Empathy brings legacy planning to the UK with the launch of LifeVault
Most people know they should plan for the future. Very few actually do.
Research from International Adviser found that 78% of Brits over 60 have no estate plan in place. Separate research from the Money and Pensions Service shows that 53% of UK adults aged 50 to 64 don't have a will. These numbers describe a generation at a precipice.
The reasons are familiar: estate planning feels distant, expensive, and complicated, so the process often gets pushed to tomorrow. But tomorrow arrives without warning more often than any of us would like to admit, and the cost of that delay doesn't fall on the person who put it off; it falls on the people left to sort it out.
Introducing Empathy LifeVault™ in the UK
Today, Empathy LifeVault™ launches in the UK, bringing its holistic, practical, and emotionally supportive digital estate and legacy planning solution to British families for the first time.
LifeVault already supports millions of people across North America through partnerships with leading insurers and financial institutions. Its UK arrival extends that same model here: LifeVault is delivered through the institutions people already rely on.
What LifeVault does, and why it's different
LifeVault brings the scattered pieces of estate planning into one guided, secure solution.Through step-by-step journeys, people can create legally valid wills, powers of attorney and funeral wishes, with clear guidance on signing, witnessing and registering them where required. They can also organise information about property, pensions, bank accounts and insurance policies, store important documents securely, and give trusted contacts permission to access what they need, when they need it.
Planning ahead requires more than paperwork. LifeVault's Conversations tool gives families a private, AI-guided space to work through difficult questions about wishes, values and legacy, at their own pace. Its Legacy Letters offering lets people preserve the personal messages that live outside any legal document, but matter just as much.
The product was built alongside estate lawyers to reflect the legal requirements across England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so document creation adapts to wherever someone lives in the UK.
“Planning ahead requires more than paperwork. It's about giving the people you love clarity when they need it most.”
Part of a fuller picture
LifeVault builds on Empathy's 2025 UK launch to help families navigate the practical and emotional work that follows a death. Together, the two extend Empathy's support across the full arc of life's toughest moments, from planning ahead to moving through loss.
For the insurers, banks and wealth managers Empathy partners with, this means a single relationship with Empathy can support a customer at crucial points in their life, before a loss and after one, rather than a single benefit tied to a single event. It's a way to show up earlier, stay relevant longer, and build the kind of trust that extends beyond a policy or account alone.
As Clare Dodd, UK General Manager at Empathy, articulates:
"Planning for the future is one of the most important things we can do for the people we love, but too often we put these decisions off as they feel overwhelming, expensive and complicated. LifeVault is designed to remove those barriers, making legacy planning simpler and more accessible, so people can prepare for the future with confidence.”
Where this goes next
Today, Empathy supports more than 50 million people across the US, Canada and the UK, and LifeVault is the next step in surfacing that support before the moments families can't plan for arrive.
Preparation is a form of care. It's one of the clearest ways we can look after the people who matter to us, long after we're able to do it ourselves. Empathy LifeVault is built to make that kind of care easier to give, across the UK and beyond.