When Sara Tashakorinia lost her husband in a car accident eight years ago, she faced one of the most challenging aspects of loss: navigating approximately 570 hours of average administrative work required to settle an estate. For millions annually, the death of a family member is followed by an overwhelming avalanche of mundane legal and financial tasks.
“The day your loved one passes away, you also get this honorary badge of a project manager for a project you had no idea about,” Tashakorinia told TechCrunch. “Trying to navigate something and learn something when you literally have zero information.”
After years of volunteering to assist others with processes she had learned through personal tragedy, Tashakorinia realized that artificial intelligence could handle the least human components of bereavement. The result is LumenUs, a grief care platform founded last year designed to alleviate the administrative weight on grieving families. The technology assists users with specific tasks such as locating appropriate tax documents, submitting insurance claims, and closing bank accounts.
While the company’s long-term goal is to support individuals throughout their entire grieving journey, the initial phase of the service targets those in the immediate aftermath of a death. New users undergo an onboarding process where they provide details regarding their legal and financial circumstances, as well as their emotional state. This data allows the platform to personalize the experience and organize tasks by urgency, distinguishing between matters that require immediate attention and those that can be deferred.
Tashakorinia noted that the system can also identify funds owed to users, such as unclaimed life insurance benefits, which amount to billions of dollars annually because heirs are unaware of their entitlements.
“We are using AI to automate as much as we can to save time during this process, and give it back to users,” she said.
The startup is led by Tashakorinia, who brings a background in cybersecurity, alongside co-founders Sajad Mirzaei, a former engineer at Google and Box, and innovation scientist and professor Larry Keeley. The team is currently consulting with clinicians and social workers while refining the product.
LumenUs is set to launch in early access this October. It is also selected as a participant in TechCrunch’s upcoming Startup Battlefield 200, an annual showcase featuring promising early-stage companies.
The stat about billions in unclaimed benefits alone makes this worth watching. Hopefully, it’s as easy as they promise.
Imagine letting an algorithm guide you through your deepest grief. It feels cold, even if it saves time.
Seventy-five hours is the average, but I spent nearly a year on it. Will the AI handle the stubborn government agencies too?
I needed this eight years ago. Losing my husband was bad enough without drowning in paperwork. Truly helpful.