Talking about death isn’t easy or comfortable, but it is important, especially now as we live through the pandemic. The current way that death notifications are made cannot and should not continue – it’s time consuming, difficult and is emotionally traumatic for those who have been recently bereaved.
My co-founders and I have all been through the manual death notification process following the death of a loved one. Contacting companies to inform them of the death of someone dear to us was not only a long, drawn out and complex process that spanned weeks, but it was also emotionally draining. In many cases, there is no streamlined, easy way of informing businesses, the people you speak to haven’t received the proper training, and you can get passed between operators having to explain the situation multiple times. It was clear to us that something needed to be done to make this process easier.
“That is why we have today launched Life Ledger, which uses technology to automate this process, informing necessary parties in one click – simplifying the process for both the bereaved and private businesses. Our hope is that Life Ledger helps bereaved families, if only in a small way, by making this process quick and simple.”
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