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AfterSteps end-of-life program is the very last good thing you should do

Monday, 27 August 2012 09:45

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The cost isn’t extravagant: $5 a month for a year, $4 a month for three years, $3 a month for five years. That’s $60 for a year, $144 for three years, $180 for five years.

But there’s a 14-day cancellation period.

There are drawbacks.

The instructions weren’t very clear. I signed in as Warren Boroson, but couldn’t figure out how to sign in again later on. So I created a new account, under WGBoroson and duplicated the information I had already entered.

The form should say you can stop at any time, and log in again to finish answering the questions.

Also, I wondered, is the information safe? With my credit card numbers, my Social Security numbers, the number on my Swiss bank account, Nicole Kidman’s unpublished phone number? (Answer: Yes, AfterSteps uses bank level ebcryption.)

And why wasn’t there space for the names and phone numbers of clergymen and clergywomen?

Filling out the form took more time than I expected. All those damn phone numbers, numbered bank accounts, people’s phone numbers! And I still haven’t found the obituary I wrote for myself a while back. (“The whole world is mourning today the loss of Warren Boroson, age 157, who passed away last night, murdered by a jealous husband….”)

The program was launched a year and a half ago, the brainchild of Jessica Bloomgarden while a student at Harvard Business School. She comes from Connecticut and did her undergraduate work at Stanford. The other day I asked her a few questions.

No, this isn’t a substitute for a lawyer, she said, and it doesn’t dispense legal advice. But it might make a lawyer’s job easier and reduce legal expenses.

Is the program custom-made for New Jersey residents? Yes, if there are quirks in New Jersey’s laws, the program takes them into account. “It’s state-specific.”

The goal of the program? Very simply, to make everything easier for the survivors.

Seems like a good idea to me.

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