How to use Guiding Forward

Creating an account

Sign-up asks for your first and last name, an email, and a password (at least 8 characters). If someone gave you a promo code, a small “Have a promo code?” link reveals a field for it — you don’t need one to get started.

Every new account opens with a 7-day free trial at full access, no card required.

Your first choice

Right after signing up, you’re asked what you’d like to do first: prepare the essentials (jumps into Family Guidance), tell your story (jumps into Personal Legacy), or do both(goes to the home screen with everything visible). Whichever you skip isn’t lost — it’s simply waiting for later.

If you’d already taken the Family Readiness quiz on the website with this same email, this screen also points you to whichever area needs the most attention first.

The ten chapters

Open any chapter and you’ll find four questions waiting, each answered separately whenever you’re ready. Nothing needs to be finished in order, and nothing needs to be finished at all.

Recording a story

1. Open a question and allow camera and microphone access, then select Begin this story.
2. Speak naturally. Rough captions appear on screen as you go, just to keep the conversation feeling alive — they’re not what gets saved.
3. Select Finish this story when you’re done, then either Retake to start over, or Save Story to keep it.
4. Once saved, we listen back carefully in the background and prepare an accurate written transcript, a short summary, and the people and places you mentioned — the question shows “Transcribing…” until it’s ready.

Follow-up questions

Sometimes, right after you save a story, the Guide notices something worth asking more about — grounded in what you actually said, never a generic script — and offers one thoughtful follow-up question. Record it immediately, or come back to it later from the chapter list, under “Record the follow-up.” Follow-ups go one layer deep only; there’s no follow-up to a follow-up.

“Play This First”

One message, set apart from the ten chapters, meant to be the very first thing your family hears — before any of the practical details. Record it, preview it, or re-record it any time from its own pinned card at the top of Personal Legacy. It’s also where a released archive begins (see If the day comes you can’t tell them).

Stories prompted from Family Guidance

Every so often, filling in a detail over in Family Guidance surfaces a gentle invitation to say more about it on video — for example, noting where your property documents are kept might prompt: “Want to record the story of this place, and what it’s meant to you?” Accept it, and it’s recorded like any other story, just linked back to that detail.

Finding a story again

Every chapter shows what’s answered and what isn’t at a glance. Any saved story can be reopened to watch the video, read the transcript and summary, or see who and where it mentioned. A search bar on the Personal Legacy home page looks across everything you’ve recorded, by keyword.

The seven modules

Filling it in

Each field is a simple text box that saves on its own the moment you move on — there’s no “submit” button to remember. Some fields also accept a file attachment (up to 20 MB): PDFs and images preview right in the app, Word documents open in a clean reader view, and anything else opens with a plain “open” link. Nothing routes through an outside viewer.

Express Setup

New to Family Guidance and not sure where to start? Express Setup walks through nine of the most urgent fields — a first emergency contact and executor, the will and power of attorney, an advance directive and healthcare proxy, insurance, digital access, and funeral wishes — one at a time, with a progress bar and a running time estimate. Most people finish in about 20 minutes, and every answer saves as you go, so stopping halfway loses nothing.

A running, plain-language check on how prepared your family currently is — not a one-time quiz, but a live score that updates as you fill things in, across six areas: Legal & Documents, Medical & Care, Financial & Insurance, Digital Access, People & Logistics, and Wishes & What Only You Know.

The score sits on a 0–100 scale with four plain bands — At Risk, Partially Prepared, Getting There, and Well Prepared— and beneath it, a short list of concrete next steps, starting with whatever would help most. This same score also decides which Family Guidance module appears first for you.

Inviting someone

A guided, step-by-step form: their name, email, and how they’re related to you, then one plain question — “Would you like this person to have live access now to Personal Legacy, Family Guidance, or both?”Nothing is actually shared the moment you check a box, though — they’ll receive an email to accept the invitation first (existing users are simply added, brand-new ones are guided through setting up their own sign-in), and only once they accept does that access turn on. Anyone you invite can be revoked at any moment, which ends their access immediately.

What they see is clearly marked as theirs to view, not edit — a banner reads “Viewing [name]’s Personal Legacy” (or Family Guidance) wherever they’re looking, with no way to record, retake, or delete anything of yours.

What happens after you’re gone

If there’s anything this person doesn’t already have live access to, the invite form asks one more question, scoped to just what’s missing: give them Personal Legacy, Family Guidance, or both, once a release is confirmed. Live access you granted above never turns off at release — this only covers what’s left. You can revisit this choice any time from that person’s row on this page.

Choosing who can confirm a release

Separately, from the Release & check-inpage, you choose which of your already-accepted family members can help confirm that a release should happen if you miss a check-in. Being a confirmer doesn’t grant that person any content on its own — it’s purely about trusting them to vouch, one click, that it’s really time.

Staying in touch

Set how often you’d like to check in — every 30, 60, or 90 days, every six months, or once a year — and a grace period (7, 14, or 30 days) before anyone else is contacted if a check-in is missed. A single tap on “I’m still here,” from a reminder email or right on the page, resets the clock.

If a check-in is missed

Past the grace period, the confirmers you chose (see Sharing it, while you’re here) are emailed a link and asked to confirm, one click, that it’s really time. You choose in advance how many confirmations are needed — from one person to three — so a single mistaken click can’t release anything on its own.

What your family sees

Once released, each person signs in to confirm who they are, then sees your “Play This First” message first, full-screen, before anything else. From there, a gentle handoff points them to whichever parts of Personal Legacy and Family Guidance you scoped for them. Nothing here opens even a moment early — release-gated content stays sealed until confirmed.

Any recorded story can be set aside for exactly the right moment, years from now, rather than shared today.

From a saved story, choose + Schedule a message and give it a recipient’s name and email, then one delivery rule:

• On a specific date — a wedding, an anniversary, whatever date you choose.
• On their birthday — say their 18th, given a birthdate.
• Years after release — a set number of years after your archive opens to family.

The recipient doesn’t need an account. Before the date, their link simply says it isn’t ready yet; the moment it’s due, it opens to your message, playable right there on the page.

Two plans, each available annually or as a single lifetime purchase. Every new account starts with a 7-day free trial at full Complete-tier access — no card required.

Plans only ever move forward — annual to lifetime, Essential up to Complete — with credit given for whatever you’ve already paid when you upgrade. There’s no downgrade path.

Manage or cancel anytime from Settings, which links straight to a secure billing portal. If a plan lapses, your account turns read-only for 60 days — everything you’ve saved stays visible and exportable — before it’s paused for good.

Give someone a Lifetime membership (Essential or Complete) from the Gift page: your name and email, their name, an optional personal note, and how it should reach them — emailed on a date you choose, or a printable card to hand over yourself. They’ll get a page naming who it’s from and what it includes; once they sign in (or create an account), one click claims it onto their own.

• Nothing you record or write is visible to anyone until you specifically invite them.
• Every invitation can be revoked at any time, taking effect immediately.
• Content meant for after you’re gone stays fully sealed — not partially visible, not previewable — until a real release is confirmed.
• Family Guidance never asks for account numbers, passwords, or anything sensitive itself — only where to find it and who to ask.

Questions, trouble with the app, or anything that doesn’t feel right — write to us at info@guidingforward.com. A person reads every message.