Old black-and-white photograph: a tall clapboard house with a porch, a man holding a baby and a woman standing on the lawn in front of it
Family group in front of a house, between 1898 and 1920.

Every family has one person who knows how everything works.

Kinsake makes sure they’re not the only one. Bills, papers, passwords and the how-tos in your head, kept current a minute a day, and handed over to the people you choose if something happens.

Join the waitlist

Coming soon on the web, for any phone or computer. Free during the beta.

Kinsake

Where does your family’s know-how live right now?

The video of how to turn off the water is in the family chat, a few thousand messages up. The bank texts its code to one phone, and that phone has a passcode. The insurance papers are in a drawer nobody else opens.

A binder helps, until the first thing changes.

Save it once. Find it in ten seconds.

Add the photo or the video you already sent, say the rest out loud, and it lives on the water shut-off, not somewhere up the family chat.

How to reset the Wi-Fi. Where the breaker panel is. How Grandma makes the soup. Explain it the way you would in person, a minute at a time.

Share it with your partner or your grown kids today, or let them ask you for the one you haven’t written yet.

Useful long before it’s needed

One small step a day

About a minute: snap the label on the paint can, add a doctor, check a date. Today never shows more than three things that are due.

Hand a renewal or a chore to your partner, and see when it’s done.

The household year

A seasonal plan for the house, plus the yearly dates you choose: tax day, open enrollment, smoke-alarm batteries when the clocks change.

And a short checklist when life changes: a new baby, a new home, a new job.

Subscriptions and warranties

See what renews, catch free trials before they bill, and get a nudge before a warranty runs out. Totals are worked out on your device.

The same list tells your family which accounts to close.

Ready for a locked phone

Step by step: set up Apple Legacy Contact and Google Inactive Account Manager, and note which phone or email gets your 2FA codes.

Then print your Recovery Kit and keep it somewhere safe.

On paper, too

One tap makes a binder on your device: a fridge page for the babysitter, a wallet card, a full binder with room for three holes. Passwords stay out unless you add them.

Export everything, any time, in formats you can open without us.

Everything the house runs on

Nineteen sections in five groups. Each one asks a plain question instead of showing a blank form, and you can take a photo instead of typing. Every section opens with one handover level, and you can move any item to another.

Emergency Incapacity After death

The basics

  • About usIDs and the household profileIncapacity
  • People to call & contactsThe call list, doctors, your attorney and accountantEmergency
  • Where things areOriginal papers, spare keys, the safeEmergency

Logins & online life

  • Passwords & device codesSealed, and asks for your password again to viewAfter death
  • Digital lifeAccounts, where 2FA codes go, what to closeAfter death

Money

  • AccountsEach with a note on how it worksIncapacity
  • BillsAutopay, due dates, keep or cancelIncapacity
  • Insurance & debtsIncapacity
  • Income & benefitsIncapacity
  • Heirlooms & bequestsAfter death

Home & family

  • Home & utilitiesMortgage or lease, utilities, contractors, warranties and receiptsIncapacity
  • House emergenciesShut-offs, the breaker, contractorsEmergency
  • CarsIncapacity
  • PetsEmergency
  • HealthDoctors, medications, allergies, insurance cardsEmergency
  • WorkEmployer, HR contact, workplace benefitsIncapacity

Wishes & words

  • WishesFinal wishes and funeral preferencesAfter death
  • MemoriesVoicemails, recordings, photos and notesAfter death
  • For laterMessages for one person, passed on laterAfter death

To remind you, Kinsake keeps a title and a date. Everything else is sealed on your device before it’s uploaded. This runs in your browser, and nothing you type here is sent.

Seen by
CarsOpens with Incapacity

Car registration

Reminder · Nov 30

Renew online at the DMV, about $96. Plate 7KJM214, paid from joint checking.

What reaches our server

Car registration · Nov 30

Everything else is sealed on your device. We can’t read it, and neither can anyone who breaks into our servers.

Maya, your sister · Emergency, Incapacity

Car registration

Reminder · Nov 30

Renew online at the DMV, about $96. Plate 7KJM214, paid from joint checking.

Opened for Maya after the 7-day wait you set. Read-only, and logged.

