Alix and Elayne both help surviving spouses settle an estate, but they work differently. Alix pairs you with a dedicated advisor who guides you through each step. Elayne's platform handles the work directly: searching for accounts and assets, notifying financial institutions, and coordinating survivor benefits on your behalf.
In terms of pricing, Alix charges 1% of the gross estate value. For a $500,000 estate, that comes to $5,000. At $1,000,000, the fee is $10,000. The fee scales directly with the size of the estate. Elayne charges a flat fee. The cost stays the same regardless of how large the estate grows or how many steps the process involves.
The two services also differ in how families stay informed throughout the process. Alix routes communication through a dedicated advisor. Elayne provides every authorized family member their own access to a shared account, so a surviving spouse, adult children, and other family members can all see where the process stands in real time.
Both services are built to reduce administrative challenges related to estate settlement. Alix provides that through a dedicated advisor who guides families through each step. Elayne provides it through AI-powered discovery, automated organization, and guided coordination across institutions.
Key Takeaways:
- Alix charges 1% of estate value ($5,000 for a $500K estate, $10,000 for $1M). Elayne charges a flat fee.
- Alix relies on families to surface known assets. Elayne searches directly for forgotten accounts and policies.
- Alix routes updates through a single advisor. Elayne gives all family members shared account access.
- Elayne's platform handles asset discovery, notifications, and benefit coordination for surviving spouses across institutions.
What Is Alix?
Alix is a concierge estate settlement service that supports families through the administrative steps that follow a death. Families work with a dedicated advisor who helps coordinate notifications, gather documentation, and move through the settlement process step by step. The service is built around human guidance, with an advisor serving as the primary point of contact throughout.
What Alix Costs
Alix charges 1% of the gross estate value as its service fee, with a minimum of $5,000. For a $500,000 estate, that comes to $5,000. For a $1 million estate, the fee is $10,000.
What Alix Covers
- Alix assigns a dedicated advisor who walks families through each step of the settlement process, from notifying agencies to coordinating document collection.
- The service helps surviving spouses and executors manage the flow of paperwork and correspondence.
- Alix's model is often a fit for families who prefer guided, advisor-led support.
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What Is Elayne?
Elayne is an AI-powered estate settlement service built for surviving spouses managing the administrative tasks that follow a loss. Elayne manages asset discovery, account notifications, document organization, and benefit coordination across institutions that a surviving spouse typically needs to contact. The service works through a personalized roadmap that adapts to the specific accounts, assets, and relationships involved in each estate.
What Elayne Handles
- Asset and account discovery, including financial accounts, retirement assets, and life insurance policies that may not be immediately apparent from the documents on hand
- Notifications to banks, government agencies, and benefits providers so the relevant institutions are informed in the correct order
- Document tracking and organization across the full settlement process
- Coordination of survivor benefits, including Social Security survivor benefits and pension claims that require proactive outreach
Pricing: What Surviving Spouses Pay
Pricing structures for Alix and Elayne follow different models.
Alix charges 1% of the gross estate value as its service fee. For a $500,000 estate, that comes to $5,000. For a $1 million estate, the fee is $10,000.
Elayne charges a flat fee. Families pay a set amount at the start of the process, and that figure does not change as the estate grows in value or as more steps get completed along the way.
How the Models Compare for Surviving Spouses
| Alix | Elayne | |
|---|---|---|
| Fee structure | 1% of gross estate value | Flat fee |
| $500K estate cost | $5,000 | Fixed amount, regardless of value |
| $1M estate cost | $10,000 | Same flat fee |
| Cost as estate grows | Increases proportionally | Stays the same |
Asset Discovery
Another difference between Alix and Elayne is how each service handles asset discovery: locating accounts, policies, and benefits that may not be easy to locate.
For Alix, an advisor helps organize and act on the relevant information, but the search itself starts with details the family can provide. This works well when records are organized and the deceased kept thorough documentation.
Elayne searches for assets directly. It scans for unclaimed property, checks for life insurance policies, looks for forgotten retirement accounts, and locates benefits that may be difficult to find. The search runs across multiple sources, and doesn't depend on what the family currently has in hand.
