Coining the moniker “Dropbox for death” is newly-launched South African startup life.file, which has built a platform designed to help people navigate the legal parts of life and death while driving down costs.
Launched by Claire Keet and Sinal Govender in June, life.file is a web app that helps people create, store and share a file of all the legal life stuff their loved ones will need one day when they are no longer around.
“It’s a bit like “Dropbox for death” but so much more. People don’t like to think about and plan for life’s worst moments – like dying or getting really sick. Seventy per cent of South Africans don’t even have a will. Getting your affairs in order is confronting, costly, time consuming and overwhelming. But worse, dying without your legal “ducks in a row” causes immense stress for the people you leave behind,” Keet told Disrupt Africa.
“Having your legal life stuff organised is more than being on top of your admin for “just in case”. It’s an empowering way of living your best life. Reduce stress, avoid disaster and look after the people you love most when things go pear shaped.”
Helping people do this now is life.file. The platform guides users through the creation of a life.file containing all the legal life things they should have sorted out. life.file’s colourful, intuitive interface suggests all of the more obvious legal things like wills and living wills – plus all of the things that users probably haven’t thought of, like “what happens to my pets when I’m six feet under?” or “what happens to the domestic worker I employ when I die?”.
life.file, which charges users an annual subscription, launched in June, and Keet said the team had been “blown away” by uptake so far. Currently operating within the South African legal jurisdiction, she nonetheless said the startup’s vision is to expand to another five legal jurisdictions within the next five years.
