How Elayne Supports Families After a Loss

Grief gets most of the attention, but it’s only part of what you experience after a loved one dies. What no one really prepares you for is the mental fog that sets in almost immediately: it’s a mix of confusion, paperwork that never seems to end, and constantly wondering if you’ve forgotten something important.

Some of the tasks you become responsible for are small. Some are legal. Many are time-sensitive. And often, they fall on the person closest to the person who passed away.

You’re expected to cancel utilities, transfer titles, and track down policies. At the same time, you’re planning a funeral, answering messages from extended family, and trying to keep your own life from falling apart. It’s hard to know what’s urgent, what can wait, or where to even begin.

It’s a horrible feeling, and unfortunately, I know it very well.

When my mom, Ildikó, was in hospice, I felt confident that we could handle whatever the estate process threw at us. We had a will. We’d prepared. We’d talked through everything. 

But after she died, I felt completely lost. I was handling documents I’d never seen before, coordinating tasks that I didn’t fully understand, and second-guessing every big decision I was asked to make. I had a background in finance. I had access to lawyers. And still, I spent months trying to untangle it all.

It’s the most painful period of my life. And eventually, it became the reason that Elayne exists.

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Why I Built Elayne

In one of our last conversations, my mom asked me to promise her two things. First, that I’d finally do what I’d talked about for years and start something of my own. And second, that no matter how difficult life got when she was no longer here, I’d keep going. Keep smiling. Keep finding joy in the small things. She knew how easy it was to lose yourself in responsibility, and she didn’t want that for me.

After she died, I wasn’t sure if building something was meant for me anymore. It was hard enough to make it through the day, and for a while, I didn’t want to think about anything else. The months passed and the more I spoke with friends, coworkers, and extended family, the more I realized how common my experience had been. Different details, same overwhelm. Same confusion. Same sense of being completely alone in a process that no one ever explains.

From there, it still took a while to figure out exactly what to build, but the impact I wanted to have was very clear: helping people who’ve lost a loved one, and making the tasks that follow feel less scary. To support families that are trying to pick up the pieces, but don’t know where to start. Who deserve practical, compassionate care during one of the hardest chapters of their lives.

In a nutshell, that’s what Elayne is designed to do.

What Families Are Up Against

Settling an estate takes more than time. It requires a lot of structure, clarity, and the ability to make hard decisions when you’re already stretched thin.

At Elayne, here’s what we’ve seen:

• On average, it takes about 400 hours to settle a loved one’s estate (equivalent to 50 full workdays). 
• Most families aren’t prepared for the process, with nearly 70 percent of Americans not having a will. Even when there is one, the steps that follow—such as paperwork, decisions, and deadlines—are rarely laid out in a clear or comprehensive way.
• Many times, the responsibility falls on a single person. Often, it’s someone who’s already balancing caregiving, work, or both.
• Much of the process involves tasks that most people have never done before: tracking down accounts, filing probate paperwork, resolving tax issues, and coordinating with insurance providers.

To put it bluntly, the current system just doesn’t work. It wasn’t designed for people who are grieving a parent while raising children. Not for siblings spread across time zones, and trying to coordinate responsibilities. And it definitely wasn’t built to give families a clear, step-by-step understanding of what needs to be done and when.

How Elayne Helps

We use tech and human support to make estate management easier.  

Here’s how it works:

• If the person who passed away used Elayne to plan, we convert their wishes and documents into a clear roadmap for their loved ones. Families can start exploring their customized post-loss checklist by simply sharing a link to the obituary. 
• If a loved one passes away without a plan, their family starts the process by sharing a link to their obituary and will (if they had one). Elayne will locate accounts, help with asset transfers, and create a personalized checklist based on what we find.
  
  

We help with things like:

• Asset discovery and account closures
• Benefit cancellations and insurance follow-ups
• Executor support and probate tracking
• Tax document generation and trust administration

We never expect families to have perfect paperwork or prior experience with these tasks. We meet people where they are, and provide the support they need to move forward.

What We Don’t Do—and Why

At the moment, Elayne doesn’t provide therapy or counseling. Instead, we focus on making space for those moments of healing. Our role is to lift the administrative burden so people have the time and emotional energy to process their grief, rather than being forced into logistics mode. That being said, every aspect of Elayne is thoughtfully crafted and grief-informed.

When you’ve just lost someone, you shouldn’t have to start calling banks or searching for paperwork. You shouldn’t have to learn how probate works or what needs to be filed with the IRS. But unfortunately, it’s often what happens.

At Elayne, that’s where we step in. We take care of contacting insurance companies, closing financial accounts, organizing documents, and tracking deadlines. 

By removing that weight from their shoulders, our goal is to help families regain the space they need. To rest, to cry, to remember, and to begin finding their footing again.

Built for Life’s Hardest Moments

Elayne is designed for families that have lost someone, and are dealing with the admin tasks that follow. We create tools and systems that turn an overwhelming, fragmented process into something structured and manageable. Every feature is built to be clear, flexible, and easy to use:

• Our platform makes it simple to collaborate with family members.
• We provide step-by-step task lists that automatically adjust as new information comes in.
• Our AI identifies gaps, flags potential issues, and prompts users to keep plans current.
• We offer built-in reminders and progress tracking to prevent important items from falling through the cracks.
• We ensure every family has access to expert guidance at critical points in the process.

We also hold ourselves to strict standards of privacy and security because we understand what’s at stake. This isn’t just personal information; it’s the record of a life, filled with decisions, milestones, and memories that mattered deeply to someone you love. It deserves to be protected with the utmost care, and we see that responsibility as one of the most important promises we make to every family we support.

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The Kind of Legacy We Believe In

We chose the name Elayne because it means a ray of light that shines through stormy clouds. That image captures what we strive to be for families: a source of clarity during one of life’s most difficult periods.  

Even though we’re not able to erase grief, we can make the weight a little easier to carry. We’re here for those who feel overwhelmed by the chaos that follows a loss. For the people trying to do right by someone they love, but aren’t sure where to start. For families balancing both the emotional toll and the administrative burden, worried that they’re missing something important.

What you’re going through is incredibly difficult, but you don’t have to face it alone. More than anything, we’re here to provide support—meaningful, practical and compassionate care—at a time when it’s needed most.

Because in the end, legacy isn’t just about the things we leave behind. It’s about how we take care of the people we love, even when we’re no longer here. That principle is at the heart of Elayne, and it’s what guides our values, actions and mission. 

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