Terms of Service

1. Acceptance, eligibility, and authority

By creating an account, accessing the service, clicking an acceptance control, or purchasing a plan or add-on, you agree to these Terms and the Privacy Notice. If you use the service for an organization or another person, you represent that you are legally authorized to bind that party and to provide the information involved.

You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering a binding agreement. You are responsible for accurate account information, all activity under your credentials, and promptly reporting suspected unauthorized access.

2. The service and changes

Death Professionals provides software for organizing information, files, wishes, provider details, intended recipients, coordination tasks, and release instructions. Features may be added, changed, suspended, limited, or discontinued; uninterrupted, error-free, or permanent availability is not promised.

You should maintain independent copies of important information and should not use Death Professionals as the sole repository for anything needed urgently, legally, medically, financially, or operationally.

3. Information transfer only—no property rights

A Vault entry, recipient designation, release plan, notice, verification decision, or release authorization is an instruction concerning access to information only. It does not transfer or adjudicate title, ownership, possession, custody, beneficiary status, intellectual-property rights, contractual rights, fiduciary authority, agency, account control, or any other right or interest in real, personal, digital, or intangible property.

The service is not a will, trust, codicil, deed, assignment, beneficiary designation, power of attorney, advance directive, probate filing, court order, or substitute for a legally operative instrument. Applicable law and valid wills, trusts, titles, contracts, account terms, court orders, and beneficiary designations control if they conflict with anything in the service.

4. No legal, tax, medical, financial, insurance, or fiduciary advice

Death Professionals provides technology, not professional advice. Use of the service does not create an attorney-client, accountant-client, financial-advisor, insurance-agent, medical-provider, trustee, fiduciary, custodian, escrow, agency, or other professional relationship. Consult qualified professionals about your circumstances.

Death Professionals does not undertake to administer an estate, determine heirs, interpret instruments, safeguard property, marshal assets, pay obligations, file returns, provide insurance, or perform a fiduciary duty unless a separate written agreement expressly says otherwise.

5. Verified Release and manual authorization

A death report begins an administrative review; it does not itself establish death, identity, authority, entitlement, or authenticity. Death Professionals may request documents, compare identifiers, contact participants, issue notices, allow objections, observe waiting periods, consult third-party sources, impose a hold, require additional evidence, reject a report, or decline or delay release.

For My Vault, manual authorization is a good-faith administrative decision to make only specifically assigned information available to an authenticated recipient. My Assets uses a separate sharing rule: after verified death and authorized release, each Recipient assigned an Asset can view the complete active inventory and all intended Recipient assignments. Asset assignments are expressions of intent only, do not transfer ownership, and do not resolve competing claims. It is not a legal adjudication and does not confer any property right. Documentary checks, database matches, emails, identities, and participant statements may be incomplete, delayed, forged, inaccurate, or unavailable. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Death Professionals is not liable for reliance on, delay in, refusal of, error in, or inability to complete a verification or information release.

Recipients must independently determine whether they may lawfully view, retain, use, disclose, act on, or delete released information. Release does not authorize access to any third-party device, account, asset, communication, or property beyond rights granted by its lawful owner and applicable law.

6. Your content and permissions

You retain whatever rights you lawfully hold in content you submit. You grant Death Professionals and its service providers a limited, nonexclusive license to host, encrypt, transmit, process, back up, display, and otherwise use that content only as needed to provide, secure, support, enforce, and improve the service and comply with law.

You represent that you have the right and lawful basis to upload and designate access to the content. You will not upload unlawful, infringing, malicious, exploitative, fraudulent, or privacy-invasive material, or credentials and information you are prohibited from sharing. You are responsible for content accuracy, recipient choices, permissions, and consequences of disclosure.

7. Security, encryption, and recovery

Death Professionals uses safeguards intended to reduce risk, but no system, device, storage service, transmission, encryption implementation, or authentication method is completely secure. Death Professionals does not warrant that information will never be accessed, corrupted, deleted, intercepted, or lost.

You must use secure credentials, protect authentication and recovery materials, keep devices and contact information current, and review access assignments. Loss of a recovery key or loss of access to an email account or authenticator may make encrypted content unrecoverable. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Death Professionals is not liable for losses caused by compromised credentials, user devices, recovery-material loss, or actions taken through a valid session.

