Prismm Targets $84 Trillion Wealth Transfer Gap With Bank-Core Infrastructure at TechCrunch Disrupt
Founders say infrastructure play keeps heirs' assets inside the bank instead of losing them to competitors
Prismm, a fintech startup founded by banking veterans Martha Underwood and Shella Sylla, took the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 today to pitch infrastructure that plugs a costly leak in the financial system: the billions in deposits that walk out the door when account holders die.
The sisters argue that banks have built sophisticated rails for accumulating wealth but virtually none for transferring it. When a customer dies, heirs frequently encounter a paper chase — locating accounts, proving identity, navigating probate — that pushes them to move assets to competitors offering smoother digital onboarding. Industry analysts estimate that “estate attrition” costs U.S. banks tens of billions annually, a figure set to swell as the Great Wealth Transfer moves an projected $84 trillion to younger generations by 2045, according to Cerulli Associates.
Prismm’s approach is not a consumer app. It embeds directly into bank cores — the FIS, Jack Henry, and Fiserv platforms that run daily operations — so that beneficiary designation, asset inventory, and transfer workflows become native features of the banking relationship rather than an afterthought. “We don’t ask the consumer to do one more thing,” Underwood said. “We make it the bank’s job to keep the data current and the process executable.”
The product suite rolls out in three layers. Prismm Designate replaces the wet-signature change-of-beneficiary form with a digital flow that updates core records in real time. Prismm Anchor aggregates accounts, deeds, insurance policies, and login credentials across institutions into a single encrypted vault, with granular access controls for designated survivors. Prismm Continuity, slated for release later this year, adds a guided checklist that walks bank staff and families through each regulatory step — from death-certificate ingestion to IRS Form 706 filing — keeping the hardest compliance work inside the institution.
The founding insight came from two crises. In 2017, their father was hospitalized after a fall while clearing hurricane debris in Miami; their mother, who had never managed the family finances, could not locate critical documents. Three years later, Underwood watched pandemic-era branches fill with grieving relatives unable to access a deceased spouse’s checking account to pay the mortgage. Both moments underscored the same structural void: no institution owned the transition.
Women bear disproportionate burden. Federal Reserve data show women execute 70% of estate administrations, often while caregiving. Prismm’s design assumes zero proactive effort from the end user — beneficiary prompts appear during routine logins, document uploads happen via mobile scan, and consent records are captured at account opening.
Competitors such as Trust & Will, Everplans, and Addio operate primarily in the direct-to-consumer or advisor channels. Prismm’s bank-core integration creates a distribution moat: the 4,000+ U.S. banks and credit unions on legacy cores cannot easily replicate the embedding, and the startup’s compliance-first architecture satisfies OCC and CFPB examiner expectations for digital audit trails.
The company has not disclosed pilot partners or revenue figures. Today’s Battlefield appearance marks its most public launch to date; the winner will be announced Thursday, October 15.
