domains Someone needs to stop Roy Flanders’ domain names from expiring

[equity78]

Hopefully Enom or someone else can step up but the domains of a domain investor who passed away are expiring and it needs to stop. Ron Jackson wrote about Roy Flanders back in December of 2016. sadly Roy passed away. I did not know the man personally but for those that did he seemed to be really a great guy. In 2012 he donated $250,000 to the Nantucket Cottage Hospital's Annual Fund. It was a … [Read more...]

 

[equity78]

Ron Jackson let me know that three of Roy's best friends in the business, Rob Grant, Ammar Kubba and Ari Goldberger are all working on this now.

 

[equity78]

Aiming for what outcome? They can't just stay in a man's account forever when he's sadly died.

What??? He has a daughter, they will get the account under control, get names renewed and can talk to her how she can liquidate and have the money go to her instead of GoDaddy. Pretty sure he would have rather had his daughter get the proceeds from GreatNames.com and echecking.com yesterday.

There are about 6 other people working on this now as well.

 

[mr-x]

I don't understand the push back by domainers over friends trying to protect another friends legacy and help his family recover assets.

Hopefully you will have friends willing to enthusiastically help your family if the need arises.

 

[equity78]

That is why you should pay epik to secure your domain for life, but then yet again, you should let someone else know your account password

I spoke to Ari Goldberger and he told me he is on the case, and Roy's daughter does have the info to the account.

 

[equity78]

Anyone knew him personally that can reach out to the family?

I contacted @Ron Jackson he knew him along with some other prominent domain investors.

GreatNames.com closed at $25,000 yesterday on godaddy.

 

[NickB]

I contacted @Ron Jackson he knew him along with some other prominent domain investors.

Nice, hopefully they can get in touch with the family and provide some advice......

EDIT:

@Kenny started a thread which discusses this eventuality - might be worth re posting here in case people missed it...

https://www.namepros.com/threads/what-if-who-will-know-what-to-do-with-your-domains.1124841/

 

[MapleDots]

Domains are no different from real estate, if you die and don't pay property tax then the city resells the property.

You must assure someone looks after your interests once you are gone.

There are two types of people....

Realists and Deniers

Deniers think they will live forever so they never bother making out a will.

Realists will either make out a will or might not care what happens after they are gone because they're not a part of it so who cares.

All in all, especially when a long illness is involved, we might be reading too much into it. I had a well to do friend and he left no will or instructions of any kind. We chatted about it once and he said exactly that...

Why do I care, I won't be around to see it.

 

[NickB]

Anyone knew him personally that can reach out to the family?

 

[equity78]

echecking.com was another one of his names which sold for $1,325.

 

[equity78]

Domains are no different from real estate, if you die and don't pay property tax then the city resells the property.

You must assure someone looks after your interests once you are gone.

There are two types of people....

Realists and Deniers

Deniers think they will live forever so they never bother making out a will.

Realists will either make out a will or might not care what happens after they are gone because they're not a part of it so who cares.

All in all, especially when a long illness is involved, we might be reading too much into it. I had a well to do friend and he left no will or instructions of any kind. We chatted about it once and he said exactly that...

Why do I care, I won't be around to see it.

Show attachment 119560

Very true, but what it looks like Maple is that Roy did have a plan, and it was with DomainGuardians which now looks defunct, just says go to Evergreen,

Mike Robertson and Jen Sale started DomainGuardians, Evergreen is Adam Strong and Jen Sale now.

Brian Wick who knew Roy and did business with him, wrote:

brian wick says May 21, 2019 at 9:32 am (Edit)


Mike Robertson
Is a guy I knew years back who had some kind of Domain Protection Service that Roy Flanders told me he was using. I am not aware of the details of the contract or how those details needed to be fulfilled. He may be the guy that has some kind of control of those domains provided the obligations of whatever arrangement was made are cured. And if Roys daughter got involved – WHO KNOWS ……..
I have emailed Mike Robertson at this email address
Bri

 

[myfavorite]

I remember someone opened a thread on this. I still suggest if Registrars can create an option of next of kin email so when a domain is not renewed on time, an email can be sent to notify the person.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

As mentioned in Ron's article, Roy died from a long illness. So surely he would have made arrangements for these to be looked after, if he didn't maybe it was his wish for them to go back into the pool...?

 

[equity78]

No need to be aghast. I'm just expressing a healthy bit of scepticism about people's intentions online which is pretty called for being how eager this seems and how you've just replied.

Who is to say that he wanted vultures to liquidate his domains for him? That's basically the question I'm asking. His wishes may have been to just let them go.

Vultures? It would be his daughter liquidating and benefiting from the sales, much better option than GoDaddy benefiting. And actually no he did not want to let them just expire, turns out he had set something up with DomainGuardians and Mike Robertson posted he is on the case now and contacting the daughter as well.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

I don't understand the push back by domainers over friends trying to protect another friends legacy and help his family recover assets.

Hopefully you will have friends willing to enthusiastically help your family if the need arises.

This quote pretty much sums it up...

So, daughter would be liquidating.. and getting profits instead of GD. Ok. So to whom would these domains be liquidated to? Who determines that? Would it just be a lucky few getting access to these high-quality domains at rock-bottom prices?

The expiration process gives all a fair opportunity. I don't think it would be wise to mess with that.

