At 28, St. Clair, Mich., resident and Internet entrepreneur _ known around town as "Joey" _ stands out in the tidy, riverside community where he's founded several dotcoms. They include FuneralOne, which brought in $2.8 million last year selling Disney-esque memorial video software and other services.
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Over the past five years, Joachim, a college dropout, has helped revolutionize the stuffy funeral business with software that helps funeral directors create high-quality videos that celebrate someone's life in grand, heartfelt fashion.

The first version of the software, launched in 2004, was called "Easy Tribute."

Basically, a funeral director uses the software to upload personal photos of a client, select their profession or hobby, add a few additional details, such as the date of birth and death, or the names of children.

Then, the software produces an emotional memorial video. Animated birds peacefully fly by scenic landscapes. The musical scores are symphonic. And, most importantly, the product feels deeply personal.

"We've got themes for virtually anything," Joachim said.

The videos are then shown during visitation.

Every time a funeral uses the software for a new client, Joachim receives $20, and it's safe to say that business has been good.

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Now, Joachim's expecting his FuneralOne business to explode, to an estimated $10 million this year, and he's eagerly seeking talented leaders to help him manage the growth.

In July, FuneralOne launched the next generation of its video software, called "Life Tributes," which represents a sizable strategic move in Joachim's plan to expand his enterprise through www.LifeTributes.com.

The new software, which was featured on the latest cover of the trade magazine "Funeral Business Advisor," offers improvements to the personalized memorial videos, which can now be burned to DVDs for guests, and will help create accompanying printed materials, such as prayer cards.
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But Joachim's vision for LifeTributes.com is actually much larger than the funeral business.

"The mission," he said, "is to be the largest portal in the world for helping people connect and share memories."

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Wealth management is an industry buzzword, but a lot of affluent folks don’t like the term.

According to a survey of 503 households with at least $500,000 in investable assets conducted last summer by Spectrem Group, 41% of respondents either “strongly disagree” or “disagree” that the term “wealth management” appeals to them. The percentage comfortable with the term increases as wealth level increases, and is more acceptable to senior level executives than to business owners.


As for the type of services offered under the  “wealth management” umbrella, the affluent most want them to include comprehensive financial planning (78%), estate planning (68%) and tax planning (64%). Legacy planning to pass along wealth to the next generation was next (59%), followed by asset management (57%).

The survey also found that independent financial planners (29%), independent investment advisors (15%) and full-service brokers (18%) were by far the ones the affluent turn to first for assistance.

In addition, 59% of respondents prefer to pay a fixed fee, rather than commission, although business owners have a stronger preference (67%) than senior corporate executives (48%) for fees. Additionally, 24% are not aware their financial provider has wealth management programs. Of those who are aware, only 32% of those with less than $1 million in assets, and 51% with more than $1 million in assets, are taking advantage of the wealth management services.

The goal of lifelogging: to record and archive all information in one’s life. This includes all text, all visual information, all audio, all media activity, as well as all biological data from sensors on one’s body. The information would be archived for the benefit of the lifelogger, and shared with others in various degrees as controlled by him/her.

Some form of this total recall is inevitable, at least for some people. Partial recall from partial recording seems inevitable for the rest. We are all likely to record more and more of our lives.

Still the overriding concern is how to read, retrieve, and use this huge – and I mean huge – ocean of data that your life will generate. There’s one solution not normally offered in discussions of lifelogging that seems reasonable to me. Ten years ago computer scientist David Gelertner envisioned a new organizing metaphor for one’s growing cache of personal data. Instead of boxes and “windows” a lifelog should be centered on well, a life log, a timeline, chronological log of one’s life. "We're going from an artificial information storage scheme to a far more natural one. The idea of a timeline, a chronology, a diary, a daily journal, or a scrapbook is so much older and so much more organic and ingrained in human culture and history than the idea of a file hierarchy."