Loading page
Editorial Policy
Too much death-related information is shaped by commercial incentives. MORTL exists to separate practical education from sales pressure. This page explains how we keep our editorial work independent. And what we do when commercial relationships exist.
The Core Principle
No advertiser, partner, sponsor, or affiliate relationship influences what MORTL covers, how it covers it, or what conclusions it reaches. The people who write and edit MORTL content don’t know which companies have commercial relationships with MORTL unless those relationships are publicly disclosed.
Commercial relationships don’t give advertisers, sponsors, affiliates, or listed providers the right to approve, alter, or control MORTL editorial content.
What We Cover
MORTL covers death, end-of-life planning, estate law, grief, and the practical reality of dying in America. We cover these topics because 100% of people will die, most are unprepared, and too much of the available information is shaped by commercial interests rather than reader need.
Story selection, source selection, and editorial framing are determined by what is most useful and accurate for readers. Not by what is most favorable to any company, product, or service.
MORTL doesn’t accept payment for editorial coverage. Being a paying advertiser or partner doesn’t guarantee, influence, or accelerate editorial coverage. Being a paying advertiser or partner doesn’t protect a company from critical coverage.
Commercial Relationships
MORTL generates revenue through several commercial mechanisms. Every one of them is disclosed to readers wherever they appear.
When MORTL links to a product or service and a reader makes a purchase, MORTL may earn a commission. These links are identified with a disclosure note. Affiliate relationships don’t influence editorial recommendations. If a product isn’t genuinely useful, we don’t recommend it regardless of whether an affiliate relationship exists.
If MORTL publishes content funded by a third party, it’s clearly labeled "Sponsored" or "Paid Partnership" at the top of the piece. Sponsored content is subject to the same factual accuracy standards as editorial content, but readers should understand it reflects the sponsor's perspective.
Eligible providers may buy featured directory placement after a business-detail review. Every paid card is labeled "Featured" and "Sponsored Placement." Payment affects placement and tier features. It doesn’t affect editorial coverage of the provider or their industry.
MORTL may display advertising. Advertisements are clearly distinguished from editorial content. Advertisers have no input into editorial decisions.
Accuracy & Corrections
MORTL covers legal topics, including probate thresholds, estate tax exemptions, and advance directive requirements, that change as laws are updated. Automated change monitoring runs every 30 days. Each state guide receives a source-level review at least annually and sooner when an official change or credible correction is identified. A monitoring result is not published until an administrator verifies it against an official source. When we publish a correction, we note it at the top of the affected piece with the date of the correction.
Accuracy here is enforced by a system, not a promise. Every article and every state guide is fingerprinted in a claim-verification ledger: when a cited claim changes, publishing is blocked until a person re-reads the source and confirms it still says what our sentence says. The full body of work is re-read against its sources every quarter, and every state guide carries a dated changelog of what changed and why.
That system exists because a reader earned it. In August 2026 a reader fact-checked our footnotes and was right. We responded by reading every cited source against every sentence it supported, found 251 defects across 90 articles, fixed all of them, and built the ledger so an unverified claim can never ship quietly again. The corrections are public and dated. We would rather show you the repair record than pretend there was nothing to repair.
MORTL content is informational and doesn’t constitute legal advice. Readers should consult a licensed attorney for advice specific to their situation.
To report an error or request a correction: feedback@mortl.com
Sources & Standards
Legal information in MORTL state guides is built from state statutes, official government publications, and court records whenever available. Where we cite a statute, we link to or reference the official source.
Journalists and researchers at MORTL are expected to name their sources wherever possible. Anonymous sources are used only when a named source would face retaliation and the information is material and verifiable through other means.
Statistics cited in MORTL content are sourced from government data, peer-reviewed research, or reputable industry surveys. We don’t publish statistics we can’t verify.
Independence
MORTL's revenue model includes Premium subscriptions and may include partner links, sponsorships, employer benefits, and future provider placements. Commercial relationships are labeled clearly. They don’t buy editorial influence. No partner, sponsor, advertiser, or listed provider sees our editorial content before publication, requests changes to it after publication, or shapes what we choose to cover. The people who sell for MORTL aren’t the people who write for MORTL.
We write about the industries we take money from, including funeral homes, insurers, and financial services, with the same honesty as everything else. If a commercial partner objects to our coverage, we end the partnership, not the coverage.
And one line we'll never cross: the someone just died path carries no commercial content of any kind. Not ads, not partner links, not sponsorships. It's free, and it's clean, forever.
Questions
Journalists, researchers, readers: if you want to know how any of this gets written and checked, ask. We'll tell you.
feedback@mortl.comLast updated: July 2026. This policy will be updated when our commercial practices change.