Some people have bad intentions, they're opportunists. That is all the perceived push back is.

I'm sure that no one would disagree that whomever Roy bestowed with his portfolio should be given a friendly nudge, but as I've already stated I consider it healthy to exercise some skepticism about increasing numbers of people circling around what one could perceive as a list of high value domains that are just destined to drop unless someone intervenes and speculating that they should be liquidated or whatever else. Also given that he died from a long illness, the blind assumption is that he would have had time to make preparations as he knew he was ill, so there may not be any assets to "recover" in accordance with his wishes that may already have been expressed.

Being that we don't know much about it, all that I've pointed out is that it may well be his intention to let them go, which hasn't been refuted robustly yet as shown below:

And actually no he did not want to let them just expire, turns out he had set something up with DomainGuardians and Mike Robertson posted he is on the case now and contacting the daughter as well.

So Adam Strong cleared everything up on TheDomains, Roy was not a client of Domain Guardians, so Brian Wick misunderstood. Thanks Adam.

It goes without saying that I wish for the best outcome for his family and to his portfolio.

 

[HotKey]

Yup I'm not seeing any push back, just some of us seeking clarity. There's was not a lot to go by with the thread title and the context provided. I'll admit I got a little alarmed, because as far as I can tell, no assets have been lost (the domains seem to have belonged to one man), nothing was stolen, and no one needs help, yet the thread implies altering the process of the domain name life cycle, specifically the expiration process.

Anyhow, may it all work out to someone's favor, and thx for the head-up Equity. I think maybe what he was hoping for with this thread is more of an awareness thing, more eyes mean perhaps someone knows someone who could get involved in a last ditch effort to keep the domains in the family. Kudos to that, and having a friend on your side like that is the best asset anyone can have, imo.

 

[cipcip]

That is why you should pay epik to secure your domain for life, but then yet again, you should let someone else know your account password

 

[equity78]

It is more likely Roy's family / daughter didn't understand the value of his portfolio. His friends and other trying to help maybe motivated by something beside empathy but what does that really matter if the family gets the benefit.

I can't say everything but actually Roy's daughter did understand her Father's portfolio and this is a very complicated story that EsqWire has made a priority to help her as Roy and Ari were friends. There is a reason why a lawyer took the lead here.

 

[equity78]

Roy's daughter has recovered GreatNames.com $25,000 sale and eChecking.com $1,325 sale.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/an-update-on-some-sales-that-actually-didnt-happen.1143105/

 

[Argentum]

Interesting thread. So if any Namepros member dies and his family even not know about his domain portfolio.. what a sad story will be.

I thing that's a big cons of domaining.

 

[JagG]

@equity78 see DM please

 

[omelet]

Interesting thread. So if any Namepros member dies and his family even not know about his domain portfolio.. what a sad story will be.

I thing that's a big cons of domaining.

my wife also doesn't understand what I have been doing day after another...

so i worried if someday i .....

 

[MadAboutDomains]

What??? He has a daughter, they will get the account under control, get names renewed and can talk to her how she can liquidate and have the money go to her instead of GoDaddy. Pretty sure he would have rather had his daughter get the proceeds from GreatNames.com and echecking.com yesterday.

There are about 6 other people working on this now as well.

No need to be aghast. I'm just expressing a healthy bit of scepticism about people's intentions online which is pretty called for being how eager this seems and how you've just replied.

Who is to say that he wanted vultures to liquidate his domains for him? That's basically the question I'm asking. His wishes may have been to just let them go.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Vultures? It would be his daughter liquidating and benefiting from the sales, much better option than GoDaddy benefiting. And actually no he did not want to let them just expire, turns out he had set something up with DomainGuardians and Mike Robertson posted he is on the case now and contacting the daughter as well.

Yes I said vultures, but that's the worse case scenario. I'm not assuming anyone is being a vulture, but assuming they want to liquidate their names is a little bit vulture esque in light of a fairly healthy looking $25k sale. Which is why I was asking the question in the first place what the intentions were.

One shouldn't aim to just flog all of his names just because a name of his sold for $25k etc in a specific scenario, this may well also be against his wishes. That would probably be bad advice and opportunistic of whoever the receiver of the names ends up being. The advice would need to be appropriate and truthful to make sure that the beneficiary (whoever that may be, assumptions again) isn't getting a raw deal due to lack of knowledge in this area.

 

[equity78]

Yes I said vultures, but that's the worse case scenario. I'm not assuming anyone is being a vulture, but assuming they want to liquidate their names is a little bit vulture esque in light of a fairly healthy looking $25k sale. Which is why I was asking the question in the first place what the intentions were.

One shouldn't aim to just flog all of his names just because a name of his sold for $25k etc in a specific scenario, this may well also be against his wishes. That would probably be bad advice and opportunistic of whoever the receiver of the names ends up being. The advice would need to be appropriate and truthful to make sure that the beneficiary (whoever that may be, assumptions again) isn't getting a raw deal due to lack of knowledge in this area.

Right they don't have to be liquidated, my point was that the daughter, who I don't know, might not have the financial wherewithal to renew 3,400 domain names, and that Ari who is a trusted domain lawyer could help her to liquidate some names to meet renewals or look I am sure there might be some garbage that is worth dropping. GreatNames.com and echecking.com were not, so I believe if Ari had said you need to spend $20 and renew these two names, and here is why, she would have done that.