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New website encourages Australians to look death squarely in the eye

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A new Australian website applies social networking and information-portal tools to that one great certainty in our lives.

No, no… not taxes. Death!

WrappingUp.com, launched in Sydney last week, encourages Australians to be pro-active about managing end-of-life affairs.

The site aims to provides a depth of information, contacts and support for the recently bereaved, in addition to practical advice for estate planners.

It offers a secure online community to openly discuss death, share experiences and get service-provider referrals.

That’s right. Death just got social.

Planning for the ferry-man

As the nation’s baby boom generation grows older, an increasing number of people are coping with parents who are moving into residential or hospice care.

“Australians spend almost $17 billion on funerals, nursing homes and community care services per year,” says Christopher Zinn, director of the consumer advocacy organisation Choice. “However, funeral planning and insurance are two areas where there is a lack of transparency and confusion, with many people not knowing whether they are paying what they should.

WrappingUp.com takes a candid approach to death by providing information to encourage people to plan ahead — not just for the disbursement of assets after death, but in details such as preparing their own environmentally friendly funeral, handling family disputes or considerations about pins and passwords.

Subjects and areas include funeral planning (for pets, too), family communications, bereavement advice, and wills and other legal issues.

The cost of planning for death

The site offers four levels of access, ranging from — at no charge — limited content access, to the platinum level ($79/year), which provides everything from a service-provider directory to an online community to tools for sharing personal stories.

In a statement on the site, founders Kelly Chapman and Della Churchill say: “We hope by having this online resource at hand, more Australians will take charge of their own affairs, to relieve their next of kin of the responsibility at what is usually an emotional time.”