A new survey has revealed that 93% of people in the region are in the grips of paperwork pandemonium with missed deadlines, lost documents and rising stress levels taking their toll.
The research, carried out by digital life admin platform SafeKeep has revealed that only 7% of adults in the North West have all their important documents stored in one place, and 35% have missed a renewal or expiry deadline for insurance, passports or out of date policies.
What’s more, 33% said it would take between three and 10 hours to locate all their key documents and just 3% could pull everything together in under 30 minutes.
And the mess doesn’t end there.
Almost 37% of adults with living parents wouldn’t know where to find all their loved ones’ key documents in the event of their death with 35% admitting they don’t even have the location of mum and dad’s will.
Andrew Byres, Managing Director of SafeKeep, a smart, digital filing cabinet that allows you to securely store, organise and manage your most important documents, said: “The results paint a sobering picture of how modern life – filled with endless paperwork, passwords, and deadlines – is leaving many of us overwhelmed and unprepared.
“From passwords and pensions to wills and insurance, our lives are more complex than ever – but shockingly most of us are winging it, relying on a mixture of kitchen drawers, email inboxes and paperwork piles to try to keep things in check.
“This makes life admin stressful, time-consuming and can be costly when you miss renewal dates or lose key paperwork.
“On top of this, when you die, this chaos is inevitably passed on – making death admin challenging and more stressful than it should be.”
SafeKeep founders: L-R Robin Hyde-Chambers, Andrew Byres, Ellen Widdup, Jacob Dilley
Nationally, the survey of 2,000 UK adults found that more than half of those who feel overwhelmed with life admin say they’re “totally disorganised”, with many admitting it’s affecting their ability to stay on top of everyday essentials and fearful of leaving their loved ones in confusion if the worst were to happen.
Of those surveyed in the UK, 45% of adults have had to sort out someone else’s affairs after their death with 60% saying the process was made harder because it was difficult to find the person’s important documents. Almost 69% said death admin made the grief harder.
Andrew said: “This is where SafeKeep can step in, designed to bring calm to the chaos, helping users securely store, organise and share essential life documents – from medical records to mortgage papers – all in one place. The service also allows you to designate trusted Legacy Contacts in case of emergency or death.”
SafeKeep allows you to store your most important documents in one secure, structured space, with folders, tags, and a smart search making it easy to find what you need, when you need it. It also boasts smart features to notify you when a document is going to expire or when a policy needs renewing.
Legacy Contacts makes sure the right people can find the right documents at the right time and lets you decide what’s shared, when, and with whom – so nothing is left unclear when it matters most.
Legacy Contacts can also access videos, photographs, messages and memories that you want to share after your death, ensuring your voice lives on for those you love.
For more information visit mysafekeep.com
CASE STUDIES
“Grieving is hard. It’s wrong that death admin makes it so much harder.”
Kate Godfrey, from Cheadle Hulme, Manchester, lost her husband, the father of her four children, suddenly and tragically at the age of 46. He left no will, and the mountain of paperwork meant the young widow struggled to manage the logistics of a life without him as well as her own grief and that of their kids. Here, she explains how the most devastating day was followed by months of chaos as the family tried to come to terms with their loss.
It was the day after Father’s Day that my husband, then just 46, went out to play football. It was a usual Monday evening routine. But this time he never came home again.
He collapsed on the pitch, and, despite his friends’ heroic efforts at CPR, he suffered a catastrophic hypoxic brain injury due to cardiac arrest.
At 44, I became a widow.
The first few days were a blur of simply functioning. But after the initial period of grief when people can support you, real life rears its ugly head again – and nobody could take the horror of the ‘death admin’ away for me.
Death admin is the seemingly endless and relentlessly repetitive practical, legal, financial, and bureaucratic tasks following a death.
This includes registering a death in order to obtain a death certificate, without which nothing else can be done. Then, notifying authorities.
After that it’s banks and insurance companies, closing accounts, arranging the funeral, sorting out the estate, and dealing with any debts and researching entitlements.
All that, on top of notifying an employer or clients if, like my late husband, your person was self-employed.
It’s essentially the hidden burden of bereavement. An overwhelming, emotionally exhausting, and time-consuming workload which can’t be delegated.
Already devastated, at the end of those first few days, I felt as though I’d been wrung out.
A system such as SafeKeep, which can effectively ease the burden, is therefore a godsend – and certainly something I want in place for my family. Grieving is hard. It’s wrong that death admin makes it so much harder.