Sunset
Find and close bank accounts for the deceased
176 followers
Find and close bank accounts for the deceased
176 followers
Use Sunset to find and close financial accounts after a death: Bank accounts, 401k, IRA, Life Insurance, Credit Cards, real estate, and more.
Free
Launch Team
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Promoted
Hey PH community, excited to launch another awesome product with you all. As you can imagine, this tool is a personal one. Not only did a homebrew version of this help me and my family, but we love hearing from our users how much it’s helped them in a tough time.
Happy to answer any questions you have or suggestions for improvement.
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Settling the affairs of a loved one can take months—often years—and hundreds of hours of work. Most people have to do that while grieving, but now Sunset just does it for you.
With just a few minutes of work on your side, Sunset can find all the accounts and assets of your loved ones and then begin closing the ones you want help with, including:
-Bank Accounts: Checking, savings, CDs, etc.
-Retirement Accounts: 401k, IRA, annuity, etc.
-Debts: Mortgage, personal loans, credit cards, etc.
-Property & Vehicles: Personal and investment
-Investment Accounts: Mutual funds, index funds, stocks, bonds, etc.
-And More: Life Insurance, Unclaimed Property, Business Filings, HSA Accounts, etc.
How does it work?
We search public and private databases, including financial reporting from banks and investment funds. Once we’ve confirmed a match with the deceased, we automate the closure and move the funds to our management.
If you’ve had to manage the estate and probate process for someone, how long did it take you? We’ve heard anywhere from 200 to 500 hours!
Lastly, I mentioned this in my loom video, but I sincerely hope you don’t need this product any time soon!
Best,
Stephen Walter
@stephenwalter such a great concept here, well done!
This looks really cool. How do you make sure that the person is deceased before closing their accounts?
@dnsbty We can verify the death certificate with the county department of health where the deceased passed away. Would not be good for us to close bank accounts for a living person!
What happens with money after death? Are we eligible to break into the account and take that money? Shouldn't there be any administrative process?
When reading this, maybe something similar could be good for the BTC wallet. 😅
@busmark_w_nika Well actually if people use a major trading platform like coinbase, kraken, crypto.com we DO find their accounts and close them.
Of course if someone is going out of their way to hide their crypto, we're not going to find it. Maybe someday!
After a death, money and assets owned by the deceased flow in a couple different directions. If there is a valid will, any assets listed in that will are sent to the listed party. If there are beneficiaries listed on an account or asset, like an IRA or home, they are transferred to that party. If no directions exist, the property becomes owned by the 'estate' which is a fancy way of saying that it's owned by the deceased, but managed by someone a court approves (typically family), then distributed equally to family members based on state law.
It's a lot to figure this all out. With Sunset it takes about 10 minutes.
as someone who has unfortunately gone through this process 4x… the last thing anyone wants is to figure out this process while youre in the middle of grieving. thanks stephen for using your lawyerly powers for good!
do you have a way to bake this into estate plans? so like i can put you in my will as an executor of sorts?
@randallb We don't have a way to bake this into estate planning. Our assumption is that users start from zero, so adding this to the estate plan would just say 'use sunsetapp.com to do all the things'.
That is actually a great idea! It can be a mess to do these things manually and can use a lot of your time. Would be happy to see this being successful and maybe someday an international version?
@raigeki Working on this outside of the US would be so much fun. I'd definitely have to learn a lot about how the financial system and the probate/estate process works to build a great version of Sunset outside the US, but I'd love that challenge.
Awesome idea, hope I never need it!
Semi related, does this also cancel subscriptions/debts that may no longer apply after death?
Like the deceased shouldnt be charged for their Netflix account anymore, right?
I take it Sunset will freeze accounts/credit cards as part of your process?
@gpespn This is such an interesting question because we originally thought that customers would really want that, turns out they don't! Of course, all of that needs to be done eventually, but we've found that all families want to handle debts on their own time and in their own way. We've instead focused on moving accounts and assets (instead of debts).
Stephen & team—massive congrats on the launch! 🚀
Your “hope you never need us” humility is a breath of fresh air and exactly the empathy this space deserves. A tool like this would’ve been a game-changer for me a few months back.
Quick Qs:
Is there a built-in grace period when funds move?
How do you handle it if two parties both claim the same pot?
Keep building—the world needs it. 👏