[btn]By Teri Carnicelli[/btn]
Two new web-based businesses are aiming to protect your personal information, as well as protect your children when they are in cyberspace.

North Central residents Cody and Erika Knight became clients of Document Trunk after Erika’s grandfather passed away, leaving conflicting documents with relatives spread around the country. Erika holds a photo from her grandfather’s memorial service (submitted photo).

North Central residents Cody and Erika Knight became clients of Document Trunk after Erika’s grandfather passed away, leaving conflicting documents with relatives spread around the country. Erika holds a photo from her grandfather’s memorial service (submitted photo).

A local husband-and-wife entrepreneurial duo has launched a digital program that helps Valley residents protect, store, and manage life’s most precious documents. Brian and Natasha Beal launched DocumentTrunk to help protect a family’s future security in a time of mourning and grief and ensure that their last wishes are met safely and efficiently in today’s modern world.

DocumentTrunk allows users to upload their estate planning documents quickly and easily with its user friendly and interactive program for e-filing, compared to traditional hard copies and safety deposit box storage. Traditional storage and filing of estate planning documents raises many potential risks for consumers—from misplaced documents to inaccurate updates—which is why the Beals developed DocumentTrunk as a solution.

“My wife and I created DocumentTrunk from a personal need,” said Brian Beal. “We were faced with the same inadequate options that everyone is given once your will, trust, or other important documents are finished. Trusted people change, banks go under, safe combinations are lost, documents fade and disappear. That’s why we were inspired to create DocumentTrunk.”

North Central resident Erica Knight was introduced to the Beals through a lawyer after her family had a paperwork disaster following her grandfather’s passing. “Our family is on different coasts and when my grandpa passed away, different members of the family on different sides of the country had conflicting documents,” she explains. “All of his wishes were, and still are, tied up in probate because the appropriate documents are yet to be identified. This has caused strain on the older siblings of my family.

“With DocumentTrunk providing a secure storage space with the individual’s wishes, and who they want to be notified and given access all in one space, my family could have been saved a lot of grief,” she points out. “There are no questions as to what is most current, and what your loved one actually wanted. Upon their passing, the right people just know. It creates some comfort in a hard time.”

DocumentTrunk offers users multiple price and storage options, starting at $9.99 per month. For more information, visit www.documenttrunk.com, or call 888-843-2719.

Jacob DiMartino

Jacob DiMartino

Phoenix resident Jacob DiMartino launched Raadr Inc. in 2015 with the intent to curb the cyberbullying epidemic. He has since launched two unique apps.

Raadr alerts subscribers whenever selected categories of keywords—such as bullying, drugs or sex—are detected on a specific child’s social media feeds. Raadr uses an artificially intelligent proprietary web-based application to achieve these results.

Subscribers pay $4.95 a month and the service, which allows up to six child profiles, includes daily and weekly updates, text and e-mail alerts, and unlimited “main topics” for red flag searches.

This is the second full-featured child protection application the company has on Apple’s app store for iOS devices, such as iPhones, iPods and iPads. While Raadr is geared toward parents to help them monitor their children’s online activity for red flags, the new BullyRaadr was created for children, as it will allow them to directly report bullying incidents to school officials and parents alike.

“I created the Raadr and BullyRaadr apps to help prevent potential harmful and deadly situations online, in the classroom and community,” says DiMartino. “The app gives parents and children an ‘online pulse’ of what’s going on around them in the cyberworld, and that’s what I truly wanted to accomplish when I created these apps.”

The BullyRaadr application will initially allow students to record videos up to one-minute-long, upload pictures, and send in written reports to school officials for review. With documentation backing claims, school officials will be able to take action against bullying in their systems. The free app can be downloaded directly from iTunes.

For more information, visit www.raadr.com.

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