Yo,
Hope everyone had a decent weekend, probably couldn’t have beaten mine, but let’s get on with it.
People keep getting married, but the process hasn’t gotten any easier. While the number of women changing their last name continues to decrease as society continues to ditch some of the patriarchal traditions from the past, research shows that upwards of 70% of women still take the last name of their partner (Rogers, 2022)
I am no expert in marriage, but the process of changing a last name seems so annoying and tedious, especially after all of the wedding festivities which already seem to be a lot. So, I did some digging and found the following list of things that need to be done to have your bases covered when it comes to name changing (https://newlynamed.com/how-to-change-your-name-after-marriage/)
- Get a new Social Security card
- Get a new driver’s license or state ID card
- Update your vehicle title and registration information
- Update your Passport
- Update your voter registration information
- Update your name with the United States Postal Service (USPS) (changed using an address form)
- Update your bank accounts and credit union accounts
- Request new credit cards with your new name
- Update other personal accounts
- Inform your employers
- Go to the Department of Motor Vehicles
- Inform telephone and utility Companies
- Inform state taxing authority
- Inform insurance agencies
All of that, after the honeymoon? No thanks.
So here’s the idea, someone should roll up all of these changes into a service where brides can provide a select few documents (probably a marriage license, SSC, and maybe birth certificate) and in a few weeks, viola, all of that is taken care of.
There are a few companies out there that can help organize this, namely newlynamed.com and hitchswitch.com, but they only give you access to a checklist and some other things. For like $100.
“Customized and populated name change forms, 3 Pre-Stamped Envelopes, Access to the Platinum Concierge Team, Customized name change checklist.” Sounds pretty useless to me. Nowhere does this say “Yo, we will literally take care of everything for you.” Which is what I would personally want.
Sites like this are getting 138.2 thousand visits a month. If they can convince just a mere 10% (13K) to buy their product they would be netting 1.382 million dollars a month, and their product doesn’t even do anything (still just a checklist).
Changing your last name can cost anywhere from $100-500 depending on what state you live in, so lets just say you charge $1000 dollars for a hassle free, hands off way for someone to change their last name, I think that would do well. A thousand dollars is just a drop in the bucket when compared to the cost of the wedding, and I am sure many people would value the service.
The only hiccup in this is the legal portion, but it can’t be hard to hire a lawyer – probably lower cost than a litigator, etc. – to help you navigate that landscape.
We’ve seen LegalZoom penetrate this space from an IP and patent perspective, but I think there would be a big market to focus specifically on this.
I could see this being easily bootstrapped. All you need is a website and a few people for a potentially big business.
Or we just ditch the patriarchal tradition completely, but what do I know.
from, matt
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