LumenUs Tackles the Administrative Nightmare of Settling a Loved One's Estate

When Tashakorinia's husband died in a car accident eight years ago, she faced an unexpected ordeal: the roughly 570 hours of paperwork required on average to settle a loved one's affairs. This scenario plays out for millions annually—a devastating loss compounded by an exhausting mountain of bureaucratic obligations.

"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, trying to navigate something and learn something when you literally have zero information," Tashakorinia told TechCrunch.

After spending years volunteering to guide others through the same process she had endured, Tashakorinia recognized an opportunity: artificial intelligence could handle the mechanical, impersonal aspects of estate settlement—locating appropriate tax documents, submitting insurance claims, closing financial accounts—without attempting to address the emotional dimensions of loss.

This insight led to LumenUs, a grief care platform Tashakorinia launched last year to reduce the administrative weight on bereaved families. "I think going through it, your threshold of pain is so high, and you're so lost that you don't really realize, why do people treat you this way? Why was I left with a stack of paperwork, and why was the funeral home charging me a 300% markup on a casket?" Tashakorinia said.

How the Platform Works

Though Tashakorinia envisions LumenUs eventually supporting people throughout their entire grieving journey, the startup initially targets those in the immediate period following a death. New users complete an onboarding sequence where they provide details about their specific circumstances.

"We are asking very specific questions to understand the legal and financial means, and their state of mind, and this is only to personalize who they are, and then personalizing what happened," Tashakorinia said.

The system then prioritizes tasks by time sensitivity, helping users understand which actions demand immediate attention and which can be deferred. The platform can also reveal financial entitlements users may not have known existed—a valuable feature given that billions of dollars in life insurance benefits remain unclaimed annually because beneficiaries are unaware of them.

"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 Team Behind LumenUs

Tashakorinia's background in cybersecurity positions her well to develop a product requiring users to divulge highly sensitive personal and financial data. She is developing LumenUs with co-founders Sajad Mirzaei, formerly an engineer at Google and Box, and Larry Keeley, an innovation scientist, professor, and entrepreneur. The founding team is also working with clinicians and social workers during product testing.

LumenUs has been selected as a participant in this year's Startup Battlefield 200, TechCrunch's annual exhibition of promising nascent companies. The platform will enter early access in October.