LumenUs to Open Early Access in October for AI-Assisted Paperwork After a Death

Tashakorinia's husband died in a car accident eight years ago, and the paperwork that followed became the starting point for the company. About 570 hours of work goes into settling a loved one's affairs on average, a burden that falls on millions of people each year, according to the report.

"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 help others work through a process she had learned alone, Tashakorinia concluded that AI could take on the least human parts of it, such as locating the right tax forms, filing insurance claims and closing bank accounts, rather than the grief itself.

"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?" she said.

Tashakorinia said she expects LumenUs eventually to support people through the lifelong grieving process, but the startup is concentrating first on the period immediately after a death. New users complete an onboarding process in which they describe their 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," she said.

The platform then sorts tasks by urgency, distinguishing what must be done immediately from what can wait. In some cases it identifies money users are entitled to; billions of dollars in life insurance benefits go unclaimed because people do not know the benefits exist, according to the report.

"We are using AI to automate as much as we can to save time during this process, and give it back to [users]," Tashakorinia said.

Her background is in cybersecurity, which the company will need for a product that collects sensitive personal and financial information. She is building LumenUs with co-founders Sajad Mirzaei, a former engineer at Google and Box, and Larry Keeley, an innovation scientist, professor and entrepreneur. The team is consulting with clinicians and social workers while it tests the product.

LumenUs is part of this year's Startup Battlefield 200, TechCrunch's annual showcase of early-stage startups. The company's early access launch is scheduled for October.