[juxtapoz3r]

I was just contacted by weremember.org about their beneficiary notification program, but I'm not sure I understand it that well. Some of the aspects of the company sound good, but I don't know if they offer their services, like quotes and such, for free or if there is some type of hidden fees. I have a phone call in, but I'm waiting for a response.

In short, has anyone had any experience with this company? Can I have my own insurance company and still enroll with them? And if so, how much does it actually cost?

Thanks!

 

[OhGreatGuru]

It's not clear to me why you think we remember.org is an insurance company, or that it has anything to do with insurance.

I have no direct experience, but there are numerous articles on the web about their services. See following extracts from an article at: http://www.suntimes.com/technology/guy/1672387,CST-FIN-ECOL18.article

Once the death is confirmed, WeRemember.org contacts the beneficiaries to let them know how to execute the will and claim policies and accounts.
.....
WeRemember.org gets its revenue from the users' $29.95 upgrade fee and from financial and insurance companies that sponsor "learning centers" posted on the company's Web site. The learning centers are designed to answer basic questions about financial and insurance products and offer people affordable options.

When Web surfers click to receive a quote on one of the products, WeRemember.org collects referral fees for forwarding the person's contact information to the financial services and auto, health and life insurance companies that provide the information.


Do you really want to encourage SPAM? And how secure do you really think your personal/financial information (and perhaps that of your heirs) will be in the hands of an unregulated private internet company? This sounds like a poor substitute for properly planning your affairs, but I can understand the attraction to people who are habitually or congenitally disorganized.

 

[attorneymark]

WeRemember.org actually provides a great service

@Ohgreatguru - I have to agree and disagree. WeRemember.org is definitely not an insurance company, but their service is by no means a "poor substitute for properly planning your affairs". Their service is fantastic to use in conjunction with any sort of estate planning.

My law firm and actually quite a few other firms and financial advisors have starting advising clients to register their information on this website, because as I know from real experience, many, many wills go unexecuted every single year. As an estate attorney, the only way I know of a client passing is through reading the obituary or a family member calling me. Otherwise the wills don't go executed!!! We don't have some "special" way of knowing when people pass... that's why WeRemember.org was developed in the first place.

I'm not affiliated with WeRemember.org and am not compensated to have my clients register for their service; as an attorney, this is simply just another value added service I can offer my clients. In my 27 years of practice, I have more stories than you can imagine on how clients didn't receive the assets that rightfully belonged to them, on how wills couldn't be found, and on how the courts decided how to divide up an estate.

Lastly, in regards to their quoting service... I actually emailed their customer service dept to make sure on this one. All information within the member profile is 100% private and secure. They created a database for the public to compare life insurance rates (and other products) for no cost. If someone decides to purchase or receive more info, they then have a licensed agent contact you; that's not called spam to me, that's called shopping for the best rate.