Before You Start

Reasonable things to want answered before writing anything down about your family.

Why Should My Family Use This? How Will It Help?

Three benefits, in the order most families notice them.

It gets it out of one person's head. At the moment, what your family believes and why lives in the memory of whoever tells the stories. That is a single point of failure. Writing it down is the only way it survives intact.

It gives you something to point at. A Family Vision everyone helped write settles a surprising number of later arguments, because the reasoning is on the page rather than being re-litigated from memory.

It reaches people you will not be there to talk to. Letters released to the person you name, on the date you choose, including birthdays and events you will not see.

Whether that is worth your evening is a fair question, and the honest answer is that it depends on whether anyone in your family would want it. Most people find out they do. What Is Total Family? is the longer version.

Is This a Will? Do I Still Need a Solicitor?

It is not a will, and yes, you still need one.

Nothing written in Total Family moves money, transfers property, or carries legal force. Your will decides what your family receives. Total Family holds the part a will has nothing to say about: why, and what you hoped they would do with it. The two sit alongside each other.

Who Can See What I Write?

Not everything is shared, and sharing is decided per item rather than per person.

Your Family Vision, and family-level material, is shared with the household. That is the point of it.
Milestones have a Share with family members checkbox. Leave it unticked and the milestone stays private to you. Tick it and you then choose which family members, individually. Ticking without selecting anyone will not save.
Legacy Letters are released per letter. You toggle on the recipients who should get it, can add someone outside your family by name and email, and can hold a letter until a chosen date with Schedule an open-date.
Guests, such as an advisor or a grandparent, get read-only access to exactly what you switch on. See Guest Sharing.

What Happens to It After I Die?

You name a Legacy Contact: the person who inherits access to your account, what they are allowed to see, and a note you leave them. You set those terms yourself, in advance. See Legacy Contact.

Do I Have to Do This With My Spouse?

No. Your Personal Vision is written alone, and it is the sensible place to start.

Total Family offers to invite your spouse or life partner once you save it, and Skip for Now is a real option. The Family Vision needs more than one of you, but nothing is blocking you until then.

How Long Does It Actually Take?

Setting up, profile and the Initial Assessment: about twenty minutes.
Your Personal Vision: another twenty or so, and worth doing uninterrupted rather than between meetings.
Your Family Vision: an evening, ideally with everyone in the same room.

After that there is no schedule. Letters, milestones, and quotes accumulate over years rather than in a sitting.

Can I Change My Mind Later?

Yes. Every part of a vision can be edited afterwards, exported as a PDF, and looked back through: Total Family keeps every saved version, so you can see what you thought five years ago. See Living Vision.

What Does It Cost to Try?

Nothing. Families start free, and you can set your household up, invite everyone, and collect quotes without paying. The vision work is what sits behind Premium. See Free vs Premium.

If you reach the payment page, your card details go straight to our payment provider. Total Family never sees or stores them.

What if I Stop Paying?

Your material is not deleted. The household returns to the free plan, where Quotes and My Journey stay open, and everything already written stays yours. Billing and Payment also stays in your settings permanently once a family has been Premium, so past plans and invoices remain available.

My Advisor Is Paying. What if That Ends?

Same answer. Your household drops to the free plan, keeps what it has written, and you can take over the membership yourself if you want to carry on.

Create Your Family is the first thing to do, and it is free. If something is already not working, Support is over here.