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Questions we hear most.
Everything you need to know about starting a memorial, the process, and what you receive.
Getting Started
The complete experience is $2,500 — one payment, nothing else ever. That covers everything: we reach out to everyone who knew them, gather the stories, and craft the museum-quality hardcover and permanent digital vault. It’s protected by a 14-day money-back guarantee. If you’d rather begin gently, you can start the memory collection alone for $500 and decide on the book later — the staged path totals $2,000, with your first 3 months of the digital vault included.
It’s included for life with the complete $2,500 experience. If you begin with the $500 Memory Collection, your first 3 months are included; after that it’s $9.99/month or $999 once for lifetime access. Nothing renews without your say-so.
Anyone — a spouse, child, parent, sibling, friend, or colleague. Whoever feels called to preserve that life’s stories can begin the process.
Not at all. There is no deadline on remembering — often the quiet that follows the service is when it becomes clear how much you want to hold onto. Memories don’t expire, and the collection works exactly the same whenever you choose to start.
Active outreach runs for 14 days, and late memories are always welcome for a full 60 days after launch. Once the 14-day window closes, our editorial team crafts the book over 4–6 weeks, and the family reviews and approves every page before it goes to print. Total timeline is typically 6–8 weeks from start to delivery.
The name of the person being remembered, your contact information, and the names and phone numbers of 25–50 people who knew them. You can add contacts via CSV upload or one by one.
We recommend 25–50 people, but there’s no strict limit. The more voices, the richer the memorial. Friends, family, colleagues, neighbors — anyone who has a memory to share.
The Process
Each person gets a simple text message inviting them to share a memory. No app to download, no account to create. They just reply to the text with a story, photo, or voice note.
No. Everything happens by text message, so a college roommate across the country contributes as easily as a next-door neighbor. Distance can’t keep a story out of the memorial.
No one who wants to contribute is left out. A relative who doesn’t text can dictate their story to a family member to share on their behalf — or let us know, and we’ll arrange another way for them to take part.
We send gentle reminders at day 7 and day 12. If someone doesn’t respond, that’s okay. The memorial is built from whoever chooses to participate. We never pressure anyone.
Yes. Contributors can reply with text memories, photos via MMS, or voice recordings. We handle all formats and include them in the editorial process.
The family receives updates as memories arrive, but the full editorial — the crafted narrative, curated photos, and final layout — is presented for review and approval before anything goes to print.
The Book
Yes — and you should. You can see exactly what goes into The Heirloom — the materials, the binding, the editorial process — on our Heirloom page. More importantly, your own book is never printed until you have reviewed and approved every page. If something isn’t right, we revise it until it is, and the 14-day money-back guarantee means you risk nothing by starting.
A complete memorial includes a digital archive and a museum-quality hardcover book with slipcase, foil stamping, and archival paper, plus full editorial curation and photo enhancement. The Signature Experience includes all of it from day one — the permanent digital vault is included for life, nothing more ever billed. If you start with the $500 Memory Collection, the digital archive comes first with your first 3 months of the vault included, and the printed heirloom is added when you choose the design step. Additional copies can be purchased at family or contributor pricing.
The stories carry the book. Contributors share their own photos alongside their memories, and our team restores and enhances every image you do have. A powerful Heirloom can be built from a handful of photographs — what makes it move people is the voices inside it.
The Heirloom is typically 100–150 pages, depending on the number of memories, photos, and tributes contributed. Every page is editorially crafted — not auto-generated.
Archival-grade, acid-free paper rated for 100+ years. Smyth-sewn binding that lies flat. Cloth-wrapped hardcover with metallic foil stamping. Custom-fit protective slipcase. Built to museum conservation standards.
Privacy & Data
Memories are visible only to the Encapsoul editorial team and the family. Contributors’ individual responses are never shared publicly or with other contributors without consent.
AI helps organize, cluster, and structure the raw memories into a coherent narrative. Every editorial decision — what to include, how to phrase it, which photos to feature — is made by a human editor. The family approves the final result.
No. Memory content is never used to train any AI model. It is processed only for the purpose of creating the family’s memorial, then stored securely.
Yes. Any contributor can reply STOP at any time to opt out of all future messages. Their previously shared memories can also be removed upon request.
Billing & Refunds
It depends on how you began. The $2,500 Signature Experience carries a 14-day money-back guarantee — full refund, no questions asked. The $500 start always produces a deliverable: your digital Memory Archive. If fewer memories arrive than we hoped, we extend the collection window and add a $500 credit toward the heirloom that never expires. If no memories are received at all, we refund the full $500.
Optional tribute pages and extra copies are refunded the same way: before the memorial is delivered, refunds are handled on a case-by-case basis. After delivery, they are non-refundable.
You’re covered either way. If no memories are received within the collection window, your payment is refunded in full — the entire $2,500 on the Signature Experience, or the entire $500 if you started with The Memory Collection. Every project that receives at least one memory will produce a complete memorial.
All payments are processed securely through Stripe. We never store card details on our servers. Stripe is PCI Level 1 certified — the highest level of payment security.
For Funeral Professionals
Simply. You mention Encapsoul during the arrangement conference or in your aftercare, and we handle everything else — the outreach, the collection, the editorial work, and the delivery. Families invest $2,500, and your home keeps $500 of every sale. You can learn more about the partnership on our partners page.
Nothing beyond the introduction. There’s no inventory to stock, no software to learn, and no follow-up to manage — we handle the outreach, the collection, the production, and the delivery from the moment a family says yes.