Short answers to the questions people ask most.

About five quiet minutes. The wizard asks who you would want reading this, where you keep important documents, and the few accounts that would matter most. You can stop at any point and come back; nothing requires a single sitting.

No. A binder with three or four sections is already more than most households leave behind. Each section shows its own status, Missing, Partial, or Current, so you always know what is worth coming back to next, without anything nagging.

Every entry as you type it. There is no "save" button. If your connection drops mid-sentence, the next time you open Afterward your draft is waiting where you left it.

Not yet. Afterward is a write-it-once, read-it-when-needed surface, not a password vault. We deliberately do not import bulk credential exports. The binder is meant to point a trusted person to the right places, not to become another copy of your secrets. The three most important keys go into sealed envelopes; everything else is described, not stored.

The web app works on every phone and tablet. A native iOS app is coming in a later wave, a few months after the web release. The work you do today moves over with you when it ships.

A short piece of writing that is locked on your device before it ever reaches us, and addressed to one specific person you name. Only that person can open it, and only after the courtesy interval has run its course or you choose to share it sooner.

We hold the locked version. We cannot open it. We cannot read it. The metaphor is literal: a sealed envelope handed to a named recipient.

Because three is what almost every survivor actually needs first: the phone passcode, the primary email password, and the password manager master. With those three, your trusted person can reach almost everything else themselves. Adding more turns the binder into a vault, and a vault is not what we are.

They can still ask to read what you addressed to them. Opening a sealed envelope happens in their browser, after they confirm a fresh sign-in link. If their email changes, they can update where the link is sent, and you can update who the recipient is at any time from your binder.

Yes, but only on a device that has already signed in to your binder. Opening a sealed envelope of your own re-asks for the same key you set up on first use, so a stranger holding your unlocked laptop cannot read it without the second step.

Open the envelope, edit the contents, and re-seal it. There is no version history; the older sealed copy is replaced cleanly. We will quietly remind you to revisit sealed envelopes once a year as part of the annual review.

They open a link in any browser. No app to install, no account to create, no password for them to remember. They confirm their identity with a single sign-in link sent to the email or phone you wrote down for them, and the binder opens.

Ask them to check Junk or Spam for a note from Afterward at hello@afterward.care. Some mailbox providers may place access emails there while deliverability work continues. If they still cannot find it, use a fresh copy-now link through a private channel you already trust, and ask them to open the complete address from that message.

They see the open binder sections that are part of the shared reader. Sealed envelopes stay separate and only open through the sealed-envelope release path. The three sealed-envelope slots are for the phone passcode, primary email, and password manager instruction.

For v1.1, the product stays centered on one trusted recipient. You can change who is named at any time, and the change takes effect immediately. Broader recipient roles are not part of this Family checkout release.

Their link stops working immediately. They are removed from any sealed envelopes addressed to them, and the next time they try to open the binder they see a quiet message that the binder is no longer shared with them.

Only if you choose. The default is quiet: the binder is yours, and how you have your conversation about it is yours too. If you would rather they know up front, there is a one-tap option to send a short, plain note explaining what you have done and why.

If you do not open Afterward for 60 days, we send a quiet note asking if anything has changed, by email and by text, to whichever you set up. A check-in, not an alarm.

If another seven days pass without a response, the people you named can ask to read what you left them. You can override either window from the app at any time, or end the request entirely.

Yes. The 60 / 7 split is the default; you can move it from 30 days up to 180, or turn it off completely. People who travel for work often lengthen it. People who want their family to reach things sooner shorten it.

Opening the app once is enough to reset the interval, even a single visit on the road counts. If you anticipate being away from your phone for a stretch, you can pause the interval ahead of time, and resume it when you are back.

Yes. Some people prefer to share the binder on their own timing rather than let an automated interval do it. If the interval is off, your recipients cannot ask to open the binder unless you share it directly.

You receive a notification, by email, by text, and inside the app, and you have seven days to say no. A single tap dismisses the request and the binder stays closed. If you do not respond at all within those seven days, the binder opens to the recipient. This is the design; the interval is the only thing that lets the binder do its job when you are not the one to open it.

Free includes the core binder, one trusted recipient, no-account recipient reading, and export. You can start without a card, and the work you write remains yours.

Family is US$99 per year, annual only, for US checkout first. It adds the v1.1 Family tools that are live: no item cap, three sealed envelopes, annual review, and stronger handoff/export affordances.

Your binder remains yours. Data export is not a premium add-on, and we will not use a paid plan change to lock away work you have already written.

Yes. PDF and portable export remain available from inside the app. We do not hold your binder hostage. Data portability is a trust signal, not a premium feature.

Export a copy from inside the app first, then write to hello@afterward.care from the address on your account. Deletion is permanent, and we will tell you that clearly before we do it.

If this is your first Family charge, write within 30 days and we will refund the year. After that, ordinary cancellations are not prorated unless there is a duplicate or erroneous charge, a legally required refund, a no-fault account closure by Afterward, material Family feature degradation, or a support-approved exception.

Open Billing in the app and choose Manage billing. Cancellation does not require a support ticket or retention call. If you cancel, Family access continues through the paid period and your binder remains available.

No. Your binder is locked on your device before it reaches us. We hold the locked version; the keys live with you and the people you named. Even with full access to our servers, what we have looks like sealed envelopes: addressed, but unopenable.

We cannot open it for you. Not because we will not, because the architecture genuinely does not allow it. The same property that keeps a court out is the property that keeps us out.

This is why we ask you to save the backup code somewhere physical when you start. It is the second key to the binder. The annual review prompt asks you, gently, whether you still know where it is.

No. Structurally we could not even if we wanted to. Your binder is locked before it leaves your device. There is no advertising business attached to Afterward, and there will not be one. The product is the product.

Your email address, account identifiers, the size of your binder, and when it was last opened, so the courtesy interval can run. We also keep the names and protected contact details of the people you marked as recipients, because we need to know where to send the link if the interval ends. The contents of the binder itself are not in that list.

On the security page. It is written in plain language, with the precise technical detail tucked behind a "show me more" toggle for anyone who wants it.