You see all of it. We see one line.

What we can see

Everything Kinsake’s servers can see, why, and an example
ForWhat we can seeWhyFor example
RemindersA title and a date for each reminderSo we can remind you on timeCar registration · Nov 30
Reminder emails and notificationsThey carry only that title and dateCar registration · Nov 30
Your householdWho is in your household and Circle, and each person’s roleSo the right people are invited and toldSam · co-owner
Each item’s level, whose it is, when it changed, how large its files areSo a handover releases only what you choseIncapacity · Alex · 2.4 MB
HandoversRequests, wait times and confirmationsSo we can hold the wait and tell youEmergency · 24 hours
The log of who opened whatSo you can read itMaya opened Emergency
Signing inYour email addressIt’s your account name, and how handover mail reaches youYour email
That you sign in with Google, if you choose GoogleSo Google can confirm it’s youGoogle
CountingHow many people visit, where they came from, how many households use each featureTo improve Kinsake, without cookies: on our own servers, plus Cloudflare Web Analytics on these pagesNever your File, titles or email
Everything elseItem details, documents, photos, voice notes, passwords and device codes, For later messages, the call logSealed on your device before uploadSealed

Rather we saw none of it? Start on this device: no account, and nothing in your File is sent to us.

No ads, no trackers. We never sell your data, and it’s never used to train AI. We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and doesn’t follow you from site to site. We don’t set cookies. The sign-up form loads Cloudflare Turnstile, a bot check, only when you start filling it in.

Old photograph: a family of eight standing on the lawn and porch steps of a two-storey clapboard house, 1908 Old photograph: a plain white gabled house with shutters, a family standing in the yard in front of it, about 1885 A page from an old family photograph album with four studio portraits of small children
Charles Smoot family in front of their house, 1908. Carpenter family in front of their house, about 1885. A page from the Born family photograph album.

Hand it over in levels

It isn’t only about dying. A week in the hospital is enough for someone else to need the autopay list.

To begin, you choose your Circle. Your partner shares the whole File. A sister, a friend or an executor gets only the levels you give them: Emergency for doctors, medications, allergies, insurance cards, who to call and where the spare key is; Incapacity for bills, accounts and the house; After death for your wishes and the accounts to close.

When someone asks, you hear right away. A trusted contact taps Request access. We tell you at once, again halfway through the wait, and a day before it ends. One tap on I’m OK, in the app or in the email, stops it.

During the wait, nothing opens. You set the wait for each level, and for each person if you like: for example 24 hours for Emergency, 7 days for Incapacity, 14 days for After death. After death also needs a second trusted person to confirm, never the one asking.

When the wait ends, that level opens, and only that level. What opens can be read, not changed. Every opening is logged, and you can read the log. If you stop checking in, we let your Circle know. Nothing opens on its own.

From then on, The Guide is there. The people you chose get a calm checklist for the first days, weeks 1–2, the first month and the first year, with plain words for probate and the rest. It’s free for them, always.

A couple going over papers at an insurance office, from “Our Home Town: Levittown, Pa.”, 1954.

In your own voice

Text tells them what to do. Your voice tells them it’s going to be fine.

Save the voicemail you can’t bring yourself to delete, before the next phone upgrade does.

A question a week, like “How did you two meet?”, answered with a voice note or a few lines.

For later holds messages, voice notes and links for one person, passed on by someone you trust once After death opens. No account needed to read them.

A binder is a snapshot. Your home keeps changing.

Old photograph: a man, a woman and two children in front of the porch of a small house behind a wooden fence, 1924
John Anderson and family in front of their house, 1924.

Three ways in

The one-week test

If you were in the hospital for a week, could someone else…

  1. find the water shut-off?
  2. pay the bills that aren’t on autopay?
  3. get into your phone?
  4. get the bank’s sign-in code?
  5. know who to call about the furnace?
  6. feed the pet the right food?
  7. list your medications?
  8. find the insurance papers?

0 of 8 yes

Answer all eight to see where you stand.

Join the waitlist

This runs in your browser. Your answers aren’t saved or sent.

Free to start

Kinsake is free during the beta. After it, a Free plan stays, and the handover is never paid.

