Over the course of a lifetime, we will have many difficult conversations with our loved ones. Whether it’s mortgages, bills, changing careers or planning for the future, big topics necessitate big discussions.

But, death is a conversation that often goes avoided.

Despite being arguably the most important topic out of all the above, there never seems to be a good time. We try our best, but we still can’t bring ourselves to speak about it with our loved ones.

Even if you are relaxed about death and not scared to talk about it, it can feel like an impossible conversation to have without upsetting those close to us. It’s perfectly understandable that death is left to the sidelines – after all, life is too full of joy to be dwelling on it.

So, we put it aside for another day.

A national survey commissioned by Life Ledger at the end of 2020 revealed that 17% of people have never discussed their last requests with loved ones. Although it is perfectly natural to avoid or delay the topic of what happens when you pass, there is a danger of putting it off for too long.

The survey also highlighted that 21% of people are worried about last requests not being followed when they pass away. If your requests have not been heard, how can you expect them to be acknowledged?

The difficulties of managing death

In general people have a very limited knowledge of the administration around death, what it entails and how to approach it.

The saddest part of this is that our ignorance reveals itself at the worst possible time. When we are grieving, the challenge of understanding the required legal process is made even more daunting, distressing, and stressful.

With 23% of people having more than 10 services, subscriptions, or bills in their name. It’s quite understandable that 30% of us are worried about leaving an admin mess behind when we die.

Death notifications are an integral part of managing a death. In fact, British families spend over 7 million hours a year closing the accounts of loved ones.

The current process requires families to repeatedly provide the same information about the deceased, over and over again to different people in different departments in different organisations.

It is not only disjointed, time-consuming, repetitive, and stressful, but having to share these details once is upsetting enough, let alone 10 times, or even more.

The power of the digital age

Thankfully, as with so many elements of our life, technology has the power to help improve and streamline the process.

Life Ledger’s service helps support families dealing with death admin. The simple free platform saves countless hours, which would have otherwise been spent wading through complex and repetitive legal forms

Helping them to complete the death notification process quickly and easily, without furthering their stress or discomfort at this difficult time. Lifting the pressure of legal admin from the family’s shoulders and giving them more time and space to grieve.