Mexico's Deathtech: Día de Muertos Inspires Legacy Planning

The altars and sweet bread on Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) reminds us that this day is about memory and gratitude, not shock value. We celebrate a shared life, not absence. That’s why, when death starts trending, we lose the plot. We can agree or disagree with what someone says; cheering a death makes no sense. If another person’s death entertains us, we’ve likely missed what matters: leaving our own affairs in order. And yes, if any country can champion that culture, it’s Mexico, with Día de Muertos.

I say this as a foreigner: Even without being Mexican, I can affirm it’s one of the most joyful, luminous, and colorful festivities I’ve ever experienced. The country transforms as streets, plazas, and homes become a shared ritual. If you’re reading this, consider visiting Mexico during these dates because seeing it firsthand changes the conversation.

For a while I thought talking about death was different here. Over time, I understood that it touches with the same sensitivity as anywhere else. I’m not an expert. I’m a voice that learns what you don’t decide, what someone else pays for in time, money, and emotional health. Speaking about this doesn’t summon death, it better prepares life for those who stay.

What we don’t resolve repeats, not as punishment but by resonance. Each generation inherits stories: unspoken pain, unacknowledged grief, silenced fears. That frequency lingers until someone transforms it. We are not doomed: putting things in order — naming and deciding — breaks inertia and protects those who come after us.

From Noise to Legacy: Three Simple Decisions

1) Digital last wishes.
One place for wishes, access, and documents (and, if you want, goodbye messages). Define what is a yes and what is a no: rituals, donations, memory custodians.

2) Ready cushion: inheritance + funeral insurance.
Immediate resources and correct, up-to-date beneficiaries. It’s the difference between clarity and chaos in the first days.

3) A trusted person.
Name your custodian/executor and tell them where everything is. Without this, even the best plan gets lost in emails and folders.
With just these three decisions, you’re years ahead of the average.

Where Technology Fits

At the intersection of afterlife, end-of-life, and insurtech — what some call deathtech — bringing tech to ultimate loss. It isn’t tech for tech’s sake. It’s fewer months in court, fewer lost assets, fewer family fractures.

• E-signature and blockchain for integrity, traceability, and secure access.
• Legacy platforms where your plan actually lives (not a thousand scattered folders).
• Embedded insurance (inheritance and funerals) connected to your plan.
• Post-mortem identity & access: protocols for accounts, digital assets, and subscriptions.
• Pet funerals and cremation, dependent care, business continuity, and “what to do now.”
• NFTs, used wisely (when culturally and legally sound) to certify and safeguard certain digital keepsakes or legacies.

Mexico as a DeathTech Hub

Mexico has culture (Día de Muertos), scale (120 million-plus), language (a bridge for Latin America and the diaspora), and a growing fintech/insurtech ecosystem. With e-signature norms, NOM-151 compliance, and strong tech talent, it can build a Spanish-first hub for afterlife/end-of-life solutions: edutainment, legacy platforms, and embedded insurance. From here, it can export the model, technology, and narrative across the region.

What’s at Stake (Human and Practical)

The quiet problem: Families face frozen inheritances, blocked accounts, and lost paperwork. Institutions and courts get overwhelmed. Unclaimed assets pile up. Instead of more noise, we can add order:

• Families: digital last wishes, inheritance + funeral insurance, trusted person.
• Companies: a real benefit (afterlife/end-of-life platform), clear bereavement policies, brief education.
• Insurers and banks: B2B2C distribution (payroll, wellness, remittances), KYC, e-signature, secure vaults; blockchain to track beneficiary changes; measure success by benefits paid and resolution times.
• Governments and courts: digital probate front-doors, pilots with notaries/civil registries, unclaimed-property campaigns.
• Migrants: consulates as bridges and remittance apps to update beneficiaries and critical documents.

Past Post (and Why We Chose This Path)

Together with my partners we launched Past Post because we understood the challenge wasn’t only technological, it was cultural. We designed a human, Spanish-first experience that unites afterlife/end-of-life with insurtech: messages, instructions, up-to-date beneficiaries, inheritance plus funeral insurance, access safeguarded with encrypted vaults and blockchain, and a trusted person defined.
And because you get here by talking, we opened Antes de Morir, a Spanish-language podcast that isn’t about death, it’s about life — lighter, freer, and intentional.

It isn’t brave to celebrate anyone’s death. Bravery is talking with those we love, leaving clear instructions, and sparing them the paperwork that isn’t theirs.

Planning isn’t dying. It’s caring for those who stay.

Someday we’ll be the story someone tells; let’s leave the best one we can.

To be continued.