Introducing Prismm, a startup dedicated to assisting banks in retaining families’ finances following the death of an account holder. The company achieves this by integrating beneficiary and estate planning into accounts from the outset, thereby simplifying the asset transfer process to heirs. Prismm is showcasing its mission today on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
Founded in 2020 by sisters Martha Underwood and Shella Sylla, both of whom possess extensive backgrounds in banking and finance, Prismm was conceived from their personal experiences with the complexities of managing family affairs during emergencies. In 2017, their father was hospitalized after an accident while helping to clear a tree from a neighbor’s roof in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in Miami. Their mother, who had always depended on him for managing the family’s finances and paperwork, found herself unaware of the location of crucial documents and financial information, a situation that left the entire family in distress. Although their father recovered, the challenge of accessing vital information left a lasting impression on them.
The concept for Prismm truly began to take form three years later when Underwood was employed at a bank during the COVID-19 pandemic. She witnessed families arriving after the loss of a loved one, desperately trying to locate accounts, comprehend bills, and determine how to support the surviving spouse. “That’s when it hit us that this is an infrastructure problem, and as I started to dig deeper, we’ve created all of these platforms for wealth growth and tracking, but almost nothing for transition,” Underwood remarked in an interview with TechCrunch. “It’s still very much all manual. And that’s when we said, ‘We can digitize this process.’ We realized we could provide a solution because we recognized that other families would face similar challenges, and that’s when we truly committed ourselves to this mission.”
With Prismm, account holders can pre-authorize designated family members to access their accounts and documents. Upon the account holder’s death, the designated individual can log in, view the assets and documents in a centralized location, and initiate eligible beneficiary transfers digitally. Since identity verification, consent, and supporting documents are already on file, the entire process can be conducted remotely, even if family members reside in different states.
“What’s currently available in the market is consumer-based,” Underwood stated. “We discovered that when consumers are tasked with managing everything else on their to-do list, this will often be the last item they address, particularly for women. Women typically take on the responsibility of handling these matters in the event of a death. We are often the caregivers, and asking me to manage my parents’ documents while also caring for my children and husband becomes overwhelming. Therefore, this needs to be developed as infrastructure, minimizing friction to enable people to access the information necessary for making decisions. That’s why we integrate directly into bank cores.”
The company offers two primary products, with a third currently in development. The first, Prismm Designate, enables banks to provide customers with a straightforward, digital method for updating their beneficiaries. This aims to streamline the process of keeping beneficiary information current for both customers and banks. The second product, Prismm Anchor, offers account holders a secure platform to monitor their accounts, documents, properties, and other assets across various institutions, with controlled access for designated individuals. This service is provided through financial institutions, allowing users to manage everything without the need for a separate consumer application. The upcoming third product, Prismm Continuity, will guide staff and families through the transfer process step by step, ensuring that the most challenging aspects remain within the institution rather than placing the burden on families.
Underwood and Sylla characterize Prismm as infrastructure that assists banks in managing the aftermath of a customer’s death. They assert that financial institutions lose billions in deposits annually due to “estate attrition,” a phenomenon where heirs transfer inherited funds to other institutions because banks lack a system for managing account transitions after a death. By utilizing beneficiary information and simplifying inheritance processes, banks can retain these accounts and potentially cultivate the next generation of customers.
“We will be the infrastructure that financial institutions rely on to transfer wealth to the next generation, because we recognize that executing on the back end is only part of the equation,” Underwood explained. “We understand the necessity of being proactive and fostering relationships with the next generation of consumers from the outset.”
Explore Prismm and the numerous other startups and investors gathered in San Francisco this week for TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield competition; the fortunate winner will be announced on Thursday, October 15.
