I had a business idea some time ago that I've been giving some more serious thought of late. The business would offer services to people immediately after their death. So once notified of a death, the service would send out emails to loved ones, composed by the user. Maybe online payments could be made, again at the request of the user.
The premise behind the idea is that wills are seen as overly officious documents, that don't necessarily address the human nature of death. This offers a way of people communicating with the living after they've gone.
My main sticking point with the idea is obtaining reliable information about someone's death. It's not as if the user could send you an email confirming their own death. And relying on notification from a next of kin compromises the secrecy with which someone could register with the service (not to mention the fact that in certain circumstances, the next of kin may have died simultaneously).
I need to do some delving into how death registrations are recorded, and whether this would offer a reliable means for validating people's death.
There's an amusing sketch on Little Britain in which two police officers go to the wrong Mrs. Jones' house to inform her of her husband's death in a car accident, only to be directed two doors down to that of the other Mrs. Jones. Then there's the ensuing laughter over the confusion. Probably a mistake you don't want to make in real life.
It sounds like a morbid idea, but the whole premise of it is to ease the pain of death for the folks left behind.
