Terms of Service

1. Description of Service

Heirlio is an organisational tool that helps families catalogue, discuss, and informally allocate personal property within an estate. It is a planning aid only.

Heirlio is not a legal will, trust, or estate-planning instrument. Nothing produced by this service constitutes legal advice or creates any legally binding obligation regarding the distribution of property. All formal estate decisions must be made through a licensed attorney and documented in legally recognised instruments.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to use Heirlio. By using the service you represent that you meet this requirement.

3. Accounts

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorised access.

4. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law.
• Upload content that is defamatory, harassing, or infringes a third party's intellectual property.
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to another user's estate or data.
• Reverse-engineer, scrape, or interfere with the service's infrastructure.

5. Credits, Payments & Refunds

6. Data Retention

• Active accounts: your account data is retained while your account is active, subject to the estate inactivity policy below.
• Free-tier estate inactivity: if a free-tier estate has had no activity for 6 months, we will send a single email notice to the estate owner. If the estate remains inactive for 30 days after that notice, all estate content will be permanently and immediately deleted. No cold storage step is used. This applies regardless of whether individual member accounts remain open.
• Paid estate inactivity (Estate Plan purchased): if a paid estate has had no activity for 1 year, we will send a 30-day email notice. If not reactivated, the estate content will be moved to long-term archival (cold) storage. Archived data is retained for up to 7 years from the date of archival, then permanently deleted. Retrieval of archived data may take up to 48 hours and may be subject to a reactivation fee.
• Pre-deletion export: where technically feasible, the deletion notice email will include a link to export your records. Once the notice period expires and deletion or archival proceeds, Heirlio's duty to actively host the data ends.
• Account deletion: when you delete your account, your personal information (name, email, login credentials) is permanently erased. Estate content you contributed (items, interests, decisions) is anonymised and retained for remaining members until the estate itself reaches its applicable inactivity threshold.
• Estate deletion: the estate owner may contact us to request full deletion of an estate and all of its content at any time.

7. Fiduciary Access & Account Succession

In the spirit of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), we may, at our sole discretion, grant read and export access to a deceased account holder's estate data to a person who can demonstrate they are a legally authorised representative of the estate (e.g. by providing a death certificate and evidence of legal authority such as Letters Testamentary). We will make reasonable efforts to respond to such requests in a timely manner but cannot guarantee a specific turnaround time. Such access does not transfer ownership of any Heirlio credits or billing arrangements.

Fiduciary access may not be possible if the estate data has already been deleted or archived under the inactivity policy in Section 6. We strongly recommend that estate owners log in periodically or designate a successor to keep their estate active. Submit requests to [email protected].

8. Intellectual Property

You retain ownership of all content you upload (photos, item descriptions, etc.). By uploading content you grant us a limited licence to store and display it to authorised members of your estate solely for the purpose of operating the service. We will never use your content for advertising or share it outside your estate.

The Heirlio software, design, and branding are owned by us and may not be copied or redistributed without written permission.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law:

• No liability for estate outcomes. We are not responsible for any disputes, disagreements, legal proceedings, or financial losses arising from decisions made using Heirlio. The service records informal preferences. It does not determine legal entitlement to property.
• No consequential damages. In no event will we be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of data or profits, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
• Liability cap. Our total liability to you for any claim arising under these Terms will not exceed the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or $50 USD, whichever is greater.
• Service availability. We provide the service on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation.

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, damages, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your use of the service, your content, or your violation of these Terms.

11. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your account at our discretion if you violate these Terms. You may delete your account at any time via Account Settings. Sections 8, 9, and 10 survive termination.

12. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Texas, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be submitted to binding arbitration under the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules, with the seat of arbitration in Texas, on an individual (non-class) basis.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes we will update the "Last updated" date and notify you by email where practical. Continued use of the service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms? [email protected]