Connections by Immortalize: Record Who's in Charge Before a Crisis Hits

When Emma's mother collapsed at home on a Tuesday afternoon, the ambulance arrived in eight minutes. The family took considerably longer to get their act together.

Emma was the eldest. Her brother was overseas. Their mother had a financial advisor, a lawyer, and a doctor she'd seen for fifteen years but nobody had their contact details. The hospital needed to know if she had an advance care plan. Nobody knew. They needed to know who had authority to make medical decisions. Nobody knew that either. All of that information existed. It just wasn't written down anywhere anyone could find it.

That's the problem Immortalize's Connections feature is designed to solve.

What Is Immortalize's Connections Feature?

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Connections is a feature inside Immortalize — a digital elderhood planning platform — where you record every person who plays a role in your life and your plan. Their role, their relationship to you, and what they're allowed to access.

That includes beneficiaries, guardians, executors, caregivers, LPA donees (the people you appoint under a Lasting Power of Attorney to make decisions if you lose mental capacity), deputies, emergency contacts, and professional contacts like your insurance agent, financial advisor, and lawyer.

Here's what makes it different from a contact list: it gets built automatically. As you work through your planning with YEPPA — Immortalize's built-in digital concierge — you answer questions about your life and wishes. The people you mention get added to Connections as you go. By the time your plan is complete, you have a full, organised picture of everyone involved, without sitting down to fill it in separately.

The question most people then have is: why does having this written down actually matter? The answer is more uncomfortable than most people expect.

Why "They'll Figure It Out" Is Not a Plan

Most people assume the people around them have a rough sense of who handles what. In practice, that assumption falls apart the moment something actually happens.

If you were hospitalised tomorrow, could your family answer these questions without spending hours on the phone? Who has authority to make medical decisions on your behalf? Who can access your bank accounts? Who is your lawyer, and where are your documents? Who should be notified first and what do they actually need to do?

If the answer to any of those is "they'd figure it out," that's not a plan. That's a blind hope.

The gap between assuming people know and actually recording it is exactly where families lose time, money, and peace of mind. What makes Connections useful isn't just that it stores this information. It's the structure it puts around it, specifically who is responsible for what, and who gets to see what.

What Does Connections Actually Cover?

Connections isn't just about who handles things. It covers every kind of role in your plan, including who benefits.

• People who act on your behalf. 

  Executors who manage your estate. LPA donees who handle your personal welfare or property and affairs. Guardians for your children or dependents.

  
  

• People who provide care. 

  Caregivers for yourself, an elderly parent, a special needs dependent, or even a pet.

  
  

• People who need to be reached. 

  Your contact when hospitalised. Your contact when critically ill.

  
  

• Professional contacts. 

  Your insurance agent, financial advisor, wealth manager, and lawyer. The people your executor or donee will need to reach when making claims or managing your affairs.

  
  

• Beneficiaries. 

  Who inherits from you, and in what capacity.

Every person who plays any part in your plan has a place in Connections. But recording who they are is only half of it. The other half is deciding what each of them gets to see.

How Does Access Control Work in Connections?

Not everyone in your Connections needs to see everything.

You decide what each person can access. Some people get a full view of your plan. Others get read-only access to specific parts. Some are simply recorded, noted as relevant without being given access at all.

This matters because different roles need different information. Your executor needs to know about your assets and professional contacts. Your caregiver needs to know about your medical preferences. Your beneficiaries may not need to know anything until the time comes.

Connections lets you set those boundaries clearly, so the right people have what they need and nothing more. And for the people most likely to be managing all of this, the ones caught between two generations at once, that clarity is especially valuable.

Who Is Most at Risk of Getting This Wrong?

If you're in your 40s or 50s, you're probably managing pressure from two directions at once. Your parents are ageing. Your own life is complex. You're the person most likely to be called when something goes wrong with a parent — and the person whose family would be most affected if something went wrong with you.

You've probably already seen what happens when a family isn't prepared. You know the phone calls, the confusion, the decisions made under pressure with incomplete information.

The good news is that you're also the person most able to do something about it, not just for your parents, but for yourself. And the effort required is far smaller than most people assume.

How Does Connections Get Built?

This is the part most people find surprising: you don't need to sit down and fill Connections in from scratch.

As you work through YEPPA's guided planning flow, you answer questions about your life — who you'd want making decisions, who your beneficiaries are, who should be called in a crisis. The people you name get added to Connections automatically, with their roles already noted. By the time you've worked through your plan, your Connections are largely done.

If you'd rather start manually, you can add people directly at any time. Name, contact details, role, access level.

Either way, Connections becomes a living record that reflects your plan as it stands today, not as it was years ago when you last thought about it.

Action Steps

Start your planning with YEPPA. 

Your Connections will take shape naturally as you go — no separate setup needed.

If you prefer to start manually, add your key contacts first. 

Your executor, your emergency contacts, your lawyer, your insurance agent. Get the most important people in before filling in the rest.

Set access levels deliberately. 

Think about who actually needs to see what and be specific. Access is easy to grant and easy to update.

Review it when life changes. 

New relationship, new dependent, change in circumstances. Your Connections should reflect where you are now.

Tell the people who matter. 

If someone has a role in your plan, let them know. A person who doesn't know can't act on it when the time comes.

Emma eventually sat down and worked through her own plan on Immortalize. Not because she expected anything to happen. But because she'd seen what three days without a plan looked like, and she didn't want that for her brother, or her own children.

Getting your people recorded isn't about preparing for the worst. It's about making sure the people who love you aren't left guessing when it matters most.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does adding someone to Connections give them any legal authority?

A: No. Connections is a personal record of roles and access. It doesn't confer legal authority. Legal authority comes from documents like a Lasting Power of Attorney or a will. Connections helps the right people know what you'd want and who to contact, but formal legal steps need to be taken separately with a qualified professional.

Q: What is a Lasting Power of Attorney and how does it relate to Connections?

A: An LPA is a legal document that appoints someone — called a donee — to make decisions on your behalf if you lose mental capacity. In Singapore, it is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. Connections lets you record your LPA donee as part of your plan and give them access to the information that they will need.

Q: Do I need to fill in Connections manually?

A: Not necessarily. As you work through your planning with YEPPA, the people you mention get added to Connections automatically. You can also add people directly at any time.

Q: Who should I add to Connections?

A: Anyone who plays a role in your life or your plan. That includes family members, professional contacts like your lawyer and insurance agent, caregivers, executors, and beneficiaries. If someone would need to act on your behalf, be reached in an emergency, or benefit from your estate, they belong in Connections.

Q: What is the difference between read access and read and edit access in Connections?

A: Read access lets someone view relevant parts of your plan. Read and edit access lets them update information too. The right level depends on the person's role — someone managing your affairs actively needs more access than someone who simply needs visibility.

Q: How often should I update my Connections?

A: Review it whenever something significant changes — a new relationship, a death, a divorce, a new dependent, or a change in professional contacts. As a general rule, once a year is a reasonable minimum.

This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, tax, or estate planning advice. Laws and regulations vary by country and individual circumstances differ. Please consult a qualified legal or financial professional for advice specific to your situation.