Everplans Review: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Everplans

What Does Everplans Do?

Everplans is a digital vault for all of your estate planning, including legal and financial information and important documents. You can create a secure account on their website. Then, answer questions, upload documents, and fill in information to create your very own Everplan. What’s an Everplan? The company defines it as a “complete archive of everything your loved ones will need should something happen to you.”1

After using it firsthand, I can attest that they truly mean everything! From your will to online passwords to the account you use to pay your utility bill, your Everplan can safely store it all. You can even upload letters that you’ve written to loved ones. It’s a useful tool for anyone who wants to make their estate plan available to their family in a clear, organized, and accessible way.

Signing Up With Everplans

1. Visit the website and create an account.

New users must visit the Everplans website to create an account. Click on any of the “Sign Up” buttons you see on the homepage to sign up for free. Everplans no longer offers a free trial to check out their services, but their basic plan is free. Then, you’ll be prompted to fill in your email address and create a password. Since you’ll be filling your Everplan with confidential information, it’s important to choose a unique password and not to share it with anyone.

2. Click on your confirmation email.

After yoAfter you create an account, Everplans will send you a confirmation email. You must click on the link in the confirmation email to continue the sign-up process. That link will bring you to a screen where you’ll fill in your name, date of birth, ZIP code, and preferred pronouns. I appreciated that I didn’t have to give my credit card info!

3. Answer questions to prepare your dashboard.

Everplans documents checklist

To create your Everplan, you’ll answer questions about your digital devices, home, employment, relationship status, dependents, pets, and insurance. You can also stipulate whether you have a will, a power of attorney, an advance directive, financial planner, accountant, and/or attorney.

Everplans will ask you to list the most important person you trust, which they call a “deputy.” Then you’re given guidance about how to share your Everplan with that person.

4. Check out your Everplans dashboard.

Everplans dashboard

Everplans uses the information you provided to create your Everplan dashboard. Here, you can read helpful estate planning articles, add information to your Everplan, and even create a power of attorney. You can go through your Everplan section by section to add any missing information as you create your digital estate plan.

Notable Everplans Features

Everplans provides a comprehensive way to prepare for the future. However, there are a few features that caught my eye as I tested out the site for this review.

Learn and Create

Everplans Premium helps you learn about estate planning documents that you’re missing, such as a will or power of attorney, and provides recommendations for online legal services that can help you create them. Everplans also lets you download a living will and health proxy that you can print out and have notarized, if your state requires it.

Expiration and Renewal Reminders

Everplans reminders

You can opt into receiving reminders about important items in your vault. For example, Everplans can send you an email when your insurance policy is about to expire. I love this feature for older adults who have memory trouble or just want fewer details to keep track of.

Deputies

Everplans deputies

You can share your Everplan with one or more deputies. Who you choose, what they have access to, and when they have access is entirely up to you. For example, you could give your spouse full access to your Everplan immediately, or you can specify in your Everplan that deputies can only gain access after your death.

Here’s how it works: Deputies are sent an email asking them to create an Everplans deputy account. In the event of your passing, deputies can email Everplans requesting access to your information. Everplans will then email you and give you however long to respond (you set this duration yourself in your Everplan) to make sure no one is trying to gain unauthorized access. After that period (I set mine for 48 hours), deputies can log in and see your Everplan.

Download a PDF

You can download your Everplan at any time, even with the free version, which I appreciate. If you decide Everplans doesn’t work for you, or your budget changes, you’d still have a copy of your Everplan. The PDF file contains all of the information you’ve filled in, along with a nifty table of contents for easy navigation.

Mobile App

Everplans iOS app

In December 2021, Everplans released the Everplans iOS app for iPhones. The app is available to all users, whether or not they have an Everplans account.

The app can store images of your health insurance cards and other important documents that you may need on the go. Plus, you can adjust deputy permissions and view your existing Everplan.

My Experience Creating My Everplan

My dashboard page prompted me to click through user-friendly boxes so I could fill in my important information, such as my driver’s license, bank account information, end-of-life plans, and pet care plans. Many people never think to share this information with loved ones, which can create headaches for them when they have to settle your affairs after your passing. For example, Everplans provides space to enter detailed maintenance instructions for your car, as well as the account information for your utilities so they can be turned off or transferred.

If you have automatic payments set up for utilities or subscription services such as Netflix or a gym membership, family members armed with this information can stop unnecessary payments from draining your bank account after you’re gone. Helpful hints like these will ensure your family has everything they need to settle your accounts with as little stress as possible when the time comes.

