Why we raised $5M to build a better path through estate settlement

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” - Benjamin Franklin

Despite the universal and inevitable nature of it, no one is really prepared to lose a loved one.

When I suddenly lost my dad, there was already a kaleidoscope of emotions to deal with. The burden of settling his affairs was the last thing I needed. The 900 hours of admin, tens of thousands of dollars in cost and immediate deadlines.

I spent the next 18 months of my life trapped in a process I had no idea how to navigate, almost losing the family home and trying to hold down a full-time job in a process that requires institutions that only open 9 to 5pm.

Estate settlement feels like being kicked when you’re already down.

This experience is not unique to me. This is the reality for the family members of the 3.1M Americans who pass away every year. The current system is broken, outdated and fundamentally bad for people trying to healthily process loss. 70% of Americans die without a will, and, unfortunately, even those who did have a will cannot avoid estate settlement. This is the system the $84T “Great Wealth Transfer” will move through. It’s financially and emotionally ruinous.

When Jacob and I met to start this company in Entrepreneurs First, the very first conversation we ever had was a mini trauma dump about how horrible it was to deal with our family members' affairs when they died. After asking around in our own network and getting the same answers, we ended up speaking to over 170 families, estate attorneys, paralegals and fiduciaries, and even spent weeks sitting in San Francisco Probate Court to deeply understand why it works the way it does.

As a society, we have accepted that this is just one of those insanely painful “things” you have to deal with.

Jacob and I know it is time for a better way. That’s why we started EverSettled.

The raise

We’re excited to share that we’ve raised a $5M Seed round to help more families across the U.S. navigate estate settlement with less confusion, cost and burden.

The round was led by Emergence Capital, with participation from Seedcamp, Bridge Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Entrepreneurs First and Transpose Platform. We’re also grateful to have some incredible angels behind us, including Paul Copplestone, Henry Irish, Barney Hussey-Yeo, Charles Jolley and Prof. Chris Mairs.

Emergence saw the same thing we did: estate settlement is a high-stakes, deeply human process that has been overlooked for too long. As Lotti Siniscalco, General Partner at Emergence Capital, put it:

“Arum and Jacob are meeting families at a moment they need immediate help. Trust in this industry has to be earned through action. They understand both the human stakes and the complexity of the system.”

In just four months, we’re already supporting thousands of families. We’re not stopping until every person who loses a loved one is able to focus on grief and planning their future, rather than estate settlement.

What we're building

Today, all of our users are guided through estate settlement with an easy to use checklist, supported by Sage, our probate assistant. Sage answers questions 24/7 that keep people up at night and takes action on their behalf, so they can go to work knowing something else is getting checked off the to-do list. We know that estate settlement often requires a whole village, so users can bring their families onto the platform as well, reducing communication problems that can lead to family disputes.

Estate settlement has traditionally depended on large, manual back offices. AI lets EverSettled take on more of that work and ultimately make support affordable for the average American family, not just a white-glove service reserved for the ultra-wealthy.

AI also helps us tackle one of the biggest sources of delays and additional costs: human error. We’re using the latest AI models to build safe and accurate agentic systems that can take on more of the administrative burden over time, from canceling subscriptions and finding lost assets to managing debts and eventually settling your estate end-to-end. These systems allow us to provide 24/7 assistance that can adapt to each unique case and serve families across all 50 states.

Why us

Jacob and I have not only been personally impacted by deaths in our own families, but we’ve also spent our careers within the death care space. I previously wrote death policies at a national level, and Jacob was bringing technology to the corpse logistics industry. We care deeply about this industry, and this is reflected in the compassion that is integrated into every corner of our product.

What's next

We raised this Seed round to hire across engineering, marketing, growth and legal. We’ll also further develop the product so we can support more estates, handle more complex cases and do more of the heavy lifting for families across the U.S.

We are honored that families are already trusting EverSettled to help them through one of the worst times in their lives.