Key points:
- Alix advisors help families act on known assets and accounts
- Elayne searches for assets that may not be documented or known to the surviving spouse
- Unclaimed property, forgotten policies, and untracked retirement accounts are among the categories Elayne checks
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Family Collaboration
Both Alix and Elayne give families a way to stay informed throughout the settlement process, but they go about it differently.
Alix works through a dedicated advisor who serves as the family's primary point of contact. That person communicates updates, fields questions, and moves the process forward on the family's behalf.
Elayne gives every family member their own access to the same account. A surviving spouse, an adult child, and a sibling in another state can all see where things stand through their account access.
More About Elayne
Elayne is built for surviving spouses managing the administrative steps that follow a death. The service supports families through estate organization, financial discovery, and inheritance mapping.
One of Elayne's most distinctive capabilities is the platform's Verified Asset Search. Elayne searches for unclaimed assets, lost or forgotten insurance policies, dormant financial accounts, and eligible survivor benefits that families may not know exist. The search goes beyond public-record lookup. Elayne uses document analysis to surface interest-bearing accounts, retirement distributions, and dividend income sources from tax returns, bank statements, and financial records, identifying which institutions hold estate assets.
Beyond financial discovery, Elayne also helps identify recurring charges that are connected to the deceased's accounts, including streaming subscriptions, gym memberships, software licenses, and app fees. Elayne scans financial records to surface these charges, manages cancellation outreach to providers, monitors subsequent statements to confirm that billing has stopped, and logs each confirmation for estate accounting.
For surviving spouses managing inherited retirement accounts, Elayne tracks distribution deadlines and required minimum distributions under SECURE Act 2.0, which took effect in 2026. Beneficiaries of inherited IRAs and 401(k)s now face a 10-year distribution window and mandatory annual RMDs, with a 25% penalty for missed distributions. Elayne surfaces these requirements and the deadlines attached to them.
Elayne guides families through benefit coordination as well. Social Security survivor benefits, pension claims, VA benefits, and union benefits each involve separate processes, separate agencies, and separate timelines. Elayne identifies which benefits a surviving spouse may be eligible for and walks through what to file and when. The service also coordinates creditor notification.
In addition, families receive a personalized roadmap that adapts to the specific factors (accounts, assets, institutions, ...) connected to that estate. The roadmap updates as steps are completed, so the surviving spouse and family members always know where things stand and what comes next. Also, all family members with access to Elayne can see the same information in real time.
What Elayne Handles
- Asset and account search across financial institutions, unclaimed property databases, and life insurance registries
- Benefit coordination for Social Security survivor benefits, pension claims, VA benefits, and life insurance, walking through what to file and when
- Notification support for banks, investment accounts, and creditors, coordinated in the correct order
- Subscription and recurring-charge cancellation, with confirmation tracking logged for estate accounting
- Inherited retirement account tracking, including SECURE Act 2.0 distribution deadlines and required minimum distribution schedules
- A personalized roadmap of what comes next, sequenced by priority and updated as steps are completed
- Shared family account access so every authorized family member can see where the process stands in real time
FAQs
What's the main difference in how Elayne and Alix handle asset discovery?
Alix relies on families to surface the accounts and assets they already know about, then helps organize and act on that information through a dedicated advisor. Elayne's platform searches for assets across financial institutions, unclaimed property databases, and life insurance registries, surfacing accounts, policies, and benefits that families may not have known about.
Who is Elayne best for?
Elayne works well for families managing unfamiliar finances who need active asset discovery, automated coordination across institutions, and shared family visibility, particularly when multiple family members need to stay informed.
How does Elayne's pricing work?
Elayne's flat fee stays the same no matter the estate size, which can help make budgeting more predictable.
Can other family members see what's happening with the estate?
With Elayne, every family member gets their own access to the same account, so a surviving spouse, adult children, and siblings can all see progress in real time through shared access.
*Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal, medical, financial, or tax advice. Please consult with a licensed professional to address your specific situation.
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