After feeding each bit of information into my Everplan, a box popped up telling me how many “points” I had earned for doing so. Although I found this gamification aspect unnecessary and kind of a waste of time (since you have to click the box to make it go away), some might enjoy the feeling of accomplishment!

And you don’t have to follow all of the Everplans prompts. I could skip around and click on any of the different tabs on the left side of the page, such as “Home and Property,” “Financial,” “Health,” and “Legal,” and enter information in the order I preferred.

How Much Does Everplans Cost?

You can opt for the free but limited basic plan, or go for Everplans Premium, which costs $99.99 per year and offers a full suite of planning services. This includes access to your Everplans dashboard online or in the app. More specifically, your Everplan subscription includes:

• A digital vault to store your essential information
• Bank-level security with SSL encryption and two-step verification
• Expert guidance, resources, suggestions, and more
• Upload and store up to 5 GB of documents
• Share your Everplan with as many trusted people (deputies) as you want
• Priority email support
• Access to the will creation feature

Overall, I think Everplans offers excellent value. It’s a little cheaper than their closest competitors, too, which we’ll explore a little more below. Trying out Everplans also comes with minimal risk. You can sign up for the free version of their plan with just an email — no credit card required.

How Secure Is Everplans?

Everplans prioritizes customer security and confidentiality. All data is encrypted using the most modern standards and bank-level security. And, the only people who can decrypt your data (and therefore see it and read it) are the people you choose to share it with. Everplans also complies with HIPAA — the federal law that protects your medical information.

You can also help keep your data safe by protecting access to your account. Everplans suggests that you:

• Choose a strong password
• Never share your password with anyone
• Enable two-factor authentication: When you sign in from a new device or browser, Everplans will text a unique code to your phone that you need to use when logging in.

For a complete look at Everplans security features, review the Everplans security page.

Comparing Everplans to Competitors

Everplans isn’t the only company looking to help with end-of-life planning and organization. Others include My Life and Wishes, Cake, and Trustworthy. Let’s take a look at how Everplans compares.

Everplans vs. My Life & Wishes

Overall, Everplans fares well against their closest competitors. Everplans is more affordable than My Life & Wishes, for example, which offers very similar services. Plus, Everplans has the advantage of a convenient iOS app. My Life & Wishes wins for document storage space, but Everplans’ platform is more user-friendly and comprehensive, which I think is a major win considering how complicated end-of-life planning can be.

My Life & Wishes has a very simple layout, clear pricing, similar features, and a similar dashboard design. It may be appealing to older adults who aren’t as tech savvy, or who are less impressed by the more modern web interface and gamification (e.g., earning points for filling in your information) Everplans offers. My Life & Wishes might be a better option for couples as well, because they can create a joint end-of-life plan.

Everplans vs. Cake

One of Everplans’ competitors, Cake, offers a number of end-of-life services, including a funeral home directory, a will maker, an online memorial feature, and advance directive guidance features, among others. But I thought Cake’s layout and features were a little overwhelming and less personalized than Everplans’. In addition to end-of-life plans, Cake partners with businesses, such as a prepaid funeral planning company and a company that turns people’s ashes into diamonds as a memorial.

Everplans vs. Trustworthy

If you have a complicated estate or want to help your entire family stay organized, Trustworthy is another option to consider. Everplans accounts are for single users who want to share their information with trusted deputies, whereas Trustworthy’s Family Operating System is designed to store important information for as many family members as the account holder likes.

Note that there are a number of end-of-life services that might initially seem similar to Everplans, but they all have different focuses. Trust & Will and LegalZoom, for example, provide legal document creation guidance. Empathy, another company, is more geared toward helping grieving loved ones navigate a death, walking them through the probate process, writing an obituary, and stress relief, for example, with the help of a care manager. In contrast, Everplans and Trustworthy provide easy-to-use digital vaults that organize your affairs and share information with your loved ones in a safe, timely manner after your passing.

Final Thoughts on Everplans

Everplans is a secure solution for organizing your important documents online. And with the Everplans iOS app, it’s even more accessible to seniors with smartphones.

Trying Everplans’ “Freemium” plan is risk-free. That’s why I’d recommend it to any senior looking to organize their important financial and end-of-life documents. Even if you decide the yearly fee or online platform isn’t for you, you can still download a free PDF copy of your Everplan. And, at the very least, this service will help you consider tasks you may have overlooked, such as noting where you store your passwords, where to find your bank account information, and where family heirlooms can be found after you’re gone.