After the beta, the Free plan keeps one adult, every daily feature, two trusted contacts and 1 GB. Households that need more move to Family, and nothing you’ve saved is deleted either way. Rather pay once? Tick the box when you join.

And more on the way. Join the waitlist to help decide what comes next.

Questions

Who can see my information? You, your partner if you share a File, and the people you choose, each only after a handover you control. Your File is end-to-end encrypted: to remind you, we keep a title and a date, and everything else is sealed on your device. One honest limit: the wait before a level opens is enforced by our server. If someone in control of our server worked together with one of your trusted contacts, they could open that person’s levels early. They could never open a level you didn’t give that person, and we still can’t read your sealed items. A later update will require two trusted contacts to open After death. Read how Kinsake protects it.

Is this a will? No. Kinsake doesn’t replace a will, and nothing in it is legal or financial advice. It keeps the information your family will need, including where your will is kept. An estate attorney can help with the will itself.

What if I forget my password or passphrase? We can’t read your File, so we can’t reset your password or passphrase for you. The Recovery Kit is how you get back in. You print it when you set up and keep it somewhere safe.

How do I sign in? With Google, or with your email and either a password or a 6-digit code. If you use Google or a code, you also set a passphrase that opens your File. Where your device supports it, a quick face or fingerprint check opens it too.

When does it launch? We’re building it now, starting on the web, so it works on iPhone, Android and any computer. Everyone on the waitlist gets an email the day the beta opens, and the beta is free. An iPhone app comes later.

Does it work on my phone? Yes, in any modern browser. Take photos of documents with your phone’s camera instead of typing. On iPhone, add Kinsake to your Home Screen to get notifications.

Do I have to upload anything? No. You can keep your File only on this device, for free, and export it whenever you like. Turn on sync when you want your partner in, reminders by email, or a handover.

Can my partner and I share one File? Yes. Your partner is a co-owner and sees everything. Each item belongs to one of you or is marked shared, so a handover about one of you opens only that person’s items and the shared ones.

What happens if I stop opening the app? If you turn on check-ins and go quiet for longer than you chose, we remind you once, then let your Circle know so someone checks on you. Nothing opens on its own. Away mode pauses this while you travel.

We just lost someone. Can Kinsake help? Yes. When the beta opens, The Guide will be free even if nothing was set up beforehand, and you’ll be able to read it without an account. It walks through the first days, weeks 1–2, the first month and the first year. It’s general information, not legal or financial advice.

Do you use my data for ads or AI? No ads and no trackers; we count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies. We never sell your data, and it’s never used to train AI. We can’t read what’s in your File anyway.

What if Kinsake shuts down? If Kinsake ever closes, we’ll tell you at least 90 days ahead. Until the last day you can export everything in formats that last without us: a PDF binder, CSV and plain-text files, and a ZIP with your documents, photos, voice notes and videos. Anything kept only on your device keeps working after we close. Then your data on our servers is deleted. It will never be sold.

Why I’m building Kinsake

I grew up in my grandparents’ home and lived with them until I was 18, when I left for college far away. I remember the sườn ram, caramelized pork ribs, from their kitchen. I remember my grandmother scolding me when I did something wrong, words I didn’t appreciate until I was grown. And I remember my grandfather trimming the hedge along the fence, then splitting a coconut for me to drink.

None of it felt like something to keep. It was just everyday life, and I assumed it would always be there. By the time I understood what those days were worth, and knew how to build something that could have saved them, my grandparents were gone. What I wish I had kept most are their voices and pictures of them. It’s one of the regrets I carry.

Today I’m the one in my home who keeps track of how everything works: the Wi-Fi password, the account numbers for the power and water bills, where the hammer, screwdrivers and pliers live. Your list is probably different. But a lot of us are that person for our families, and a lot of us want to hold on to what our parents know. The replies to a Threads post about an “in case of death” folder were full of people who feel the same way.

Grief and loss come to every family. What we can keep are the things money can’t buy back: a voice, a face, a story, the way something is done. That’s why I’m building Kinsake.

— Duc, founder

Leave your email and we’ll write the day the beta opens.