Family Circle
Ask the questions while there’s still time to ask.
Family Circle is your family, written down. Add your parents and the other people who matter, and keep what you’d need to know about each of them: who to call, what they’d want, and the stories that make them who they are.
No card to enter. Answer one question or a hundred. There’s no score.
The questions you only think of afterwards.
After a death, families spend days piecing together things one person used to know. Who has a key. Whether there was a plan already paid for. Which hymn she always said she wanted.
Most of it is easy to ask over a cup of tea. It is very hard to find out later.
- Did Dad ever say if he wanted to be buried or cremated?
- Who even is Mom’s doctor now?
- I wish I’d written down how she made that soup.
- Who would look after the dog?
Ask someone who knows.
You don’t have to guess what your mother would want. Send her a private link, and she can answer her own questions on her phone, in her own words.
She doesn’t need an account or a password. Her answers come back to you when she sends them.
- You choose which groups of questions the link asks.
- It works once, and stops after a week, two weeks or a month.
- Omuna doesn’t send it. You pass it on however you like.
Illustration
Letters for after.
Some things are best said in your own words. Write a letter, or record one in audio or video, for the people you love.
Only you can read it while you’re alive. Afterwards, someone you chose passes it on, and each person gets their own private link.
- Written on your own card, about your own life.
- For anyone in your circle, or anyone with an email address.
- Sealed from everyone else, including whoever runs the family’s account.
For Sam, from Dad
A few things I meant to say
Voice message · 2:14
Sam, the tomatoes want water every evening in July, even when it rains. Your mother knew that. Now you do too.
I’m proud of you. I don’t think I said it enough.
Love, Dad
The questions that matter later.
Each person in your circle has their own record, in plain sections. Answer one question or all of them, and skip anything.
Each person’s answers also print as a one-page emergency card, with blank lines for anything nobody has answered yet. And if someone dies, their record can start the checklist, with every detail it copied shown to you first.
Who to call, and when
The people who’d need to hear first, and the things that can’t wait a day, like a pet alone in a house or a key nobody has.
What they’d want
Burial or cremation, the kind of service, the music, and whether anything is already paid for.
Medical basics
Doctors, medications and allergies: what someone stepping in would need to know.
Advance directives
Whether a living will, a DNR or a healthcare power of attorney exists, and where it’s kept.
Care and caregiving
Who looks after them day to day, and what a day of care looks like.
Estate contacts
Whether there’s a will or a trust, who they named as executor, and who to call.
Insurance contacts
Who to call about their coverage, without the policy details.
Digital legacy
What they’d want done with their accounts and photos online. Preferences only, never passwords.
Written to help, not to grade you.
- Family Circle records where documents are kept. It doesn’t create a will, a directive or any other document, and it never stores passwords or account numbers.
- It isn’t legal advice. For a will or a directive, talk to an attorney.
- There’s no percentage and no readiness score. One answer is useful on its own.
- On the more sensitive questions, like funeral wishes or health, anyone can choose “prefer not to say.”
- It never ticks off a checklist task for you. It shows what’s already known, and you decide what to do with it.
Questions about Family Circle
Is Family Circle only for after someone has died?
No. It’s most useful before. It’s a place to write down what your family would need to know, while the people who know it can still tell you. If someone does die, their record helps you start the checklist.
Can my parent fill in their own answers?
Yes. Make a contribution link for them, choose which questions it asks, and send it however you like. They answer on their own phone, with no account and no password. The link works once and stops working on the date you chose.
Will it ask for passwords or bank details?
No. Family Circle keeps answers and pointers, like “the paperwork is in the fire safe,” never the passwords, numbers or documents themselves.
How do letters work?
You write a letter on your own card, add a recording if you like, and choose who it’s for and who should pass it on. Only you can read it while you’re alive. After your death, the person you chose can read it and release it. Each recipient gets their own private link, emailed to them if there’s an address on file.
What happens if someone in the circle dies?
You can record the death on their card and start an arrangement for them. Their details are carried into it, and you’re shown a list of everything that was copied, so nothing is decided for you out of sight.
Does it cost anything?
No. There’s no card to enter and nothing to pay.
Start with one person and one question.
Ask it at dinner, or over the phone. Write the answer down. That’s enough for today.
No card to enter.