The U.S. startup Prismm is addressing a stage that is often managed manually within banks: the transfer of accounts and assets to heirs after the account holder’s death. Its platform enables customers to designate family members in advance and grant them controlled access to the necessary accounts and documents, allowing procedures to transfer eligible assets to begin remotely.
Prismm was founded in 2020 by sisters Martha Underwood and Shella Sylla, who have decades of experience in the banking and financial sectors. The founders say the idea emerged from a family experience that revealed how difficult it was to find documents and financial information when the head of a household faced an emergency. It then took shape during Underwood’s work at a bank amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when she saw families struggle to identify accounts, settle obligations, and support surviving family members after the death of a relative.
Three Components of the Platform
Prismm offers two main products while developing a third:
- Prismm Designate: A tool that enables banks to offer customers a simplified digital way to update beneficiary information, with the aim of reducing the time and effort required from customers and institutions.
- Prismm Anchor: A secure space for aggregating information on accounts, documents, real estate, and assets held at multiple institutions, with control over the permissions of designated individuals. The tool is offered through financial institutions rather than as a standalone consumer application.
- Prismm Continuity: A product under development that will provide step-by-step guidance to employees and families as they carry out the asset-transfer process.
According to the published description, identification and consent information, along with supporting documents, are stored in advance. This enables the designated person to log in after the account holder’s death and view the relevant information in one place, then initiate the transfers permitted by the beneficiary information and applicable procedures.
Why Does This Matter?
Prismm’s core proposition is not merely a consumer inheritance-management application, but an attempt to make financial transition planning part of the banking infrastructure itself. The company believes that relying on customers to take the initiative to complete these tasks causes them to be postponed or neglected, particularly when a family is occupied with care and procedures related to a death. It therefore focuses on integrating the tools directly into banks’ core systems and reducing the steps required of families.
Prismm connects this use case to a commercial challenge it calls “estate attrition,” in which heirs move their money to other institutions because the original bank does not provide a clear path for managing the transition. From the banks’ perspective, beneficiary information and simpler digital procedures could help retain assets and relationships with the next generation of customers.
Limitations and Open Questions
The source provides no details on the number of banks using Prismm, the fees, or the legal coverage of the products across the various states. The transfer of assets will also remain tied to beneficiary eligibility, documentation, and applicable banking and legal procedures. The announcement therefore represents a trend toward digitizing the process of transferring money, not yet evidence that this process has been standardized or that all of its complexities have been resolved.