8. Fees, subscriptions, taxes, cancellation, and refunds

Prices, billing intervals, included storage, limits, promotional terms, and applicable taxes are shown at checkout or in the applicable offer. Recurring plans renew until canceled. You authorize the payment processor to charge the payment method on file. Except where law requires otherwise or a written offer states otherwise, charges already paid are nonrefundable and partial periods are not prorated.

You may cancel through the billing portal. Cancellation ordinarily takes effect at the end of the paid period. If a plan ends or storage limits decrease, uploads may be blocked and features restricted while existing data is handled under the then-current retention and over-limit policy. Continuing-storage charges apply only after separate acceptance of a displayed monthly rate. While stored files exceed 50 MB after a paid plan ends, accepted full monthly fees accrue without proration. Deleting excess files or resuming paid access stops future fees; accrued balances remain due. Released Vault information is unavailable to Recipients while the continuing-storage balance remains unpaid. Recipients may voluntarily settle that balance without starting a subscription. Death Professionals is not liable for payment-processor errors, declined charges, tax calculations, or loss arising from a lapsed plan, except to the extent liability cannot legally be excluded.

9. Providers, organizations, listings, and third parties

Provider profiles, organizational workspaces, referrals, discounts, sponsored placement, and other listings do not constitute endorsement, credential verification, a recommendation, or a guarantee of quality, legality, availability, licensure, insurance, pricing, or outcome. Sponsored placement is paid visibility and should be identified as such.

Third-party services—including payment, hosting, identity, email, device, state-record, and provider services—operate under their own terms. Death Professionals is not responsible or liable for third-party acts, omissions, content, security, accuracy, availability, transactions, or disputes.

10. Prohibited conduct

You may not misuse the service; impersonate anyone; submit a false death report; evade access controls; probe or disrupt systems; introduce malware; scrape or resell data; harass participants; infringe rights; access information without authorization; use released information to seize or control property; or use the service for unlawful, deceptive, abusive, or harmful activity.

11. Intellectual property, trademarks, and reserved rights

As between you and Death Professionals, Death Professionals, LLC and its licensors retain all rights, title, and interest in the service, proprietary software, original site content, design, branding, logos, and related materials, excluding user content and third-party materials. Copyright © 2026 Death Professionals, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Third-party materials remain subject to their owners’ rights and applicable licenses.

Death Professionals™ and Smile Back, Plan Forward™ (including the styling ‘Smile back. Plan forward.’) are trademarks owned and claimed by Death Professionals, LLC. We reserve exclusive rights in these marks to the extent established under applicable trademark law. This notice does not represent that either mark is federally registered or grant exclusive ownership of words in all contexts. Other names and marks belong to their respective owners.

Subject to these Terms, you receive a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, revocable permission to use the service for its intended purpose. You may share invitation graphics and links expressly provided for sharing, with their branding and notices intact, solely to promote or invite others to the service. This permission does not authorize misleading endorsements, impersonation, merchandise, or use of our branding for another service. Other use of our protected materials requires written permission unless applicable law or a third-party license permits it. Do not remove ownership notices or copy, distribute, sell, or create derivative works from protected materials outside those permissions.

Creating an account, paying fees, submitting suggestions, participating as a provider, or using the service does not give you equity, membership, voting rights, ownership of the business or its intellectual property, or authority to bind Death Professionals. User content remains yours as described in section 6; these Terms do not transfer it to us.

12. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. DEATH PROFESSIONALS DISCLAIMS ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, AND OTHER WARRANTIES, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, SECURITY, AVAILABILITY, AND THAT THE SERVICE OR ANY RELEASE DECISION WILL MEET YOUR NEEDS OR PRODUCE A PARTICULAR RESULT.

13. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DEATH PROFESSIONALS AND ITS OWNERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AFFILIATES, LICENSORS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, RELIANCE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES; LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, OPPORTUNITY, GOODWILL, DATA, OR PROPERTY; OR CLAIMS ARISING FROM CONTENT, RELEASE OR NONRELEASE, DELAY, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS, SECURITY EVENTS, THIRD PARTIES, OR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO DEATH PROFESSIONALS FOR THE SERVICE DURING THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. THE LIMITATIONS APPLY EVEN IF A REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. NOTHING EXCLUDES LIABILITY THAT APPLICABLE LAW DOES NOT ALLOW TO BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED.

14. Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Death Professionals and its owners, officers, employees, contractors, affiliates, licensors, and service providers from claims, losses, liabilities, damages, judgments, penalties, costs, and reasonable attorneys’ fees arising from your content; your instructions, designations, or release requests; your violation of these Terms or law; your infringement of another’s rights; or your use, disclosure, deletion, or reliance on information received through the service.

15. Suspension, termination, retention, and deletion

Death Professionals may restrict, suspend, or terminate access to protect users or the service, address nonpayment or suspected misconduct, comply with law, or manage risk. You may request deletion through available account controls. Some billing, audit, security, claim, release, fraud-prevention, legal-hold, and compliance records may be retained as permitted or required by law. Deletion and recovery are not guaranteed after applicable retention periods or technical deletion begins.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by Vermont law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Except where applicable law requires otherwise, exclusive jurisdiction and venue lie in the state or federal courts located in Vermont, and each party consents to personal jurisdiction there. Before filing a claim, the parties will attempt in good faith for 30 days to resolve the dispute through written notice.

17. General terms

These Terms, the Privacy Notice, and any checkout or add-on terms form the entire agreement for the service unless a separate signed agreement applies. If a provision is unenforceable, it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the remainder will continue. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without consent; Death Professionals may assign them in connection with a restructuring, financing, or transfer of the business.

Death Professionals may update these Terms and will post the revised date and provide notice when legally required. Continued use after an effective date constitutes acceptance where permitted by law. Material questions or legal notices should be sent through the support channel identified in the service until a dedicated legal-notice address is published.

18. Mandatory rights and limits on disclaimers

The qualifications in this section apply to every disclaimer, exclusion, limitation, indemnity, and dispute provision in these Terms. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, or any liability that applicable law does not permit us to exclude or limit. Nothing waives mandatory consumer protections, statutory remedies, privacy or data-protection obligations, or other rights that cannot lawfully be waived. Where a restriction is not permitted, it applies only to the extent permitted by law.

Section 14 applies to third-party claims only to the extent caused by your unlawful conduct, infringement, or breach of these Terms; it does not require you to indemnify a protected party for that party’s own negligence, misconduct, or breach of law. We will provide reasonably prompt notice of an indemnified claim, reasonable cooperation at your expense, and an opportunity to participate in its defense. No settlement may impose an admission, payment, or ongoing obligation on a party without that party’s consent. The informal dispute period in section 16 does not prevent urgent court relief, reporting to a regulator, or filing in time to preserve a legal deadline.

Security and availability disclaimers describe limitations, not permission to disregard our express commitments or legal duties. These Terms do not guarantee immunity from claims or replace obligations imposed by law.

19. Service arrangements and urgent needs

Selecting a provider, adding a service to a checklist, or displaying a purchase, payment, or confirmation indicator does not by itself guarantee a binding arrangement, receipt or safeguarding of funds, future performance, or a refund. Indicators reflect the records available to the service and may require independent confirmation. Review the provider’s written agreement, cancellation and refund terms, licenses, and payment details directly. Unless a separate signed agreement expressly states otherwise, Death Professionals is not the provider of the listed funeral, memorial, legal, financial, or other third-party service, and does not insure or guarantee the provider’s obligations. This does not limit any responsibility the law imposes on Death Professionals for its own conduct.

The service is not an emergency-response service, and messages, reports, or uploaded documents may not be reviewed immediately. Do not rely on the service for urgent medical, safety, legal-deadline, or time-critical funeral arrangements. Maintain independent copies and communicate directly with the appropriate professionals and recipients.

20. Survival and ownership notices

Provisions that by their nature should survive termination—including ownership and reserved rights, accrued payment obligations, lawful restrictions on use of received information, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, dispute provisions, and mandatory-rights safeguards—survive to the extent permitted by law. Termination does not expand our rights to retain or use personal information beyond the Privacy Notice and applicable law.

Copyright © 2026 Death Professionals, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Death Professionals™ and Smile Back, Plan Forward™. No rights are granted by implication beyond the permissions expressly stated in these Terms.